Tribute to Justice

Monday September 9, 2013 @ 583 Park Avenue, NYC

The Charles Horman Truth Foundation brings together champions of justice whose efforts led to the detention and prosecution of coup leader Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity. This historic effort and the dynamic new legal doctrines which resulted, will be discussed at the afternoon panel discussions. Then join us for a Dinner Awards Ceremony honoring those who brought Pinochet to justice. Artists and activists whose work contributed to the exposure and investigation of Pinochet’s crimes over the years, and helped to foster a worldwide human rights movement, will present the Tribute to Justice awards to those being honored.

Evening Dinner Ceremony

Award Recipients

Center for Constitutional Rights

Peter Weiss, Nancy Stearns, John Corwin, Rhonda Copelon (posthumously)

Juan Garcés 

Judge Baltasar Garzón 

Sir Geoffrey Bindman, QC 

Ambassador John O'Leary (posthumously)

Peter Kornbluh 

Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia 

Award Presenters (Pending)

Joyce Horman, Patricio Guzmán, Costa Gavras, Joan Jara, Chris Lemmon, Elizabeth Farnsworth, Deborah Shaffer 

Event Co-Hosts

Michael Ratner, Amy Goodman 

Honorary Co-Chairs

Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

Joyce Horman, Board Chair, The Charles Horman Truth Foundation

John Cavanagh, Director, Institute for Policy Studies

Cynthia Soohoo, Director, International Women's Rights Clinic, CUNY School of Law

7pm - Dinner festive dress

8pm - Award Ceremony

9pm - Music by Chilean singer-songwriter Claudia Acuña

To receive updates by email, please write to:2013event@hormantruth.org

Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here

Dear Friends and Allies,

Warm summer greetings. I wanted to share with you the good news that my book, "Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism," has just been published, at last. 

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Fatwa-Does-Apply-Here/dp/0393081583

Inspired by my father Mahfoud Bennoune's work in Algeria, it tells the stories of progressive people (journalists, artists, women's rights activists, etc...) who have risked everything to stand up to extremism and terror - stories rarely heard in the West.   For the book, I interviewed nearly 300 people of Muslim heritage from almost 30 countries - from Afghanistan to Mali.  Thank you so much to all of you for your support with this project during the writing and research.  Now, I am writing to ask for your support and advice in spreading the word about the book any way you can.

  

I would be most honored if you might consider reading "Your Fatwa", giving the book to friends, sharing the link with any friends, family, colleagues, bookstores, websites, listservs and libraries near you. If you do modern things involving social media (unlike this dinosaur), please feel free to share that way too.  (If you do forward this email, please don't send my Email address along with it... thanks.) If you have ideas about places where I could give talks or readings, or booksignings, that would be great too. Whether or not the book is translated into other languages will depend on how well it does in English, so any and all support greatly appreciated. If you have time to read the book, and happen to like it, please consider writing a review on the amazon or barnes and noble sites - or "liking" the book on their sites.

You can also visit www.karimabennoune.com to see additional material not in the book in case you are interested.

Once I get through the book tour, I hope that I will get to catch up with you all. I have missed friends and colleagues during all this wandering and writing - though it has been the most amazing adventure - like three years of studying in the university of the world....  Thank you so much for any ideas you have on getting the word out - this is a rare opportunity for our perspectives to be heard, but I know you are all very busy.

warm wishes and thanks, karima

Haiti's Draft GBV Law

Dear Anita,

We write to you with some unprecedented and wonderful news----that reflects the culmination of work in Haiti by Rhonda Copelon. 

Haiti’s Ministry of Justice is currently considering a draft penal code revision law that, if approved by the Haitian Parliament, would be a major advancement in legislation addressing gender-based violence and includes a landmark provision on LGBT rights both in Haiti and much of the world. Although not public yet, among its advancements, this penal code revision would change the discourse for women’s rights in Haiti through three critical provisions:

1. Legalize first trimester abortions that threaten the health of the mother and in instances of rape and incest; criminalize marital rape;

2. Modernize the definition of rape, including specific codification of marital rape as a crime; 

3. Protect Haiti’s LGBT community by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 

While the penal code revision process is public, the specific provisions are not, and we ask that you keep these provisions confidential until the MOJ decides to make them public. 

In partnership with the Haitian women’s organization KOFAVIV, MADRE and the IWHR Clinic have been working diligently for the past two years with Haitian civil society and specifically, Haitian grassroots women’s groups on the substance and mobilization of this draft law. Now that the law is complete it will be submitted to Parliament in January and voted on for passage this spring. 

As the final step in this two-year process, the IWHR Clinic and our partners worked to put together a civil society workshop to generate the civil society support and build the momentum needed for its passage. This workshop was supposed to take place on October 25, in Port-au-Prince Haiti. Unfortunately hurricane Sandy hit Haiti before heading to New York and forced us to cancel the event. With international speakers already in town and the event venue paid for in advance, we lost the funding we had secured to make the event possible.

