Dear Supporter
So many contemporary issues resonate with Jewish experience and engage Jewish values. René Cassin’s next three public events illustrate that fact. Whether or not you are one of the hundreds who have already signed up for our free online events, we’d love you to join us.
“Women have the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage”.
So wrote our women’s rights campaigner, Rachel Vogler, in her blog to mark International Human Rights Day on 8 March. On the same day, René Cassin co-hosted Turning her Body into a Weapon of Persecution with speakers, including Rahima Mahmut (World Uyghur Congress), Helena Kennedy, and Laura Marks, examining the shocking extent to which China uses violence against Uyghur women as a deliberate act of policy.
More than two-thirds of the estimated 40 million victims of modern slavery worldwide are women and girls. In the UK, victims are often unable to escape slavery and trafficking because they receive such low amounts of official support. That’s why René Cassin is supporting Free for Good, a campaign to promote the Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill, to ensure survivors have a stable foundation for recovery, and avoid re-trafficking. You can help – by asking your MP to support the Bill.
Migrant women, fleeing slavery and trafficking in the UK or abroad, often suffer further – by being locked up under the UK’s harsh and unjust immigration detention regime. Here, as René Cassin’s Esther Raffell writes, “women report sexual harassment and ongoing invasion of their personal space and privacy”. Esther concludes that “[a] Jewish voice for human rights must start at the margins and mobilise our community to make women human too”.
“It has allowed countless people to pursue justice here in the UK … the importance of the Human Rights Act to the Jewish community cannot be overstated” was the conclusion of René Cassin’s submission to the on-going Independent Human Rights Act Review.
And the author of that submission, Debora Singer, wrote in Jewish News that “the Human Rights Act has a place in Jewish hearts”. She sums up her recommendation to the review as: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Having successfully helped mobilise the UK Jewish community in support of Muslim Uyghurs being oppressed by the Chinese government, René Cassin is going global – teaming up with Jewish World Watch for a Uyghur Week of Action. This will include a Uyghur Freedom Seder (Tuesday 30 March); a Global Advocacy Day (Wednesday 31 March); and a Global Day of Business Engagement (Thursday 1 April). We will be in touch next week with more information on how you can add you voice to the growing calls for an end to China’s genocidal behaviour.
As always, if you have any questions or comments about René Cassin or our work, do please get in touch: mia.hasenson-gross@renecassin.org
All René Cassin’s important work depends on the generosity of our supporters – to ensure that work continues, please consider a one-off or regular donation via our website at renecassin.org/donate
Thank you, and with best wishes
Mia Hasenson-Gross
Director
