News
A Nova Scotia Canadian Maple Leaf Welcome!
Participate in our ongoing survey, "Sexualized harms inflicted by "Others", next to the Hopi art image on our Participate page.
Events in 2012
February-March
United Nations Activities SW 2012 - Our journal (with panel presentation - large file takes a few seconds to upload -- it is worth it!)
Interventions made by Jeanne at the 56 th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women:
Non-state torture - Planning session for CSW 2013 - Theme Violence Against Women - 47:32-49:11 minute mark
Spillover violence - Side event Change Makers and Peacekeepers Journey Towards Equal Representation of Women - 1:12:42 - 1:13:55 minute mark
January
The UN Human Rights Council adopted its resolution 16/1 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training in 2011. Its aim is to foster among all systems, among all peoples, among all individuals, education on universal respect for, understanding of and responsibilities that promote fundamental freedoms and human rights, social justice and the rule of law necessary to endorse and build an universal culture of human rights based on the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Our contribution to Human Rights Education and Training:Fact Sheet:Torture in the Home
Events in 2011
November and December
16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign
November 25-December 10, 2011
Submission to Feminist Photo Blog Project - Founded by 20something Amy a feminist who wants to share the diverse faces of feminism. Send your photo to Amy at feministphotoblogproject@gmail.com
Here is our photo - This is what relational feminists look like!
October 
Web post, Please Take My Hand: Stepping into the Reality of Victims of Non-State Actor Torture Submission to violence is not our culture a Blog series on culture, human rights and gender-based violence!
Our article, Canada: Non-state torture (NST) girls & guns, in IANSA Women`s Network Bulletin No. 26, October 2011, p.3.
Our Submission to the United Nations Joint CEDAW-CRC Committee General Recommendation/Comment on Harmful Practices: Non-State Torture—Specifically Sexualized Non-State Torture—Inflicted in the Private/Domestic Sphere against Girls/Women: An Emerging “Harmful Practice”
Paper about our 2008 CEDAW experience
September
Presented, Sexualized torture in the domestic/private sphere and 'body talk': A human rights and relational feminist paradigm, at the Sexual Violence Conference, September 8th, 2011, Middlesex University, London, UK was very well received. Here is a local Hendon newspaper article about the conference.
Our paper presented at this conference: Sexualized Torture in the Domestic/Private Sphere and 'Body Talk': A Human Rights and Relational Feminist Paradigm
Conference Key Note Presentations, Papers and Posters
Here we are with the organizers and participant at the closing of the highly successful and informative Sexual Violence Conference, Middlesex University, London, UK, September 9, 2011. Pictured are: Dr. Miranda Horvath, Linda, Dr. Jackie Gray, Jeanne, Elizabeth (a conference participant), and Dr. Susan Hansen (Photo shared with consents).
August
Social Responsibility from a Canadian Perspective: Realizing, beginning in 1993, that infants, toddlers, older children and adult citizens of Canada suffer torture inflicted by non-state actors—parents, grandparents, other kin, guardians, spouses and like-minded others—we have been advocating for the criminalization of non-state torture. As members of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), a non-governmental organization (NGO) with a mandate to uphold the human rights of women and girls, we are most proud to announce that at the Annual General Meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland-Labrador that a majority of Clubs voted into policy the need for the criminalization of non-state actor torture (NSAT) and other interventions dealing with NSAT. See: http://www.cfuw.org/doc/Adopted_Resolutions_2011.pdf
Presented, Who might the people I help be? Relationships with Survivors/Victims of Non-State Torture (NST), to a university health science class.
July
Torture in the Private Sphere: Patriarchal Misogyny Expressed as ``False Memory``. Rain and Thunder, No. 5, July 2011. Available: www.rainandthunder.org
June
Relational Feminsim and Non-State Torture: An Australian Canadian Connection - blog on http://feminaust.org/
Presentation of Paper: Spillover Torture from the Military/Warring Sphere: Making Visible a Silenced Human Rights Violation and Victimized Persons' 'body talk', at the Canadian Peace Research Association (CPRA) 2011 Conference and Annual General Council Meeting, June 2-4. CPRA Conference is part of the 2011 Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, Frederiction, NB, Canada. This is described as the largest multidisciplinary academic gathering in Canada, attracting delegates from every province and territory and from around the world.
May 
This was Elizabeth's art entry in the, No to violence against women - United Nations European ad competition. Elizabeth's entry focussed on visibilizing non-state torture (NST) as well as sending the message of hope that "it is her right to be free". NAT can be inflicted from infancy so the poster carries the message to girls as well as to women. Elizabeth introduces her-Self on her website: http://www.artprintsnst.net
IFUW BLOG: 'Gendering human rights: Adjusting our language regarding "harmful practices"'
Presented an educational session to a woman's group outlining our activism to have all forms of NST recognized as a specific and distinct crime and human rights violation in Canada.
April
Human Rights Violations of Torture: Survivor Art and Discussion was held on April 27, 2011 at the local art gallery, Visual Voice Fine Art. Please check out our report on how it went. How Survivor Art Show and Discussion went and the Survivor Art Poster
Other Activism 
Drawing Copyright D. MacDonald 2009
Recent Blog Posts
Tags: chart of torture tactics, NST, State torture
Tags: violence against women & girl's organs, human trafficking, FGM