We are urgently writing in hopes of raising the $16,000 needed to host the event again on February 6, 2013 in Port-au-Prince. We are working in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, and grassroots Haitian organizations and believe that this conference is crucial and is the final action needed in order to get this law passed. 

As you know, Rhonda laid the groundwork for the current efforts to end sexual violence in Haiti. In 1994, after Haiti experienced a surge in politically motivated sexual violence, the IWHR Clinic, under Rhonda’s leadership, pulled together a team to file a brief with the Organization of American States arguing that the rape of Haitian women by State actors that was underway amounted to torture under international law. Nearly fifteen years later, when Haiti suffered another surge in sexual violence, this time due to the devastating earthquake in 2010, the same organizations that Rhonda had rallied in the 1990s, came together to file our petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The decision was striking as the Commission expanded on Rhonda’s work to call attention to the State’s due diligence obligation to end sexual violence committed by private actors. The Commission not only called on immediate measures to be implemented, it also implored the Haitian government to draft law that would strengthen women’s rights and eliminate inconsistencies that exist around the prosecution of sexual violence crimes. In response, the Government started drafting such a law. 

The total estimated cost for this workshop is $16,000 and any amount of support you may be able to give would greatly help. The IWHR Clinic, MADRE and our other partner groups have formed the Gender Law and Policy Project as a coalition of organizations who are working to educate lawmakers on this draft law. Checks can be made payable to the CUNY Law School Foundation with Gender Law and Policy Project written in the memo. The address is 2 Court Square, Long Island City, NY 11101. Donations are tax-deductible.

If you have any questions feel free to contact us at anytime and thank you for your consideration.

In Solidarity,

Lisa Davis                                                Yifat Susskind

Clinical Professor of Law                     Executive Director

IWHR Clinic, CUNY Law School      MADRE

On March 30, 2012, a packed auditorium of human rights advocates, lawyers, students, and others gathered for the CUNY Law Review symposium "Looking Forward: Rhonda Copelon's Legacy in Action and the Future of International Women's Human Rights Law" (see March 16 post, below). The day-long event looked at how Rhonda's work helped to define and shape the field of international women's human rights and described how her vision continues to influence and inspire advocates and practitioners.

The CUNY Law Review has posted the program, a slideshow of photos and video footage of the symposium online at http://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/LawReview/events.html, where you can watch the full day of panels on YouTube or as a free download from iTunes U.

Looking Forward: Rhonda Copelon’s Legacy in Action and the Future of International Women’s Human Rights Law

March 30, 2012
8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
The Graduate Center, The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, New York City
“Elebash Recital Hall”

CLE Credits Provided: There is a $15 fee for those seeking CLE credit. A fee waiver for economic hardship is available upon written request to Angela Perez: perez@mail.law.cuny.edu.

Registration for the event: http://lookingforward.eventbrite.com/ (Pre-registration for this event is now closed, but seats are being held for same day registration so please come early to ensure availability. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m.)

The City University of New York Law Review’s Symposium, “Looking Forward: Rhonda Copelon’s Legacy in Action and the Future of International Women’s Human Rights Law,” will highlight current applications and extensions of Rhonda Copelon’s groundbreaking work through current, cutting-edge implementations of international women’s human rights law. International and U.S. practitioners and human rights advocates will discuss their current work regarding topics such as: Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Rape as a Form of Torture, and Domestic Implementation of International Human Rights Law.

Professor Rhonda Copelon was a trail-blazing human rights lawyer and activist, one of the world’s foremost legal scholars of the rights of women, and founder of the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at CUNY School of Law. Her extensive work on women’s human rights has had a formative influence in shaping discourse on human rights under international and domestic law.

The program will feature four panels and will bring together leading international and U.S. experts to discuss current implementation of Rhonda Copelon’s pioneering work in the realm of international human rights, sexual and reproductive rights, and gender violence.

Panel One: Sexual Rights Developments under International Law. This panel will explore cutting-edge developments in international law for upholding sexual rights based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and sex work/ sexual exchange, as well as ongoing challenges and obstacles to securing rights in these areas.

Panelists Include:

* Rosa Celorio, Legal Advisor, Special Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women, Inter-American Human Rights Commission
* Scott Long, Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School
* Andrea Ritchie, Director of Streetwise and Safe, co-author of Queer (In)justice
* Jessica Stern, Director of Programs, International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Moderator: Ruthann Robson, University Distinguished Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law

Panel Two: Reproductive Rights. From the struggle to end the shackling of pregnant women, to court battles to overturn anti-choice regimes, this panel will discuss current legal challenges and successes for reproductive rights domestically and internationally. Specifically, participants will discuss judicial and legislative trends and reproductive rights violations in the U.S., Latin America, Africa, and Europe.

