Management Company Sued For Evicting Victim of Domestic Violence

http://ww.povertylaw.org/advocacy/housing/inside-housing-articles/FairHousingAct

In October 2009, the Shriver Center and attorneys from Reed, Smith, Sachnoff and Weaver filed a federal lawsuit against AIMCO and several of its subsidiaries alleging that they violated the Fair Housing Act when they evicted a tenant as a result of domestic violence against her in her AIMCO apartment. 

In 2007, Kathy Cleaves Milan was living in the Elmcreek Apartments in Elmhurst, Illinois when her then fiancé tried to kill her and himself after she ended the relationship.  The lawsuit, which was a front page article in the Chicago Tribune, alleges that Ms. Milan stopped the attempted murder suicide, called the police, had the abuser involuntarily committed to a hospital, and barred from the premises by obtaining an Order of Protection.  After Ms. Milan told the management company what had happened and provided them with a copy of her Order of Protection, she was issued a notice terminating her tenancy. 

Because victims of domestic violence are predominately women, a growing body of law supports the proposition that discrimination against victims of domestic violence, like Ms. Milan, constitutes sex discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Alaska: Restraining Orders May Aid Villages

By KYLE HOPKINS

Complete story – Source

Despite towering rates of sexual abuse and domestic violence, two-thirds of Alaska villages have no local police or troopers, a university expert said Thursday.

But there’s something most of Alaska’s more than 200 tribes don’t realize, said assistant professor Kevin M. Illingworth, head of the tribal management program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Federal law allows tribal courts and councils to slap restraining orders on people who commit domestic violence, demanding they stay away from victims — or in extreme cases banishing them from the village.

Illingworth spoke at an annual Bureau of Indian Affairs conference in Anchorage, where tribal council and court members joined other village service providers gathered from across the state. The meeting came as Gov. Sean Parnell announced a 10-year plan to battle rape and domestic violence in Alaska.

Alaska tribes issue up to two-dozen restraining orders a year, Illingworth said. It’s a modest number, he said, though Yukon-Kuskokwim villages, in particular, are increasingly using the tool.

“Tribes are really taking on a lot of these offenses because the troopers and law enforcement aren’t there,” he said.

That said, he added, “If you’re issuing protective orders and you don’t have law enforcement, practically speaking, what can you do?”

In an effort to boost rural enforcement, Parnell repeated his call Thursday for the state to hire 15 more Village Public Safety Officers every year for the next 10 years. A sexual assault is 3.5 times more likely to be accepted for prosecution when there is a VPSO or police officer in a community, said Public Safety Commissioner Joe Masters.

While the governor’s proposal calls for tougher punishment for offenders, tribal court judges at the Bureau of Indian Affairs conference are taking a different approach.

In the dry Kuskokwim Bay village of Kwigillingok, the tribal court cracks down on small offenses — underage snowmachine driving, vandalism — in hopes of warding off larger problems.

The tribal court doesn’t handle sexual abuse cases or felony assaults. But in a domestic violence case, elders might counsel first-time offenders according to village customs. No tape recorders or paperwork.

“We look for the good in that person,” said tribal court judge Elsie Jimmie.

If the person re-offends, the court might send the case to the state, said court administrator Adolph Lewis.

Complete story – Source

Alaska: New Shelter for Battered Women

Source: Fairbanks Daily News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A new $9 million shelter for battered women and their children is opening in the town of Bethel to address the growing problem of domestic abuse in the largely Native region, facility operators said Tuesday.

The 30-bed crisis shelter, scheduled to open Friday, replaces a smaller facility run by the Tundra Women’s Coalition. Coalition director Michelle DeWitt said there is an increasing need for more beds than the 22 that were squeezed into the old shelter.

“The demand for shelter has been far greater than our capacity to house people,” DeWitt said. “This will allow us to open our doors to help more families in need.”

