2007 Annual Report
opening space for dissent
The courage to speak out and resist is reinforced when people come together to create space for discussion and debate. An integral part of Inter Pares' work is to encourage and support those who dare to speak out in the face of injustice throughout the world, including in Canada.
The work of Likhaan, a women's health organization based in Manila, exemplifies the courage needed for people to come together and act where there are few spaces to do so. The increasingly conservative ideology of the current government and the Catholic Church in the Philippines has narrowed the space for the women's movement to speak out on issues of reproductive health and reproductive choice. Despite the challenges, Likhaan continues working with women in marginalized urban areas to offer access to high-quality health services including contraception and pre/post-natal care. Internationally, Likhaan is part of a strong solidarity movement advocating for reproductive choice and universal health care.
In 2007, the Gender Centre for Research and Training (GCRT) celebrated its first decade of work in the struggle for women's rights and gender equality in Sudan. Working under a fundamentalist military regime, colleagues from the GCRT have fostered debate on the treatment of women in Sudan by documenting and exposing women's realities, which have otherwise been denied or ignored. The GCRT launched a research project to document women's experiences with domestic violence and shed light on the normalization of violence against women.
In Canada, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) has helped bring public attention to issues such as the creation of a Canadian no-fly list, the security certificate legislation, and the increased trend towards criminalization of solidarity. The ICLMG also participated as a witness in the Iacobucci Inquiry, set up in 2007 to investigate the role of Canadian officials in the sharing of information, detention and torture of Canadians Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin. As an active member and co-founder of the ICLMG, Inter Pares has supported its efforts to protect individual freedoms, democratic values and civil liberties in Canada.
| Reviewed April 30, 2008 |  |
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