Panelists Include:

* Marianne Mollmann, Senior Policy Advisor, Amnesty International
* Nancy Northup, Executive Director of the Center for Reproductive Rights
* Monica Roa, Director, Women’s Link Worldwide
* Cindy Soohoo, Professor of Law and Director of the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, CUNY School of Law

Moderator: Caitlin Borgmann, Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law

Panel Three: Rape as a Form of Torture. This panel will explore groundbreaking achievements in expanding the notion of rape as a form of torture under international law, including the State’s obligation to address sexual violence committed by private actors. Panel participants will review new developments in the International Criminal Court, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, and UN treaty bodies.

Panelists Include:

* Felice Gaer, Vice Chair of the UN Committee Against Torture
* Nigel Rodley, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, UN Human Rights Committee
* Patricia Viseur-Sellers, Former Legal Adviser for Gender-Related Crimes in the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia
* Blaine Bookey, Staff Attorney, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies

Moderator: Penny Andrews, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, CUNY School of Law

Panel Four: Domestic Implementation of International Human Rights Law. This panel will examine innovative litigation regarding the implementation of an international human rights framework in a domestic context. Topics include the use of international human rights law to create change from the local level to the federal courts and innovative tactics to advance Economic and Social Rights.

Panelists Include:

* Catherine Albisa, Executive Director, National Economic & Social Rights Initiative
* Carrie Bettinger-Lopez, Professor of Law and Director, Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law
* Pam Spees, Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
* Joey Mogul, Partner, People’s Law Office

Moderator: Julie Goldscheid, Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law

Co-Sponsored by:

The City University of New York Law Review,
The International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at CUNY Law School,
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and
MADRE

From Annette Warren Dickerson, CCR

The Center for Constitutional Rights, with funding from the Copelon Fund for Gender Justice, has filed a lawsuit challenging Louisiana's "Crime Against Nature" statute, which prosecutors use in prostitution cases so that convicted defendants must register as sex offenders. This means their drivers licenses identify them as sex offenders, their names appear in an Internet registry, and they are required to disclose their status to landlords, employers, neighbors and schools.

Dear CCR Supporter:

As a supporter of the Copelon Fund for Gender Justice, we wanted to make sure that you saw our recent email about our case Doe V. Jindal, which was made possible by your generous support of the Fund. We are challenging a Louisiana statute which disproportionately impacts women; people across the spectrum of gender and sexuality, including gay, lesbian and transgender people; African Americans and poor people. This case highlights our commitment to continuing Rhonda Copelon's legacy of combating gender violence, racial discrimination, and human rights violations.

In February 2011, CCR, Andrea J. Ritchie, Esq. and the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Law Clinic filed a federal civil rights complaint challenging the continuing use of Louisiana’s 206 year-old Crime Against Nature statute that brands people who solicit oral and anal sex as sex offenders. The statute criminalizes individuals who offer or agree to have oral or anal sex for money by requiring them to register as a sex offender upon conviction, while a conviction under Louisiana’s prostitution statute triggers no such requirement.

This archaic and discriminatory law is founded on moral disapproval and outdated notions of what kinds of sex acts are acceptable.

Doe v. Jindal was filed in the United States District Court Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans on behalf of nine anonymous plaintiffs. Some of the plaintiffs have multiple convictions of Crime Against Nature by Solicitation and as a result must register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. The lawsuit alleges that being forced to register as a sex offender because of a Crime Against Nature conviction (which is the only offense requiring registration that includes no element of force, coercion, lack of consent, use of a weapon, or the involvement of a minor) serves no legitimate purpose whatsoever. As such, it is unjustifiable and unconstitutional.

[...]

If you are inspired by this work please consider making a donation to the Copelon Fund for Gender Justice.

Thank you for your continued support and your interest in our gender justice work,

Annette Warren Dickerson
Director of Education and Outreach
Center for Constitutional Rights

Ram Narayan Kumar and Rhonda Copelon Memorial Panel, India

Second Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSNet) Conference in Pune

Thursday, 30 December 2010, 11.00 - 1.00 pm (Chanakya 1)

Chair/discussant: Uma Chakravarti

Panel description

Panelists, paper titles, and abstracts

1. Anuradha Bhasin, Impunity and Sexual Violence in Kashmir
2. Farah Naqvi, Impunity for Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations: A Search for Elements of Justice
3. Navsharan Singh, Sexual Violence Against Women in the Punjab
4. Warisha Farasat, Challenges in Ensuring Accountability for Mass Crimes

From Mina Watanabe, Japan

Women's Active Museum on War and Peace

.

Dear Anita,

Greetings from Japan. I just wanted to share with you that at the 10th anniversary of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal for Japan's Military Sexual Slavery, we had a small evening event to tribute the friends and survivors who passed away. Indai and Patti also participated, and Patti made a tribute message about Rhonda (hope you can find the picture of Rhonda on the wall). She talked about how much Rhonda put her energy for the sake of "comfort women" survivors...

