内丽·明耶斯基：绿色女王

阿根廷妇女正在突破现状，争 取更多权益。为了抗议性别暴 力和针对女性的谋杀，她们发 起 了 #NiUnaMenos（一 个 都不能少）等运动，同时，堕 胎合法化和非刑事化也是她们 力求实现的目标。在这个群体 中，90 岁的律师内丽·明耶 斯基是最积极的代表之一。她 甚至被称为“绿色女王”，因 为人们会佩戴绿色头巾来支持 自由安全堕胎。这些人的诉 求，简而言之，就是希望有新 法出台，带来“一条生路”。

露西亚·伊格莱西亚·昆茨（联合国教科文组织） 担任采访

您是因为什么原因致力于人权事业？

我父亲在他 23 岁的时候从比萨拉 比亚（现在的摩尔多瓦）移居到阿根 廷。他所有的家人都在欧洲，所以第 二次世界大战期间我们生活得非常困 苦。我记得听到收音机里传来希特勒 的声音——刺耳的声音在我的心里留 下了深深的印记，也无疑促使我投身 于现在的事业。

您怎么看女权主义？

在这方面您有楷 模吗？ 我如果说我受到的鼓舞是来自于 女权运动中的伟大人物，那就是在撒 谎了。我的楷模一直是那些独立女性。 我丈夫家中的女性都有一技之长—— 化学家、法语老师……我周围总是不 乏进步人士。我学法律出身，后因生 活在各种独裁统治之下而对女权主义 产生了兴趣，它是普遍人权的一部分。

我专攻家庭法，从而逐渐认识到， 女性缺乏法律上的行为能力大多是因 为结了婚的缘故。单身女性受到的限 制非常少，可以享受到几乎所有权利。 但经济模式和维持家庭收入的需求让 已婚妇女受到诸多限制。当我开始对 不断变化的事物感兴趣时，我对女权 主义也产生了兴趣。

您目前参与的阿根廷争取堕胎权运动 是怎么兴起的？

争取堕胎权运动始于2005年， 但其真正的起源是全国妇女相遇组织， 该组织于 1986 年创建，当时正值民 主政权恢复后不久*。全国妇女相遇组 织每年在阿根廷的某个城市举行一次 集会，让女性能够从自身利益出发， 就价值观、原则及组织形式等议题畅 所欲言。第一届会议只有约 1000 名 女性出席——现在，参与集会的女性 已超过 60000 人。

集会持续了两天半的时间，期间 所有活动都围绕着性别问题展开，包括 研讨会、戏剧表演、手工艺品展览会、 关于健康和母乳哺育的专家小组讨论， 以及从性别角度进行的文学辩论。这是 一次独特的体验，不同社会阶层、不同年龄段的人们团结一心。我认为女性有 一种特质——即便我们每个人都持有自 己的政治观点，我们仍比男性更容易团 结起来。当你和市政工人、学校的青年 聚在一起时……你会感受到快乐的气 息。这些集会也十分多元化，以至于现 在她们想要将组织的名称改为“多元文 化的相遇”，从而让我们的各个本地社 群也加入进来。

联合国毒品和犯罪问题办公室（UNODC）估 算，全世界每年有5万多名女性遭到杀害。我们怎样才能解决这一问题？

我的看法是，杀害女性行为将随 着全面性教育的发展而减少，但我也 许永远无法对此进行深入探究。这种 观点是有依据的，凡是人们自小就接 受全面性教育的国家，性别暴力所致谋杀发生的比率都较小。然而，许多 国家还需要数年时间才能实现这个目 标。

为什么阿根廷已经使同性婚姻合法化 且允许人们自由选择性别身份，却依旧反对通过一部堕胎法呢？

的确，阿根廷近几年来通过了许 多直接或间接赋予女性诸多权利的法 律，如全面保护法、《消除对妇女一切 形式歧视公约任择议定书》**、家庭妇女 退休金等。我认为，平等婚姻最基本 的含义是，允许一个群体的人进入一 种模式制度，由此处于社会控制之下。 然而，堕胎则与这种理想的模式格格 不入，它完全是起破坏作用的。此外， 它无疑也是父权制最想要牢牢把控的 要塞之一。