The facility will serve residents from the commercial hub town and about 50 surrounding villages. Four out of five clients are from outlying villages.

The old shelter took in nearly 400 people during the fiscal year that ended this summer, compared with less than 300 who sought shelter in fiscal year 2008.

The new shelter, funded by various private and government grants, also has far better security including more cameras and tighter control at entrances.

The building represents more than safety for Hanna White, a client from the Yupik Eskimo village of Napakiak.

“It gave me time to be by myself and think things over and there are counselors here who help,” said White, who looked at the old, drafty facility as a welcome refuge.

The 45-year-old said she moved to the old shelter two weeks ago to get away from her daughter’s boyfriend, who was abusive when he drank. White, who just got a job at a thrift store in Bethel, sees the new building as a reflection of her new life, a safe place to lift her spirits.

“If feels more secure, and women who come in will be more comfortable there,” she said.

Most clients are victims of domestic violence, like White, but many also have been sexually assaulted, DeWitt said. Alaska has long reported the highest sexual assault rate in the nation, and authorities say the problem is worst in rural areas.

Seeking safety is a complicated process for abuse victims in rural Alaska, said Sandy Samaniego, executive director of the state’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

In villages, where everyone knows each other, it’s hard for victims to remain anonymous, she said. They are sometimes shunned if alleged abusers play an important role in the community, such as subsistence hunting.

Providing a shelter in a hub town brings its own issues because it requires victims to give up the comfort and security of their own homes, Samaniego said. Still, the Bethel shelter plays an important role, she added.

“Our first need is safety and there just aren’t the resources anywhere to provide a shelter in each village,” she said. “It’s absolutely critical to victims that they’re not being hurt.”

Source: Fairbanks Daily News

Oregon Domestic Violence Murders

18 people have lost their lives in less than 30 days. Along with seven women, two young children were shot and killed along with their mothers, and an adult son died trying, unsuccessfully, to protect his mother. All eight male perpetrators committed suicide.

Source: Oregonlive.com

Domestic violence murders: Community and victims cry out for solutions
December 12, 2009

By BRUCE GOLDBERG, ROBIN CHRISTIAN and SYBIL HEBB

The domestic violence murders staining our region in the past month have been horrific and relentless. In total, 18 people have lost their lives in less than 30 days. Along with seven women, two young children were shot and killed along with their mothers, and an adult son died trying, unsuccessfully, to protect his mother. All eight male perpetrators committed suicide.

These tragedies have occurred across Oregon, in both urban and rural communities. One thing is clear: Domestic violence is a public health and safety crisis in our state with far-reaching consequences. Individuals, workplaces, schools and agencies are negatively affected. The toll on victims, children, families and communities cannot be measured.

We have a responsibility to our families and our communities to do better.

We join together to issue a statewide call to action. In the aftermath of these tragedies, government and justice system officials, policymakers and advocates are asking what could have been done to prevent these deaths.

We applaud the fast response of state leaders such as Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is convening a group of leaders in law enforcement, advocacy and social services to look at how we can do a better job. A statewide critical and thorough review of each case by a multidisciplinary group will assess whether there were missed opportunities to step in, provide safety and avert these heartbreaking deaths.

Also, Attorney General John Kroger has announced that he is recruiting a special domestic-violence prosecutor to provide more support to families and local prosecuting attorneys.

In looking at the recent tragedies, several other compelling issues clearly stand out:

Shelter and safety services are not funded to meet the need. The recent murders highlight the fact that separating from an abuser is an extraordinarily dangerous period of time. Yet in 2008, more than 19,000 requests for emergency shelter by victims could not be met because of a lack of resources. Where did these victims and their children go in the middle of the night when no safe shelter was to be found? When a victim is ready to take the brave step of leaving, a comprehensive and coordinated safety net must be in place and accessible.