I am so sorry that I missed the Rhonda's event in September. Hope it was memorable one. We will keep the spirit of Rhonda, Yayori, and courageous survivors, and will keep working to eliminate violence against women.

Best wishes,
Mina

Celebrate the UDHR, Rhonda Copelon and Peggy Lipschultz

Friday, December 10, 2010 4-7 PM
CUNY Graduate Center
Skylight Room, 9th Floor, Room 9100
365 5th Ave. at 34th St.
New York, NY

Join us in tribute to Rhonda Copelon's legacy for human rights and gender justice.

Peggy Lipschutz will be honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Humanities. We will celebrate Peggy's 92nd birthday.

PROGRAM

Film Screening: Never Turning Back, The World of Peggy Lipschutz - conversations with Angela Davis, Pete Seeger, others (32 min.)

Speakers:
Cathy Albisa, NESRI & CCR
Meena Alexander, Poet, GC, CUNY
Ana Bozicevic, Poet, GC, CUNY
Charlotte Bunch, CWGL, Rutgers
Blanche Wiesen Cook, John Jay & GC, CUNY
Robin Lloyd, Board member, US WILPF
Pamela Sneed, Poet & Performance Artist
Jerri Zbiral, Producer/Director, Never Turning Back

Reception to follow

For more information: see www.wilpf.org or www.neverturningback.net or call 212 817 2005

From CUNY TV

View this short television tribute to Rhonda to air on CUNY TV's monthly program 'Study with the Best' (premieres Sun 21 Nov at 8am, 8pm EST; repeats Wed 24 Nov at 8am, 2pm, 10pm EST; and Sat 27 Nov at 7pm EST).

From Malika Zouba, France

In memoriam
Rhonda COPELON – Paris 18th September 2010

Friends met on Saturday 18th 2010 in Paris to pay tribute to Rhonda Copelon as part of a meeting called by WICUR and RAFD. It was a moving ceremony as testimonies were interspersed with the reading of poems in Arabic and those texts chosen by Rhonda against a background of Yiddish music.

Zazi SADOU and Lalia DUCOS evoked Rhonda’s relentless activism and manifold commitments by the side of those voiceless victims of fundamentalisms, terrorism and injustice worldwide. Both Zazi and Lalia said it was hard to sum up all Rhonda’s achievements to advance women’s human rights stressing that Rhonda sometimes acted against the tide of mainstream human rights defenders and organizations. In this respect, what took pride of place during the ceremony was Rhonda’s total and unswerving support for Algerian women and democrats marked by the 1996 lawsuit Jane Doe v. Islamic Salvation Front and Anwar Haddam, which charged Algerian fundamentalists with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including assassination, rape and torture. All those who shared their memories concurred that usually friends who pass away are praised and described as exceptional but Rhonda was indeed exceptional.

Lalia DUCOS said she was overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow but was also grateful because for about three decades as a bright leftist activist Rhonda had been able to advance the world women’s movement embracing all fields of endeavour including political rights, gays and lesbians’ rights and abortion rights. She recalled the famous Filartiga v. Pena-Irala case which she said had set a precedent for the 1996 lawsuit Jane Doe v. Islamic Salvation Front and Anwar Haddam. Rhonda, she said, had dared to address the issue of non state actors charging Algerian fundamentalists with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including assassination, rape and torture. For Algerians, Lalia DUCOS added, Rhonda had played a major role in the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia with rape being recognized as a crime of genocide and torture in international law. Lalia DUCOS also mentioned that although exhausted by the disease Rhonda had made a special point in defending the cause of women in the Mexican city of Suarez and in standing by the side of Gita Sahgal who had been dismissed by Amnesty International for having denounced what Lalia called a “confusion between defending basic human rights and granting armed groups the legitimate status of human rights defenders”. Lalia DUCOS finally said all those who had known Rhonda who had the pleasure to know her will remember “a passionate, sincere and loyal friend full of humanity”.

In this respect, Zehira said that what struck her was Rhonda’s voice and soft tone and her readiness to listen. “Despite the language barrier we understood each other perfectly” she said adding that Rhonda’s sincere commitment only made this possible. She stressed that as from the beginning Rhonda knew who was killing in Algeria. One can remember that “Rhonda had fought to death for truth, our truth, may she rest in peace” she concluded.

In a message in writing, Asma said she was relieved when she knew that a lawsuit was being filed against Algerian fundamentalists in the USA. Although the task was huge Rhonda never dropped and continued fighting against oblivion and to revive the memory of those victims of fundamentalist terrorism.

Amine, for his part said that Rhonda’s commitment was unique as it sets as an example of courage, abnegation. She was “outstandingly clever”, and her loss is an opportunity for us to take on a part of our history and pay tribute to the memory of all those who had helped us and who understood that fundamentalism was not yet another opinion. I agree, he went on to say, that when people who pass away are described exceptional but Rhonda was exceptional indeed.

