[뉴저스] 긴급탄원서

안녕하세요, 끼리끼리의 김송혜숙입니다.

아래의 내용은 콜롬비아 군사정권의 탄압에 맞선 민중운동가 중 감옥에 갇혀있는 여성이 레즈비언이란 이유만으로 끔찍한 성폭력의 위협을 받고 있음을 전세계 인권운동가 및 의식있는 이들에게 알리는 동시에, 마르타라는 그 여성의 신변보호를 콜롬비아 정부에 촉구하는 탄원서입니다.

내용을 읽어보시고 동의하시면 mltamayo@andinet.com으로 이 편지를 다시 보내시면 되겠습니다. 다만 그쪽에서는 한글을 읽지 못할 터이니 한글 부분은 삭제하여 보내시는 게 좋겠습니다.

인터넷이 국제적 연대를 강화시키는 데 중요한 역할을 할 수 있다는 것을 새삼 느끼며, 여러분의 많은 참여 바랍니다.

이만…

IF YOU AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING LETTER PLEASE SEND IT

BACK TO mltamayo@andinet.com AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THANK

YOU.

NATIONAL WOMEN’S NETWORK – COLOMBIA

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Urgent – Urgent – Urgent – Urgent – Urgent- Urgent

SEXUAL RIGHTS OF IMPRISONED LESBIANS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

LETTER TO THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT

February 2000

Mr.

Andres Pastrana

President of Colombia

Mr. President:

Why are you against lesbians? Why a government that is sensible enough to sit and talk with guerrillas in the middle of a war situation now appears reluctant to sit and talk with Martha Alvarez, just because she is a lesbian? How can we then believe your international commintments to respect women’s human rights and how can we then understand your policy to implement an Equality Plan for Women, when at the same time a woman is treated in such a violent way because of her sexual orientation?

In the context of case 11.656 that since May 1996 is under the jurisdiction of the Interamerican Human Rights Commission (IHRC), according to a demand submitted by Martha against the Colombian government because it had denied her right to intimate lesbian visits, last October 1st, during the audience held in Washington before the Commission, the Colombian government agreed to sit with Martha’s representatives to study the possibilities for reaching a friendly settlement in the case, what has not happened yet. Very soon afterwards, jail authorities transfered Martha from a women’s facility (Bucaramanga) to a Circuit Jail in Socorro, depriving her of dignified conditions of imprisonment and separating her from her partner, GA, with whom she had been in a relationship for about two years, sharing patio, corridor and jail without ever altering security conditions and the internal order that is due in prisons.

Due to Martha’s sexual orientation and to both domestic and international actions undertaken to defend her sexual rights in prison, the Colombian government through its jail authorities, has taken several measures that turned her conditions of imprisonment very sour: repeated transfers from one facility to another, placement in sectors where her physical integrity has been at risk, denying her the possibility to defend herself against serious disciplinary accusations made against her, placement in facilities not legally mandated for women and even less for those condemned to long term sentence, as she is, among other actions.

Because lesbians in jail also have rights, we demand

1. The immediate transfer of Martha Alvarez to a facility that is exclusively for women or to a District facility, where she will have guarantees according to her human dignity and her particular condition as a woman sentenced to a long-term reclusion.

2. To stop harassment against Martha Alvarez, based on her sexual orientation, as well as all punitive measures against her, taking as revenge for her exercising the right to petition. Transfers from one facility to another must stop being used as punishment for her attempts to find a definite solution to her request, through legal venues.

3. That Marta Alvarez and GA be reunited in the same facility, as a way to make more human the reclussion and to soften the severe effects that a long term imprisionement can have upon the psychological and moral integrity of the person imprisoned.

4. That the government sits immediately with petitioners to find a friendly solution to the case, showing its will to solve the conflict in a negotiated way.