Patricia Diaz-Cummings

FORWARD is a community-based multicultural group of homeless and under housed women. We began in April of 2005 as a human rights program called “Claiming Our Rights” by researcher Emily Paradis of the University of Toronto. Women came together every week at Sistering to learn about human rights, analyzed their experiences of having their rights violated, and discussed ways to make change. When the program finished the women continued to meet and by the spring of 2006 the idea of taking our concerns to the UN materialised. Doreen Silversmith was elected to represent us at the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR).

We provided information directly from our daily lived experiences of poverty and its relationship to homelessness, mental and physical health, low wages/high rents, discrimination, violence, child apprehension, Native Rights and colonization etc.. Although other groups expressed their concern over child protection agencies, it was Doreen’s personal story that made this a central issue  The information FORWARD provided was instrumental in shaping the recommendation accepted by the Committee. To our knowledge this is the first time CESCR has included this issue in their report. It is a first for Canada! Child protection agencies must be transparent and accountable. 

Since that time we have continued without funding, a place to meet, and no transportation costs covered – nothing. Yet we persist in our mutual support, participating in rallies, attending media campaigns, doing radio and television interviews, presentations that have included Oaxaca and Sonora, Mexico on Indigenous Land Reclamation, and created  workshops. We have lobbied for change through petitions and sending our literature to election candidates and elected officials. Our networking with local, national and international groups has built a support base that work in solidarity with us.

In October of 2008 we returned to the UN to submit our report and present at the Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – the bill of rights for women. Part of our preparation included becoming involved with 20 drop-in centres in Toronto (without funding) to gather information, get recommendations, and hear the voices of women’s daily lived experiences. The survey was well-received and helped in this preparation. During this process Six Nations Women have joined us as Haudenosaunee FORWARD. The friendships that we have developed within these drop-in centres have created bridges for social change. We also let them know that in 2001 the UN opened the door for “alternative” reports to be accepted by any group. In other words, you can do this too! We returned from CEDAW with the Optional Protocol which means that we can take the Canadian government to task for human rights abuses. Only Articles #14 and #32 of the Committee’s Concluding Observations wants Canada to report back in 1 year (not 4 years). These are  recommendations from FORWARD and Six Nations Women.

FORWARD has also won the Wellesley Institute’s Urban Health Award 2008 and with the support of KAIROS we created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) on poverty. We facilitated a workshop at the Homelessness Symposium at University of  Toronto, spoke before the HUMA Committee about eradicating poverty in Canada, and was given timely scholarships to OISE’s 2009 Human Rights Education Institute on CEDAW and the Optional Protocol!

In the future we are interested in creating businesses that will offer employment and fund FORWARD. We also want to document and publish women’s stories. Since Doreen’s return from Geneva in 2006, her work in Mexico may offer an import/export business. We also offer workshops on Human Rights, Positive Sensitivity, Child Protection Agencies, and Native Issues.

For more info contact: Patricia Cummings-Diaz, Co-chair FORWARD

416 399 8336 or pgcumdiaz@yahoo.ca

Democracy is the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions and privileges. 

Merriam Webster Dictionary

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