Maryknoll missioners’ work overseas with women is extensive and diverse, in areas including, but not limited to, refugees; HIV and AIDS victims and prevention; domestic violence; prostitution; sexual exploitation and trafficking; women in jail; income generation; agriculture; indigenous rights; nutrition; health and mental health; human rights; and formal and informal education.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns (MOGC) follows issues affecting women because in most societies, in general, women endure a lower status than men. Since women comprise half of the world’s population, this gender inequality remains one of the major challenges for global justice and peace. Gender inequality and the lack of implementation of women’s rights is based mainly in cultural traditions, but is reinforced by poverty, lack of opportunities, armed conflict, and migration, among others. Full recognition of women’s rights and dignity brings positive effects to communities.
Our framework for this work are the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979, along with its Optional Protocol adopted in 1999; and the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted in 1995.
The CEDAW is legally binding, meaning that countries that ratify this treaty have to review their legislation to match CEDAW’s provisions. (The U.S. has not ratified CEDAW, despite being a major player in the drafting process of this treaty.) The Beijing Platform for Action is not a treaty, but is a major agreement on actions to which governments committed in order to advance the status of women worldwide.
The MOGC links Maryknoll work’s in the field with global issues and promotes the direct participation of Maryknoll members and their local coworkers in UN gatherings: global meetings and regular sessions, especially the annual session related with the UN Commission on the Advancement of Women. To reverse gender inequality, we give special attention to the girl child through the UNICEF/NGO Working Group on the Girl Child.
Learn more at UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women.
On November 20, 14 Catholic organizations, including the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, sent a statement to members of Congress regarding the Syrian refugee crisis and the need to welcome Syrian refugees.
Trafficking, sexual slavery, child prostitution ... all are gross violations of human dignity and demand urgent attention.
Maryknoll Lay Missioner Kathy Bond in João Pessoa, Brazil, interviewed indigenous women and women invited to participate in the Synod on the Amazon.
A Native American woman medicine healer shares what she would say, if given the opportunity, to Pope Francis and the Catholic bishops and auditors meeting in Rome for the Synod on the Amazon, regarding the value of indigenous spirituality and traditions in helping to heal our broken world.
Sister Roselei Bertoldo, ICM, offered the following comments on the concerns of women and indigenous communities in the Amazon just days before traveling to Rome to participate in the Synod on the Amazon.
The global community gathered at the United Nations in New York in May to take action on behalf of the world’s forests. The following article was published in the July-August 2019 issue of NewsNotes.
Kathy McNeely, a returned Maryknoll Lay Missioner who lived and worked in Guatemala, reflects on the important gifts offered by the prophets among us.
Maryknoll Lay Missioner Kathleen Bond in Brazil reflects on the saints among us on this holy day.
Maryknoll Fr. John Sivalon reflects on the challenge in this week's readings to examine society's treatment of women.
The following reflection was prepared by Maryknoll Sr. Efu Nyaki, who works with women in Brazil.
Maryknoll Sister Jareen Aquino applies Jesus' call to the Apostles to "come and see" to the girls and young women in need of education and empowerment in Tanzania.
Maryknoll Father Paul Masson has served as a missioner in Chile and on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Maryknoll Father David Schwinghamer recalls a chance encounter with someone who, like the Samaritan woman at the well, demonstrates that even ordinary folk, once baptized, are meant to be messengers of the good news.
Fr. Jim Noonan, spent much of his missionary life in Asia as well as South Sudan.
Bob Short, who served as a lay missioner in Ecuador in the 1980s, now coordinates the Maryknoll Affiliates, an international community.
In this reflection, Maryknoll Sister Theresa Baldini remembers women she encountered in South Sudan.
Father Jack Northrup is a Maryknoll missioner serving in El Salvador.
This week's reflection is written by Kathleen Bond, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner who lives with her family in São Paulo, Brazil.
Anne Termini served as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in rural Guatemala.
This week's reflection is written by Maryknoll Sister Euphrasia Nyaki, who lives and works in João Pessoa, Brazil.
Fr. Wayman Deasy, MM, who served in Tanzania, wrote the following reflection which was published in A Maryknoll Liturgical Year: Reflections on the Readings for Year B, available from Orbis Books.
Booklet: What price a girl's life?
UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
UN Women
UNICEF/NGO Working Group on the Girl Child