您是阿根廷议会于 2018 年 6 月批准 的堕胎非刑事化法案的起草者之一， 但两个月后，参议院对此不予通过。 这部法案包含哪些内容？

我们运动的口号是：“接受性教育， 让女性懂得抉择，普及避孕用品，使 女性免于堕胎，合法堕胎，还女性一 条生路”。这三项原则表明我们的问 题是有解决办法的。此外，我们的提 案不仅主张实现堕胎的非刑事化，还 要求实现其合法化。将堕胎定为犯罪 行为的法律具有歧视性，因为那些因 堕胎而死亡的女性——被迫成为母亲 的怀孕女孩——通常都生活在最边缘、 最弱势的地区。如果只是简单地将堕 胎非刑事化而没有将其合法化，这些 地区的女孩和妇女将无法享有获得体 面、安全保健服务的权利。2007 年至 2018 年，阿根廷七次尝试推行支持堕 胎权的法案，不久我们将第八次提交 提案。与此同时，我们的运动已经聚 集了 500 多个组织，并将在未来继续 致力于解决我们认为至关重要的问题， 这其中就包括堕胎权，因为这是一项 被广泛体验和认同的基本人权。

人们对该法案作何反应？

2018 年，当议会终于开始就此项 法案进行辩论时，一种前所未有的现 象——一次不可思议的大动员出现了。 150 万到 200 万年轻女孩和妇女响应 了我们的号召，并上街游行表示支持。 我们还应邀到中学演讲，那里的男孩 们礼貌地问我有没有堕过胎。许多人 都在辩论这个话题，但大家都能理性 表达自己的观点。我们觉醒，我们交 流——这着实令人非常兴奋——传达 了一种不仅限于堕胎的讯息。这是自 由、自治的讯息。见到这些佩戴绿色 头巾的女孩、青年、男性，我非常激 动，这些头巾是堕胎法支持者的象征。 我们因此实现了以前从未想过的目 标——对立政党的妇女代表达成一致， 共同努力，为我们称之为阿根廷“半 制裁”的法律争取众议院的批准。这 是一件了不起的事，完全在意料之外。

但该法仍未获得通过……

该法被参议院驳回，但我们只缺 7 票（38 票反对，31 票赞成），这已 经是一次巨大的胜利。我们没有失败。 虽然我们没能使法律获得通过，但时 代在不断变化。堕胎已脱离黑暗地带， 不再处于社会认知中的犯罪区，它已 经被去妖魔化。现在，我们谈论性和 生育的权利——年轻人也谈论这些。 由此可见，我们取得了巨大进步。我 们打开了一个突破口，实现了社会意 识的改变。我们赢得了青少年和年轻 人的支持，他们认为堕胎是一项人权。 此外，医生、护士和律师等专业人员 也正在形成完整的网络，为其他重要 行业带来一股真正的绿色浪潮。

经过数十年的工作和努力，您怎样看 待全球层面的女权主义？

毫无疑问，民众运动成功地推动 了女权主义运动。然而，这一进步也 引发一种反应，虽然极其隐蔽，但持 续影响着联合国和其他国际机构。权 利普及观察站最近的一份报告《人权 处于危险之中》非常明确地显示了各 宗教最极端的支持者是如何与最保守 的行业联合起来的。他们企图倒行逆 施，抹消 1995 年北京世界妇女大会 （联合国第四次世界妇女大会）在性别 议题上取得的诸多突破。例如，“性别意识形态”一词就是那时候创造的。 这些人指责儿基会和联合国教科文组 织宣传这一所谓的意识形态，而且他 们的势力正不断膨胀。我们必须保持 警惕。

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*1976年起，阿根廷陷入血腥的独裁统治，并于1983年10月恢复民主政权。
**阿根廷于2007年批准《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》，该议定书允许个人和团体在《公约》遭到违反而未得到本国及时有效的司法或行政保护时向 消除对妇女歧视委员会 (CEDAW) 提出申诉， 并请求委员会就严重或系统违反《公约》的 情况启动当然调查程序。
 

Interview by Lucía Iglesias Kuntz, UNESCO.

Where does your commitment to human rights come from?

My father emigrated to Argentina from Bessarabia, now Moldova, at the age of 23. His entire family was in Europe, so we lived very intensely through the Second World War. I remember hearing Hitler's voice on the radio – that pungent voice was a very hard thing that marked me, and undoubtedly predisposed me to do what I do.