Child welfare intervention must be coordinated with domestic violence services. Approximately one-third of Oregon’s child abuse cases involve domestic violence in the home. When Child Welfare responds to these cases, it is vital that parents who are victims, as well as their children, receive immediate and supportive services so that adult victims can protect themselves and their children.

Domestic violence doesn’t stay at home when its victims go to work. As recent cases have illustrated, domestic violence perpetrators pose a threat at the workplace to victims as well as to their co-workers. Employers play a critical role in ensuring that victims understand their options and are supported in taking the steps needed to stay safe at work. Domestic violence training and safety planning will help managers identify warning signs and provide a safe environment for all employees.

Guns in the hands of perpetrators of domestic violence are a deadly combination. In every one of the tragic domestic violence deaths during the past month, the murder weapon was a gun. In several of these cases, there were prior instances of violent behavior. And in at least one case, the gun was used by a person who was not legally entitled to possess a firearm. A close look at our state and federal gun laws, and enforcement of those laws, will help reduce the incidence of lethal violence.

Women and their children have died in shocking numbers in the past 30 days. This is not the Oregon we know and love, and it is heartening to see state and local leaders responding.

State and community leaders must continue to come together and commit to ensuring change. The effort must be practical, effective and sustainable. We owe it to the victims, their families and our communities to learn from and act on the lessons of these tragedies.

Bruce Goldberg, M.D., is director of the Oregon Department of Human Services and director-designee of the Oregon Health Authority. Robin Christian is executive director of Children First for Oregon. Sybil Hebb is an attorney with the Oregon Law Center and the Alliance to End Violence Against Women.

Source: Oregonlive.com

Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships

Telling It Like It Is: Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships

The majority of teens have been involved in a romantic relationship.

This brief, Telling It Like It Is: Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships, summarizes findings from focus groups that explored what teens themselves have to say about these relationships. 
 


Among the findings:

- Teens view respect, trust, and love as essential to healthy relationships.

- Teens have a clear understanding and expectation of what defines a healthy romantic relationship.

- Teens’ relationships typically fall short of their own standards of healthy romantic relationships.

- Infidelity, relationship violence, and few role models contribute to teens’ low expectations for healthy relationships.

Telling It Like It Is: Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships is presented by Child Trends

AARA Extends Unemployment Benefits for DV Victims

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) included several provisions for modernizing state unemployment insurance systems, such as providing access to unemployment insurance benefits to various groups who were not previously covered by state laws, including victims of domestic violence. Under ARRA, the federal government provided incentive payments to states that chose to make changes to their unemployment insurance systems.

Excerpts

Employment is crucial to a victim being able to separate from an abusive situation. With a job and source of income separate from an abuser, a victim can find a safe place to live, pay for alternative child care arrangements, new forms of transportation, medical costs, and legal bills. But in these days of economic uncertainty, many victims are too afraid of losing desperately needed jobs to pursue legal remedies, seek medical treatment, or to take other essential steps to secure their safety.

Employers often fire victims who reveal that they are victims of violence or who ask for assistance dealing with the violence. Two recent studies of partner stalking of victims found that between 15.2 and 27.6 percent of women reported that they lost a job due, at least in part, to domestic violence.

The full report by Legal Momentum contains information about the relationship between employment and other economic safety nets and reducing violence against women, along with information about individual states that have or have not adopted the extended benefits.

September 2009 Report: Females Murdered by Males

When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of Homicide Data – Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim, Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington, DC.

2007 Data, September 2009 Report

Excerpts from the report:
One federal study on homicide among intimate partners found that female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all other means combined, concluding that “the figures demonstrate the importance of reducing access to firearms in households affected by IPV [intimate partner violence].”

Gun use does not need to result in a fatality to involve domestic violence. A study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed gun use at home and concluded that “hostile gun displays against family members may be more common than gun use in self-defense, and that hostile gun displays are often acts of domestic violence directed against women.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has found that women are far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes committed by intimate partners than men, especially when a weapon is involved. Moreover, women are much more likely to be victimized at home than in any other place.