For his part, Abderrahmane, in a message in writing said that Rhonda had soon understood the genuine meaning of Algerian democrats’ struggle against fanaticism. He added that those who resist and struggle for a democratic Algeria today pay tribute to Rhonda.

Zazi SADOU took the floor saying that since Rhonda had passed away, it was an ordeal for her to evoke the latter’s life and work because Rhonda was now part of “our collective and painful history”. Zazi said that she and Rhonda had met in Beijing in 1995 thanks to Algerian activist Marie Aimée Helie Lucas. She indicated that at that time FIS leaders were welcomed in most Western capitals including Bonn and Washington. “Everyday during the Beijing conference, she said, Rhonda and I would discuss what could be done because Rhonda was shocked to learn that Anwar Haddam had left Algeria and was in Washington and was taking the floor in international auspices and making statements abetting terrorist acts”.

Building on the Filartiga v. Pena-Irala case, Rhonda embarked upon years of tireless work to bring together evidence and prevent Anwar Haddam from getting political asylum in the USA. Rhonda had developed an acute political analysis of our situation and within a few months she had grasped the meaning of our struggle and had organized meetings with high ranking US officials because she wanted our voices to be heard.

Beside her own commitment, she led a number of her students into reading and working on tons of documents mostly in French. It is worth noting, Zazi said, that the situation in Algeria was so dangerous that most plaintiffs wished to remain anonymous be they intellectuals, women or youths. With the exception of RAFD which was the only open plaintiff, she added.

It is worth recalling that lawyers in Washington had refused to take on Anwar Haddam’s defence when they knew that Rhonda was the lawyer for his adverse party.
Zazi said that paying tribute to Rhonda was an opportunity to hail the memory of two people: Anissa Asselah and Mohamed Issami, she said, who passed away and whose contribution to the lawsuit and to the struggle against fundamentalism had been tremendous. Mohamed Issami, she indicated, was an expert and was the author of two books on Islamic terrorism. And as an expert he had been heard officially as part of the case. Rhonda had met him twice while on a visit to Algeria in 2001 and 2002. She was then happy to meet in person the plaintiffs and other Algerians. Zazi said that in her search for evidence to bring against Anwar Hadddam, Rhonda had sought the support of the French authorities which had failed to be cooperative. Zazi however hailed the attitude of activists and friends in France whom she said had enabled us to carry on.

She added that Algerians had thought that 9/11 would sign a union among all anti fundamentalist forces but with US President Bush’s Patriot Act all illusions collapsed, she said. “Neither FIS nor Anwar Haddam have been condemned but History is going on and we have now to write this piece of History marked by battles we have fought and which have brought us together with activists who had helped us carry on and Rhonda will hold a special place even for those who had not known her in person”, she concluded.

Life Celebration

See photos from the September 19, 2010 celebration of Rhonda's life, together with the film tribute, slideshow and videos of the speakers and music at the event.

From Marieme Hélie-Lucas, France

Our friends in Algeria held a huge commemoration of Rhonda on September 25, 2010.

Please read news coverage in Algeria's national dailies El Moudjahid and Liberté (in French) on the Media page.

From Anita Nayar

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

Rhonda was a lamp to so many of us. She lit our path with a brilliant intellect and consuming passion that informed and transformed so many challenging political struggles.

We first worked together in the mid-90s. It was a hectic time and when she knew I’d be working late she’d turn up at my office with an offering of fruits, to ensure that we could work all night crafting language for the UN’s population and development conference. With each creative formulation she would explain the legal precedent and rationale. These arguments, which her law students helped to research, eventually became our legal bible and many governments gratefully drew from them.

Rhonda also shed her radiant light on my more recent efforts to develop a feminist analysis of climate justice. Once again she wanted to enlist the clinic students and even get CCR on board to revive the third generation of human rights – to not only include the rights of people to a safe environment but also of the earth’s well being.

Four years ago, when she was diagnosed with cancer she had to find the strength to be a lamp to herself, as she had been for others.

We saw her brilliance and passion as she researched her medical treatments; helped women fight for the diagnostic work that is often ignored; and strenuously cross-examined those (poor) doctors, always with a determination to not just survive, but to live.

Her analytic mind was challenged to open in a different way when she pursued complementary therapies with Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, as there seemed to her to be no measurable proof of whether these treatments were having effect. However I noticed she did submit easily to the Ayurvedic massages – after her first experience of having four women rub warm oil all over her body she said “I felt as close to a newborn baby as possible, except maybe after great sex.”

We saw Rhonda learn so much about love and friendship through the experience of cancer, difficult as it was. The illness was her teacher. And being a great teacher herself, she invited us to accompany her on this journey. And many people did. People came from all over the world to be with her. An entire inter-generational feminist community of caregivers formed around Rhonda, stunning hospice workers and nurses and I think maybe even ourselves. Her eventual dependency created an opening for meaning in our own lives as we learned to give of ourselves.

