From March 29th to April 3rd over 450 participants met in Rio de Janeiro for the 2009 Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys on Achieving Gender Equality.  I've just been reading their website and needed to share this with the MASC community.

The three overarching themes of the Symposium were:

1.    Men and violence, including men’s use of physical violence against women, sexual violence, and the gendered dimensions of violence between men;   
2.    Men and health, including sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, substance use, maternal and child health, and mental health;
3.    Men, care giving and fatherhood, including work-life balance and engaging men to a greater extent in care giving, often in the context of HIV/AIDS.

I was going to post the PART FOUR (Call to Action) of the Declaration that came out of the symposium, but i was most moved by the Preamble.  For me, this part enlightens the work that I do and connects the issues with the kind of ideas I'd like to explore with this blog.  It's both complete and clear and names a critical problem with accessible language and thoughful organization.  However, it was hard not to notice the absense of one particular issue.  Meet me at the bottom to see which one.

PART ONE: PREAMBLE

We come from eighty countries. We are men and women, young and old, working side by side with respect and shared goals. We are active in community organizations, religious and educational institutions; we are representatives of governments, NGOs and the United Nations. We speak many languages, we look like the diverse peoples of the world and carry their diverse beliefs and religions, cultures, physical abilities, and sexual and gender identities. We are indigenous peoples, immigrants, and ones whose ancestors moved across the planet. We are fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, partners and lovers, husbands and wives.

What unites us is our strong outrage at the inequality that still plagues the lives of women and girls, and the self-destructive demands we put on boys and men. But even more so, what brings us together here is a powerful sense of hope, expectation, and possibility for we have seen the capacity of men and boys to change, to care, to cherish, to love passionately, and to work for justice for all.

We are outraged by the pandemic of violence women face at the hands of some men, by the relegation of women to second class status, and the continued domination by men of our economies, of our politics, of our social and cultural institutions, in far too many of our homes. We also know that among women there are those who fare even worse because of their social class, their religion, their language, their physical differences, their ancestry, their sexual orientation, or simply where they live.

There are deep costs to boys and men from the ways our societies have defined men’s power and raised boys to be men. Boys deny their humanity in search of an armor-plated masculinity. Young men and boys are sacrificed as cannon fodder in war for those men of political, economic, and religious power who demand conquest and domination at any cost. Many men cause terrible harm to themselves because they deny their own needs for physical and mental care or lack services when they are in need.

Too many men suffer because our male-dominated world is not only one of power of men over women, but of some groups of men over others. Too many men, like too many women, live in terrible poverty, in degradation, or are forced to do body- or soul-destroying work to put food on the table. Too many men carry the deep scars of trying to live up to the impossible demands of manhood and find terrible solace in risk-taking, violence, self-destruction or the drink and drugs sold to make a profit for others. Too many men experience violence at the hands of other men.

Too many men are stigmatized and punished for the simple fact they love, desire and have sex with other men.  We are here because we know that the time when women stood alone in speaking out against discrimination and violence – that this time is coming to an end.

We also know this: This belief in the importance of engaging men and boys is no longer a remote hope. We see the emergence of organizations and campaigns that are directly involving hundreds of thousands, millions of men in almost every country on the planet. We hear men and boys speaking out against violence, practicing safer sex, and supporting women’s and girl’s reproductive rights. We see men caring, loving, and nurturing for other men and for women. We see men who embrace the daily challenges of looking after babies and children, and delight in their capacity to be nurturers. We see many men caring for the planet and rejecting conquering nature just as men once conquered women.

We are gathering not simply to celebrate our first successes, but, with all the strength we possess, to appeal to parents, teachers, and coaches, to the media and businesses, to our governments, NGOs, religious institutions, and the United Nations, to mobilize the political will and economic resources required to increase the scale and impact of work with men and boys to promote gender equality. We know how critical it is that institutions traditionally controlled by men reshape their policies and priorities to support gender equality and the well-being of women, children, and men. And we know that a critical part of that is to reshape the world of men and boys, the beliefs of men and boys, and the lives of men and boys.

Ok, glad you made it.  So where's the mention of the 'Church' or 'religion' or 'faith' in any of this?  Nothing to be found in the other parts of the Declaration either.  Maybe i'm being too harsh, selective, or idealistic.  In order for this symposium to connect globally are certain topics not ready for discussion?

I don't want to distract folks away from all the insight and action that IS named in this Declaration because I think it's truly remarkable and one of the most articulate expressions of gender justice I've ever read.  I hope the MASC community can made this document come alive with more stories and experiences.

*****

Paul does media education workshops that focus on masculinity, literacy, and empowerment.