10 September 2013

Hear the stories of the world’s 99 percent

Decision made in the boardrooms of Washington to increase corporate profits have real consequences in the lives of people like me. We are the people paying for excessive greed,” says Eni Lestari, an Indonesian migrant worker. Lestari and other representatives of the world’s 99 percent are coming to New York to make their voices heard and share their stories of inequalities and marginalization as world leaders attend the United Nations General Assembly from 21 to 26 September 2013.
photo credit : Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development

Inequality. Conflict. Crushing servitude. Forced eviction. Widespread urban poverty. For many of the world’s developing countries, development has not reached the majority. While 2015 was set as a target date for achieving specific goals about poverty, health and education, many of these goals have failed to address the causes of social injustice and marginalisation, with women being the most adversely affected.

Facing eviction for a proposed in Cambodia, Nim Chray and fellow villagers painted SOS signs on their roofs the day before US President Barack Obama visited Cambodia in 2012. Beginnning with this fearless act, Chray has become a voice for her community, fighting for their right to livelihood and compensation for forced displacement.
photo credit : http://phnompenhairport.wordpress.com/

Helen Hakena has seen grassroots women’s lives severely affected by the ten-year conflict in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. She co-founded the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency in 1992 to ensure that women were central to peace agreements and development initiatives. Now, after murders and attacks on women accused of witchcraft, Helen leads community efforts to restore human rights and collective responsibility..

Taslima Akhter showed the world the dismal conditions that led to the deaths of Bangladeshi garment factory workers in 2012 and 2013. Her photographs of two dead garment workers embracing in the rubble of a collapsed factory were featured on Time magazine and gave a face to the story of how unregulated greed and cheap labor caused the deaths of 1,127 workers, mostly women.
Photo credit: Taslima Akhter / Time.com

Hear their stories at the People’s GA.

The People’s GA is being organized by the Campaign for People’s Goals for Sustainable Development. Asia Pacific Forum on Women, law and Development, Association for Women’s Rights in Development, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and IBON International.

To set interviews with the speakers, and to find out more about the People’s GA, please contact apwld@apwld.org.