But the caregiving was not without its ups and downs! Rhonda, as many of us know, was afflicted with a certain kind of… hmm, how shall I put it… chaos! Though she sought peace, mightily, her attempts to introduce additional minutes into an hour were about as successful as getting the Vatican to accept the concept of reproductive rights.

And when she tried meditation that great mind whirred. And later with the treatments, she became too exhausted to maintain focus. So then she decided that it would be better if we meditated for her. She asked my partner Joslyn if she would lead the wide circle of caregiver friends in meditation. This happened every night during the last week of her life. And while the clinking of Scotch-on-the-rocks could be heard at times during meditation, any number of people began to get into it.

When it got to the point where Rhonda could no longer manage conversation or sustain a state of wakefulness we sat with her in meditation sharing our energy and experiencing hers. The smile on her face was profoundly peaceful.

On her last day she awoke to a beautiful dawn overlooking the wide and still East River. She was surrounded by love until her last peaceful breath at sunset when the river danced in silver light.

As we continue on, my hope is that we celebrate Rhonda’s life by the way we live ours. May I please ask you to practice this with me by standing up, taking the hands of the people next to you, keeping in mind the great spirit that brought us together and saying in her words when she first publicly announced her cancer – (please repeat after me):

“I love you all - together - we make a world!”

From Sharon Thompson

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

Late this past August, my sometimes lover & I lay on her deck in Maine watching Perseid meteors flash across the Milky Way so fast we rarely saw one at the same time. Pshhhht. "The meteors must be very close to seem to cross the stars so fast," she whispered. I wasn't sure. "They could just be very fast."

Rhonda lived her life both close in and fast. Probably everyone in this room has waited for her. Psshhht, she'd arrive, and the meeting or the party lit up. One day when her mother bathed her, she told me early on, she put her tiny fingers in an electric socket, bolting the pair together until her mother summoned the strength to pull them both free. Maybe that's where your electric charge comes from, I thought, your energy, your heat, and your will to be free.

Probably everyone in this room has also felt the energy leave a room with Rhonda. I've felt that profoundly since her death despite the fact that Rhonda and I disagreed a good deal. In fact our relationship began with a disagreement. It was over the upstart lesbian caucus in CARASA. The group was a diversion, she argued fervently. We had to focus on the central issue: poor women's need for abortion.

"Poor women are lesbians, too."
"But they aren't pregnant."
"Sometimes they are."

In the end, I won that argument, at least by default – the lesbian caucus continued, Rhonda came out, maybe in my arms (you never could be sure of something like that with Rhonda) -- but although we endured many stalemates in the years to come, I don't think I ever won another debate with her, not even by default.

After ten or so years, we gave up arguing & loving -- her underarms smelled like ailanthus, her chest like lettuce, her cheeks were perfumed with Noxzema, and her body was always very hot, as if cancer already scorched her from within, something that scared us both (her mother smelled like a burning house as lay dying, she told me once) -- and simply accepted each other. That was another of her gifts: finally accepting those she loved, wishing we were different, certainly in my case, but loving us even though she knew we probably would never be.

One reason she moved so fast perhaps, stuffed so much into her days and nights, so many fights, so many loves, so many friendships, so many miles, so many cases & briefs & desires, was because she always felt, as she used to say "at some level," especially after her mother's death, that she didn't have that much time. In any case, it was wondrous, how much she packed into 24 hours a day, a loaves and fishes miracle, even at the end.

But the best thing she did, I think, throughout her life but especially at the end, was to encourage everyone she felt a possibility running through to do their utmost as well. And we will, I'll bet, with all our hearts and some of the heart and strength she has passed on, lighting up our skies with her flame and with ours, showing the world what a meteor a woman can be when she puts everything she has into it, as Rhonda did, every day and every night for as long as we knew her.

Psssht. She's gone, but we aren't, and the second clause at least, is good. Is hope. Is possibility. Is another meteor shower to come. And another. And another. Psssht.

From Vivian Stromberg

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

I guess I just want to share a little bit about – some of you may know and some of you may not know – Rhonda and I were married for close to twenty years. And so for us, it’s a very big loss, but there are many lessons that maybe I can share and some stories that I can share.

The first is if you want to be married twenty years to anybody, but especially if you got a chance to Rhonda, separate apartments is a really good idea. First and second floor works very well.

One night, a friend of ours was coming in from DC; she was visiting from Nicaragua and on a tour. It was a horrible storm, a storm something like the other night with the freak tornadoes and stuff. I went to pick Mirna up at the train station, and when we were driving back, we couldn’t get on to 18th Street. The police were there, the fire department was there, and they said that nobody could come. It didn’t feel so comfortable to me, so I insisted that we lived on that block and I needed to get up the street. We got to the house, and the entire neighborhood was in front of our house. Those of you who’ve been to the house, Rhonda’s office on the second floor was facing the street. There was a huge tree on the street, right in front of the house, that the winds pulled up. It fell across the street and totaled two cars. Rhonda was still working on her computer at the window. She had no idea.