A woman must consider the risks of having a gun in her home, whether she is in a domestic violence situation or not. While two thirds of women who own guns acquired them “primarily for protection against crime,” the results of a California analysis show that “purchasing a handgun provides no protection against homicide among women and is associated with an increase in their risk for intimate partner homicide.”

A 2003 study about the risks of firearms in the home found that females living with a gun in the home were nearly three times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun in the home.

Women who were murdered were more likely, not less likely, to have purchased a handgun in the three years prior to their deaths, again invalidating the idea that a handgun has a protective effect against homicide.

In this study:
In 2007, there were 1,865 females murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents that were submitted to the FBI for its Supplementary Homicide Report. Of those:

91% of female victims were murdered by someone they knew.

For victims who knew their offenders, 62% were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.

Nationwide, more female homicides were committed with firearms (51%) than with any other weapon.

Louisiana ranked first as the state with the highest homicide rate among female victims killed by male offenders in single victim/single offender incidents. Its rate of 2.53 per 100,000 was nearly double the national average.

Louisiana was followed by Alaska and Wyoming.

The full report (pdf file).

Indian Law Resource Center Launches New Site

Violence Against Native Women Violates Human Rights is a new website launched by the Indian Law Resource Center in coordination with the National Congress of American Indians. The website discusses how to use international advocacy to end violence against Native American women. 

How can international advocacy reduce violence against Native American Women?

National Survey Finds Significant Unment Need for DV Services

Summary of “The Dangerous Shortage of Domestic Violence Services,” Iyengar/Sabik, Health Affairs, September 2009.

Domestic violence is a preventable but serious public health problem in the U.S., with more than 30 million people in the country experiencing some type of domestic violence each year. However, little information exists about the availability of federally funded services for people who experience domestic violence. Radha Iyengar, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the London School of Economics, and Lindsay Sabik, a graduate student in health policy at Harvard University, used the National Census of Domestic Violence Services to analyze the services available through domestic violence intervention programs in the U.S. Over a single 24-hour survey period in November 2006, 160 programs responded to service requests from 48,350 people. However, more than 5,000 of those requests could not be met because of a shortage of resources.  Full story

Attorney General Eric Holder on Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Excerpts from remarks by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Full text

. . . . Last year, there were over a half million non-fatal violent victimizations committed against women age 12 or older by an intimate partner. And more than 2,000 women and men were killed by intimate partners last year. These are not mere statistics we are talking about – we are talking about individual human beings: friends, colleagues, co-workers, neighbors, relatives. We should be appalled that this type of violence is visited upon them in this day and age. And we must do everything in our power to stop it.

While women are by no means the only victims of domestic violence, the facts are clear – women are most often murdered by people they know. In 2007, 64 percent of female homicide victims were murdered by a family member or intimate partner. By comparison, 16 percent of male homicide victims were murdered by a family member or intimate partner. Disturbingly, intimate partner homicide is the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 15 to 45.

The numbers are similarly staggering when it comes to children’s experiences of domestic violence. According to a survey released two weeks ago by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1 in 4 children are exposed to some form of family violence in their lifetime.

These numbers are shocking and unacceptable.

. . . . We know that violence in the home doesn’t just impact individuals and families. It devastates entire communities because it is a precursor to so many other forms of violence. When children witness or experience violence in the home, it affects how children feel, how they act, and how they learn. Without intervention, children are at higher risk for school failure, substance abuse, repeat victimization, and perhaps most tragically, perpetrating violence later in their own lives.

We know that we must be open to new ideas and approaches. We must learn from each other what has worked – and what has not. We must acknowledge the great cultural diversity in our country and rise to the challenge of providing services that are truly culturally and linguistically relevant. We must dare to think differently and we must value innovation.

As a father of three children, I recognize that change has to come from within families as well. We all need to be role models and mentors for our children so that they have the best chance of living in violence-free communities and families.

