Survival is the first human right. Women around the world who suffer beatings, rape, enslavement, or ritual mutilation cannot hope to access the full benefits of higher education or political empowerment. Everyone concerned about a healthy, sustainable world should start with this baseline effort: violence against women must be made illegal and intolerable in even the poorest societies. Last month the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a report documenting horrific gender violence in countries from Cameroon to Mexico, sometimes perpetrated under the protective rubric of “traditional cultural practices” or religious customs.

The UNFPA works at the grassroots, in partnership with local men and village elders, to promote alternative futures for women and girls. Maddeningly, the Bush administration has for five straight years refused to fund the US share of support for UNFPA (roughly $34 million) on the specious claim that the agency promotes coercive reproductive policies overseas, particularly in China.

A non profit group of volunteers called Americans for UNFPA is working to heal the damage to women created by this administration’s ideological blindness. Advancing the status of women is a human right that will enhance the health, safety, and freedom of all people. — The Boston Globe