The second, I think, also reveals how Rhonda was able in a magical way to tunnel in and focus in a way that everything else disappeared. When I had my first hip replacement, they denied me nursing care. So, for the first week when you can’t bend and you can’t walk, friends and family took turns 24 hours a day. Martha’s laughing because this was a very famous story. My daughter slept that night, and when she went to work, Rhonda’s turn was 8 to 11 to stay with me. She got all ready. I was sitting near my desk with my walker because I can’t walk without it a few days after surgery. And she said, “You want breakfast?” “Yes.” “OK, I’ll be right back, I’m just going to go upstairs for a minute, and I’ll come right back.” She went upstairs, she took a shower, she went to work. And I was sitting there waiting for the next shift.

Through all of that, we had a very special relationship, and I miss her very much. While Rhonda was very sick and in the hospital, we had a new baby born. He’s now six months old. He was born just a little over one pound and spent two months in the same hospital where Rhonda was. He’s now six months old and fat – almost as fat as me, not quite – and a very happy guy. But when he came home from the hospital, it was the precise hour that Rhonda died.

I don’t know what that means, but it means something to me because I can’t get it out of my mind. I think that life goes on and you learn from what you have the opportunity to experience. You try to apply that to make everything around you, what you can see and what you can’t see, just a little bit better. Thanks.

From Judy Levin

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

Rhonda and I had many conversations about this moment over the last several months.

And she made me promise that I would provide the comic relief and concentrate not on her accomplishments, but on her foible.

And so, only because I promised her I would do it. I have come here today to ridicule Copelon not to praise her.

As awed as I was by her brilliance, I was appalled and amused by her ignorance of popular culture.

For example… Once, when we witnessed a bizarre incident on the street, I remarked that it was a Seinfeld moment to which she replied “What? Who? Seinfeld? Who’s that?

On another occasion, we went to see Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, a Carl Reiner film noir spoof from the mid eighties, which included sequences for the original films from the forties and fifties. Rhonda was totally lost from the get go; so desperate was she to figure it out that she even stayed awake. Finally, during one of the old sequences she turned to me and said (she always talked during movies) how young Humphrey Bogart looked – she thought he was older than that. She was really confused when I told her he’d been dead for 25 years.

And then there was the time, about ten years ago, when the stock market suffered a precipitous drop in a single day, that Rhonda observed with some satisfaction that the rich where getting bad news for a change. I cautioned her not to celebrate too much but to think of her 90+ year old father who probably depended on the stock market for his sustenance... You’re right, she said, my father’s in blue chops.

I love her so and will miss laughing with and at her as much as being inspired was her.

From Jan Freeman

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

And So It Happens

You begin to say good-bye to the pine floorboards,
to the posts and beams that hold the house together.
But you cannot say good-bye to the walls:
they still hold you
as if they have become your back, your arms,
as if they momentarily hold her here in the house
on the couch, where she has begun to disappear,
the pillows absorbing her, her body hidden, emaciated;
her only words in the night as she dreams:
I want the restaurant,
I want to go to the restaurant.
Her arm reaching up.

Does she reach for the dead,
gathered in the trees above the roof of the house?
Or is she reaching for you?
Speaking to you?
This good-bye of the body
without words,
this good-bye after the friends have left,
their flowers and wine bottles scattered
on the tables and windowsills
as she travels
closer to the ceiling
than the floor,
closer to the ocean
to the sky,
closer to there
than the couch
in the body of her house.

From Amparo Claro

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

Our Dearest Rhonda,

I’m very happy to be here today, with the light of the sun around the friends that has accompanied you during all your life.

I do appreciate the will of the Organizing Committee to bring me here, your own country, remembering and making this joint homage to you: a tribute that brings images, thoughts and heart feelings of a multidimensional portrait that we are painting and building up to day. Right now, you are maybe recognizing yourself… or you are maybe surprised hearing us, from a level of pure awareness.

I hope you remember when we met in 1990 in Argentina. It was one of the Feminist Latin American and Caribbean Meetings and you came directly to me showing your interest in the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network that I was running. You wanted to know everything about our activities, campaigns and groups and NGOs in América del Sur and Central America.

Since that year our friendship continued to grow and you began to come to Santiago staying in Santa Sofía, the place where I live, in the pre-cordillera over the city. You also became a good friend with my partner Nana until the point that once you stayed to take care of her during a week after her surgery, while I was travelling. Another time you wanted to come with a friend, I imagined a lover, but you arrived with three gorgeous women that are here today. With them we enjoyed music and the inspired spirit and keen humour they have.

Rhonda, you were certainly not a common women or an ordinary US citizen. You rejected many characteristics of the North American Empire.