None of us can solve this crisis alone. But by working together, by using every tool at our disposal and by refusing to ever back down or give up, we can make a real difference in our homes, our communities and in our nation.  Full text

No One is a Stereotype: How Survivors Inspire Each Other

http://www.ndvh.org/2009/10/no-one-is-a-stereotype-how-survivors-inspire-each-other/

National Domestic Violence Hotline has a post by Leslie Morgan Stiener, author of the book Crazy Love, a memoir about domestic abuse.

For a long time after I left Conor, I struggled with how I fit our society’s stereotype of an abused woman. Exactly why and how had I lost myself to a man who I was intelligent enough to see was destroying me? I kept silent during cocktail party debates about why women stayed in violent relationships. I walked away after the inevitable pronouncement that women who let themselves be abused are weak, uneducated, self-destructive, powerless. I fit none of these stereotypes. I never met a battered woman who did.

Order Crazy Love

We survivors may have a lot in common, but none of us is a stereotype.
 

Summary of State Laws on Teen Date Violence

The National Conference of State Legislatures has a website: Summary of State Laws on Teen Dating Violence which includes legislation introduced in 2009 and information about state laws.

1 in 11 adolescents say they have been the victim of physical dating violence; a separate survey indicated that 1 in 4 teens self-report physical, verbal, emotional or sexual abuse every year.

Healthy or unhealthy relationship habits develop early.  Approximately 72 percent of 8^th and 9^th graders report “dating.”  By the time these students get to high school, more than half of them say they see dating violence among their peers.   Destructive relationships during the teen years can lead to life-long unhealthy relationship practices, may disrupt normal development, and can contribute to other unhealthy behaviors in teens that, if left unchecked, can lead to problems over a lifetime.  The CDC’s 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey indicates that adolescents who report being physically hurt in a dating relationship were also more likely to report that they engage in risky sexual behavior, binge drink, use drugs, attempt suicide, and participate in physical fights.

Summary of State Laws on Teen Dating Violence

Immigrant Survivors of Abuse

http://www.womensenews.org/story/domestic-violence/091009/immigrant-survivors-abuse-seek-freedom

Women’s eNews has a two-part series called Immigrant Survivors of Abuse: Seeking Freedom.

Clenching her fist, she said she was scared of being deported and was petrified of her abuser. She found herself locked in a labyrinth of helplessness.

 

Start Strong Teens: The generation that ends DV

From their website:

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. On October 22nd Start Strong teens will be showing their commitment to being the generation that ENDS domestic violence.

On this one day, Start Strong teens will be leading events across the country and “taking it to the streets,” from street performances in Providence to an anti-violence fashion show and demonstration on the steps of City Hall in Bridgeport, as a way to get the nation to pay attention to this issue.

The goal is to get EVERYONE across the country to focus on healthy relationships so that we stop violence in relationships before it can even start.  

Start Strong will also launch a major online campaign on October 22nd to get the entire nation talking about what a healthy relationship is, and we need you to be part of this record breaking day!                                                               

Ways YOU can participate ONLINE on October 22nd.  

A reprieve for California shelters

October 21, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — In a reversal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a stopgap bill on Wednesday to restore financing to the California’s shelters for victims of domestic violence.

Mr. Schwarzenegger eliminated money for the shelters in late July with a line-item veto as the state struggled to close the remainder of a $24 billion budget hole. The veto stripped the 94 nonprofit groups that run the state’s shelters of about $200,000, causing most to curtail services and a few to close altogether.

Mr. Schwarzenegger said he had never wanted to cut domestic violence programs but was forced to by the Legislature’s inability to give him a fully balanced budget.

On Wednesday, however, his message was more positive, praising the stopgap bill as a “creative solution to keep these shelters open,” adding that the state needed to find permanent funding solution for the programs.

