Women Under Siege

A short note to publicize the launch of a new website entitled Women Under Siege.  This is a project of the not-for-profit Women’s Media Center.  Its intent is to 

document how rape and other forms of sexualized violence have been used as tools in genocide and conflict throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

In addition to this documentation, the project also aims to develop and disseminate

an action plan to push for the creation of legal, diplomatic, and public interventions to ensure the United Nations, international tribunals, and other agencies with power ... understand the gender-based threats as a tool of genocide and ... design protocols to intervene and halt gender-based genocide.

It includes a blog with entries like:

• Can we end rape as tool of war? By Gloria Steinem and Lauren Wolfe
• What it's like to cover 'unbearable' stories of rape in Congo By Lynsey Addario

Further to our announcement of the winner of the Katharine and George Alexander Prize at Santa Clara, the site also includes a short video by photojournalists Ofelia de Pablo and Javier Zurita (whose photos grace our entry on the Prize) featuring interviews of survivors and the ongoing forensic and legal investigation surrounding the indictment of Efraín Ríos Montt in Guatemala by Judge Carol Patricia Flores.  The New York Times coverage of the new site is here.  Check it out!