You were always aware of the damage and implications of the so-called values and objectives of the imperialistic global economy. Precisely because of that, you challenged the most cherished and protected tendencies of this kind of market economy seeing their negative implications for countries in the global South.

You found repulsive the ignorant arrogance of believing that there are superior people that must own and control other countries resources. You couldn’t stand the fake “nice and supportive” interventionist foreign policy machinations and manoeuvring in the national politics and policies of other countries.

You strongly rejected war, and you did it denouncing specific ways of torture that thousand of women suffered in wars and defending some of them too. For you, sexual and reproductive rights were human rights. You had a pristine view about injustice. I saw you feeling quite uncomfortable when there were unfair human situations. This clarity and commitment were due to your embedded sense of justice, to your compassionate heart. We could touch both of them… they became tangible and concrete in your choice to buy used cars; in the selection of the presents you bought for your friends in every trip… they were made always by artisans and indigenous peoples in their countries; in the gorgeous present for Elena’s birthday, a women that worked for Nana and still works for me in Santa Sofía, buying her a stove to heat the house in Winter.

Your last intervention in Chile, in support of the Inter-American Court against the Mexican State for the assassination of three Mexican young women in Juarez, showed once again, despite how you were feeling and how tired you were in physical weakness, your iron will and your brilliant and smart speech and knowledge giving the Court tools to face the procrastination of the Mexican State.

You do know dearest Rhonda that your already excessive number of friends grew a lot in Chile. All my good friends became your friends and they are sending today all their love.

Helas! My dearest, I wonder, when will you return again to this illusionistic, elusive and weird world. We need your analysis, your commitment, your energy and vision to transform this so damaged place into a better and softer one.

From Vahida Nainar

Remarks at Rhonda's Life Celebration

I am happy to have the opportunity to be amidst friends and turn the virtual hugs into literal ones. Like for many of us, Rhonda has been a mentor to me. Today, I am known and invited as speaker, panelist and jury members of people’s tribunals as an expert on international law, gender and conflict. I came to be one because of Rhonda. No, I was never her student, but I learnt a great deal from her on the job and I was privileged to have worked with her. Well, what did I learn from her? Despite being qualified as a lawyer, it was from her that I learnt to read the law from a human rights/gender perspective, to push the boundaries of law and to create new boundaries in the quest for gender justice. Push the boundaries of law is what we did in our advocacy in the negotiation process of creating the International Criminal Court. And the result is there for all to see – an unprecedented gender integration in the statutory documents of the ICC. We were all tiny cogs in this giant wheel that made it possible. But Rhonda was a significant and instrumental cog in shaping the language of all the gender related provisions of what we achieved.

Her work against fundamentalisms was not limited to fighting Islamic fundamentalism with the Algerian case. A coalition of feminists groups in India invited her to be part of a panel to document and analyze the violations in Gujarat 2002, which was against Hindu fundamentalists. Like she always believed if you don’t find justice within the national systems look for it in international law and that was the case in Gujarat– exploring application of international law where the national system failed to do justice. And I remember that we were all in awe of her knowledge and brilliance. Again, during the process I learnt to listen to victims and survivors and to ask the appropriate questions. I learnt to listen to their testimonies and not be debilitated by it. It is what helps me when I go around the world documenting horror stories of violations against women and producing reports that could contribute to achieve the end of gender justice. And at the end of the visit to Gujarat, she was keen to ensure that what we said in our interim report was well within the framework of the law.

And yet, despite her knowledge of different situations of violations of women’s rights around the world and an overall human rights approach, I was surprised on how on some issues she was firmly rooted in the US perspective. One such issue was that of reproductive rights. I had a friend, a very known and respective feminist from India, who was visiting the US for some advocacy work at the UN and she was raising the issue of female feoticide. As you know, in India the preference for a male child is to the extent that families get the pregnant woman to do sex determination tests and often force her to abort female feotuses. I was part of this conversation where my friend was explaining how it violated the right of the woman to choose and the long term impact it had on the society. She explained that the female to male ratio was seriously skewed in many states in India, that there was trafficking of women from the south to marry the men from north and the horde of new issues of violation and abuse it was causing. Rhonda for some reason could not see why this should be a problem or a concern for women’s group or feminists. Perhaps she was concerned that raising the issue at the UN for women’s right to keep the female feotus would somehow impact women’s struggle in the US for the right to abortion although the point was about choice – the choice of abortion in the US and the choice of keeping the female feotus in India. She turns around and asks my friend ‘but why are you so concerned that men cannot find women to marry. Let them all become gay !!! Well, that was Rhonda and her ingenious solution to the problem.

There are other issues that she worked on that remain incomplete such as torture. After working on the landmark Filartiga case that got the US court to recognize and acknowledge the seriousness of torture, she often raised the issue of torture by private actors, for which there is very little support. I am working on a paper on the issue and she was supposed to look at it, which is now… well…, not possible.

I will always miss you Rhonda.