The bill he signed is not a permanent fix but rather a loan, diverting $16.3 million from an alternative fuel and technology fund to the state general fund. That money must be repaid by June 2013.  Full story in the New York Times

Baghdad’s Underground Shelters Help Iraqi Women Escape Violence and Abuse

by Anna Badkhen, from Ms.

Source and full story: Utne Reader

On a bullet-scarred side street in Baghdad’s downtown, where U.S. Marines famously helped tear down the statue of Saddam Hussein in April of 2003, an inconspicuous entryway tucked between a steel-shuttered shop and a rickety candy stall leads to a flight of steep concrete stairs. Rusted water pipes run precariously over and across the poorly lit top step, tripping first-time visitors. The second-floor landing bottlenecks into a dark, empty hallway. Women in black abayas hurry across the buckled floor tiles in silence and quickly disappear through an unmarked plywood door on the right.

The decrepit two-bedroom apartment behind this unassuming portal is an essential junction of what activists in Iraq and their U.S. supporters call the Underground Railroad. This railroad is a small, clandestine network of several shelters, located mostly in Baghdad, for the countless but commonly overlooked victims of the war in Iraq: women who have been raped, battered, or forced into prostitution, and women who, accused of bringing dishonor to their families by having been abused, have been rejected or even threatened with death by their relatives.

These shelters serve women who have nowhere else to turn for help. Operated despite recurring death threats and lack of government support by a team of 35 Iraqi activists who call themselves the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), the shelters offer a glint of hope for civil society.

Source and full story: Utne Reader

New study finds partner abuse leads to wide range of health problems

Source

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Women abused by intimate partners suffer higher rates of a wide variety of doctor-diagnosed medical maladies compared to women who were never abused, according to a new study of more than 3,000 women.

Many of these health problems are not commonly understood as being associated with violence, such as abdominal pain, chest pain, headaches, acid reflux, urinary tract infections, and menstrual disorders.

“Roughly half of the diagnoses we examined were more common in abused women than in other women,” said Amy Bonomi, lead author of the study and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University.

“Abuse is associated with much more than cuts and bruises.”

Compared with never-abused women, victims had an almost six-fold increase in clinically identified substance abuse, a more than three-fold increase in receiving a depression diagnosis, a three-fold increase in sexually transmitted diseases and a two-fold increase in lacerations.

Bonomi led the study, co-authored with researchers from the Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington in Seattle, and published in the Oct. 12, 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Their research examined data from 3,568 randomly selected women patients at Group Health Cooperative, a health system in the Pacific Northwest. All women in the study consented to giving researchers confidential access to their medical records.

Women in the study were surveyed by telephone about whether they experienced any physical, sexual or psychological abuse from intimate partners, including husbands and boyfriends, within the past year. Researchers then checked their medical records from the past year to see the diagnoses they had received from doctors in primary, specialty and emergency care settings.

The researchers then compared the diagnoses of the 242 abused women with the remaining women who had never been abused.

While other research has found a link between intimate partner violence and health, this is among the first major studies that has not relied on self-reports by women about their health status.

“We were able to go to the medical records and find out what abuse victims had been formally diagnosed with in the past year,” Bonomi said.

“These women are not just saying they are depressed or have cuts and bruises,” she stressed. “They are going to the doctor and having their problems diagnosed.”

In addition, the study improves on past work because it includes a random sample of women enrolled in the health plan, and not just women who were already seeking some kind of health services.

Bonomi noted that many of the doctors involved in treating these women probably didn’t know of their abuse history.

“For most women, abuse likely never enters into the conversation with their doctors,” she said.

The results suggest that physicians should use a “targeted screening” approach with their female patients to determine if they are being abused.

Any women who come to the doctor with complaints of depression, substance abuse, sexually transmitted disease, or cuts and bruises should be interviewed about the possibility of abuse.

“Many women may not volunteer that they are in abusive relationships, so health care providers should be suspicious if their female patients have any of these diagnoses and symptoms that occur much more often among abuse victims,” she said.

