A Life Free Of Violence

Violence against women collectively refers to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the right of women to participate fully in society. Similar to a hate crime, this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive. The United Nations General Assembly defines "violence against women" as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."

The Cayman Islands issued this stamp image in A “LIFE WITHOUT VIOLENCE: ITS OUR RIGHT" campaign launched by UNIFEM in 1997. UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality. In coordination with other UNITED NATIONS agencies the campaign’s objective is to firmly place gender violence on the public agenda as a health and human rights issue, placing a spotlight on violence against women, probably the most pervasive human rights violation that affects as many as one in three women. We used this stamp image as inspiration for one of our ladies shirts. We thought it was so important an issue that we printed the design on our contoured short sleeve t-shirt as well as a thermal hoody to enable our customers to bring attention to this immensely important issue no matter what the season.

In 1993 the United Nations acknowledged the global dimensions of female targeted violence when the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. This declaration noted that this violence could be perpetrated by assailants of gender, family members and even the "State" itself. Worldwide governments and organizations actively work to combat violence against women through a variety of programs. The Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1994/45 of 4 March 1994, in which it decided to appoint the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, including its causes and consequences. A UN resolution designated November 25th as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Violence against women continues to be a major human rights violation and progress is tied to the political will and commitment to allocate the necessary financial and human resources to address this tragedy.

For More Information;

UNIFEM
http://unifem.org/
Womenshealth.gov
http://www.4woman.gov/violence/
United Nations Human Rights Commission Women and Violence
http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1772e.htm
Human Rights Council Discusses Violence Against Women 6/5/08
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/NewsRoom?OpenFrameSet

Youth Against Colonialism

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced.

I was moved by both the meaning and the irony of this stamp depiction and therefore chose it for one of our t-shirt designs. The Soviet Union has been a poster child for colonialism. Yet, this stamp issued in 1962 pictures the youth of three races and the broken chains of colonial oppression. It commemorates the International Day of Solidarity of Youth Against Colonialism.

Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders and ensured its control of the region by transforming the East European countries into satellite states. Soviet troops intervened in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and cited the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet counterpart to the U.S. Johnson Doctrine and later Nixon Doctrine, and helped oust the Czechoslovak government in 1968, sometimes referred to as the Prague Spring. To further its influence, the Soviet Union concluded friendship and cooperation treaties with a number of states in the non-Communist world, especially among Third World and Non-Aligned Movement states like India and Egypt. Moscow advanced state interests by gaining military footholds in strategically important areas throughout the Third World. The Soviet Union provided military aid for revolutionary movements in the Third World. For all these reasons, Soviet foreign policy was of major importance to the non-Communist world and helped determine the tenor of international relations.

Russia continues to exert influence as seen currently in the Middle East. Playing an active political, economic, military, and cultural role in the Middle East, the Russia has sought to undermine Western power there, with a view both to reducing the strategic threat to the U.S.S.R. from Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean and to increasing Soviet influence in world councils. Currently Russia attempts to balance a strategy of endorsing watered-down UN resolutions while deepening its relations with Iran in its continued efforts to project influence in the region.