[hr-education] Call for comments on position paper

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Dear friends,

We are writing to ask for your comments on a project we're working on at
PDHRE, People's Movement for Human Rights Education. At PDHRE's website
you will find a draft position paper that we will soon send to women's
groups and various other community groups around the world. The position
paper is available at: http://www.pdhre.org/patriarchy.html Our goal, as
outlined in this document, is to encourage a critical inquiry into
patriarchy. We hope to facilitate a dialogue about transforming the
patriarchal system to a human rights system through learning about human
rights as a way of life.

PDHRE is committed to human rights education and learning as a straggly
for societal development-an approach that is gaining international
recognition. Shulamith Koenig, our Executive Director, has just won the
United Nations Human Rights Prize for her tireless work in this field. We
believe human rights are best realized through education and learning, and
that the learning about human rights is most effective at the community
level. The next step is to apply this approach to the problem of
patriarchy.

To make human rights universal, it is clear that structures of domination,
suppression, inequality, marginalization and hierarchy must change! We
believe that these structures are aspects of patriarchy, a framework that
informs most political, civil, economic, social and cultural relations
today. Hence, it is critical that women and men alike understand and
deconstruct them.

In their stead, we offer the holistic framework of human rights, which
would mean that social life on all their levels will be organized
accordingly. It is important to acknowledge that patriarchy is the basis
for modes of control and humiliation, in which certain men control other
men, all men are superior to women, and children exist to be
dominated...-- a system in which most of humanity is collaborating...-- a
system women and men can join in transforming.

Allow us to ask you to send your comments as soon as possible. We will
then merge the comments we receive into the final document, translate it
into many languages and disseminate it around the world. With this process
we hope to initiate this critical dialogue across communities worldwide.

With our thanks for your time and your help,

Sincerely,

William Van Esveld  - for PDHRE working group on Patriarchy.

For your comments write to: patriarchyproject@yahoo.com or pdhre@igc.org




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