Bonomi said these results may be conservative, and that many abused women may suffer even higher rates of some health problems than the study suggests. That’s because the participants in this study all had health insurance, and research shows that women who are not consistently insured have higher rates of intimate partner violence and may have worse health overall.

 ———————-

Bonomi conducted the study with Melissa Anderson, Robert Reid, David Carrell and Robert Thompson of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle; and Frederick Rivara of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University of Washington.

The study was funded by the Group Health Foundation and the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

News: Violence against women in military and war

Oct. 7

Yesterday, by a 68-30 vote, the U.S. Senate passed Senator Al Franken’s amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill (Amendment 2588) that, according to Stop Family Violence, prevents the Defense Department from using contractors that require“mandatory employment arbitration of employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault claims.” Franken’s amendment was a response to cases such as that of Jamie Leigh Jones who was raped by fellow employees of Halliburton while serving in Iraq and then told she could not take her case to court but had to pursue her allegations through her employment contract’s binding arbitration clause.

According to the Houston Chronicle, among those who opposed the bill, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said that, “the Defense Department did not want it. He said it would invalidate due process rights of employers and employees and arbitration can be better and less expensive for employees.” . . . .

Last week U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in regard to the unanimous passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1888, violence against women is criminal, not cultural. 

The resolution calls for:

- The appointment of a special representative to lead efforts to end conflict-related sexual violence against women and children.

- The creation of a team of experts to help governments in preventing conflict-related sexual violence, strengthening civilian and military justice systems and enhancing aid to victims.

- Reports by U.N. peacekeeping missions to the Security Council about the prevalence of sexual violence.

- Consideration by the U.N. Security Council of patterns of sexual violence during the process of adopting or targeting sanctions.

- The inclusion of women’s protection advisers in peacekeeping operations where it is appropriate, as determined by the U.N. secretary-general.

- The submission of annual reports by the secretary-general on the implementation of this resolution as well as more systematic reporting on conflict-related sexual violence.

Full article

Teen Dating Bill of Rights

Teen Dating Bill of Rights

I have the right:
To always be treated with respect – In a respectful relationship, you should be treated as an equal.

To be in a healthy relationship – A healthy relationship is not controlling, manipulative, or jealous. A healthy relationship involves honesty, trust, and communication.

To not be hurt physically or emotionally – You should feel safe in your relationship at all times.

Abuse is never deserved and is never your fault – Conflicts should be resolved in a peaceful and rational way.

To refuse sex or affection at anytime – A healthy relationship involves making consensual sexual decisions. You have the right to not have sex – Even if you have had sex before, you have the right to refuse sex for any reason.

To have friends and activities apart from my boyfriend or girlfriend – Spending time by yourself, with male or female friends, or with family is normal and healthy.

To end a relationship – You should not be harassed, threatened, or made to feel guilty for ending an unhealthy or healthy relationship. You have the right to end a relationship for any reason you choose.

I pledge to:
Always treat my boyfriend or girlfriend with respect.

Never hurt my boyfriend or girlfriend physically, verbally, or emotionally.

Respect my girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s decisions concerning sex and affection.

Not be controlling or manipulative in my relationship.

Accept responsibility for myself and my actions.

Source: Love is Respect

Book: If I Die In Juárez

If I Die in Juárez by Stella Pope Duarte

From the red-light districts in Ciudad Juárez to remote villages hidden away in the mountains of Chihuahua comes a tale of one of the darkest crimes to be recorded in the history of humankind. If I Die in Juárez traces the lives of three young women—Evita, a street child; Petra, a maquiladora worker; and Mayela, a Tarahumara Indian girl—who together uncover Juárez’s forbidden secret: the abduction and murder of young women. Bound together by blood, honor, an ancient chant, and a mysterious photo, the girls bring the murderous streets of Juárez to life.

University of Arizona Press review and study guide.