What about feminism? Did you have role models?

I would be lying if I said that I was inspired by the great figures of the movement. My role models have been independent women. The women in my husband’s family were all professionals – chemists, French teachers... I have always been surrounded by progressive people. I came through the law, and became interested in feminism as part of human rights in general, as I have lived under various dictatorships.

I specialized in family law and began to realize that a woman’s legal incapacity  mainly concerned a married woman. The single woman had very few limitations or constraints, and enjoyed practically all the rights. However, due to the economic model and the desire to preserve the family income, the married woman was far more limited. When I became interested in changing things, I became interested in feminism.

How did the current campaign for the right to abortion in Argentina, in which you are involved, come about?

The campaign for the right to abortion started in 2005, but it had its origins in the Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres (national women's encounters), which was created in 1986, shortly after democracy was restored.* The encounters are spaces for meeting and discussing values, principles and forms of organization, by and for women, and are held every year in a city in Argentina. When they first started, about a thousand of us attended – now, we are more than 60,000 women who attend.

The meetings are held over two and a half days, where all the activity revolves around gender issues – with workshops, plays, craft fairs, and panels on health, on breast-feeding, and literary debates with a gender perspective. It’s a unique experience that unites different social classes, different ages. In my opinion, women have this particularity – it’s easier for us to get together than for men, even though each one of us has our own political ideas. You get together with municipal workers, with young people from schools… and you breathe joy. These meetings are also pluralistic, so much so that now they want to change their name to “plurinational encounters”, to include our indigenous peoples.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that more than 50,000 women worldwide are victims of femicide each year. How can we confront this problem?

I have a theory – which I’ll probably never be able to explore in depth – that femicide will decrease as comprehensive sex education advances. The proof is that  in all the countries where they receive this education seriously from a very young age, murder rates due to gender violence are lower. But in many countries, we are years away from getting there. 

Why does Argentina, which has legalized same-sex marriage and allows the  free choice of sexual identity, remain opposed to an abortion law?

It is true that in recent years, Argentina has adopted those and many other laws that have granted many rights to women – a comprehensive protection law, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women**, retirement pensions for housewives, etc. My theory is that egalitarian marriage ultimately means allowing a group of people to enter into an institution that is a model, so they are under social control. But abortion, on the other hand, falls out of the desired model; it is completely disruptive. And it is also undoubtedly one of the most resistant strongholds of patriarchy.

You were one of the drafters of the bill on the decriminalization of abortion approved by the Argentinian Congress in June 2018, but you failed to obtain Senate approval two months later. What does this bill contain?

Our campaign slogan is: “Sexual education to decide, contraceptives to not abort, legal abortion to not die”. These three principles demonstrate that there are solutions. And our proposal advocates the decriminalization of abortion, but also its legalization. The law criminalizing abortion is discriminatory because the women who die – pregnant girls who are forced to be mothers – are the girls and women who belong to the most excluded and vulnerable sections. If abortion is not legalized but simply decriminalized, these sections won’t have the right to decent and safe health services. Between 2007 and 2018, there were seven attempts in Argentina to introduce a bill for the right to abortion, and soon we will make an eighth proposal. In the meantime, the campaign, which brings together more than 500 organizations, persists and continues to work on the issue, which we consider essential, and the right to abortion is experienced and transmitted as a fundamental human right.

What has been the reaction to this bill?  

When, in 2018, the debate was finally opened in parliament, a unique phenomenon occurred, an incredible mobilization. We got 1.5 million to 2 million young girls and women marching in the streets to support us, we were invited to speak in secondary schools, where the boys politely asked me if I’d had an abortion. There were debates without screaming. We woke up and we communicated – and this is the most exciting thing – a message that went far beyond abortion. It was a message of freedom, of autonomy. It was thrilling to see these girls, young people, men, wearing the green scarf, which is the symbol of the law's supporters. And that's how we achieved something we had never dreamed of – an agreement between women representatives from opposing political parties who, together, managed to obtain approval for the law – what we call a “half sanction” in Argentina – from the Chamber of Deputies. It was something wonderful, unexpected. 

But the law still hasn’t been passed...

The law was rejected by the Senate, but we were short of only seven votes (thirty-eight against, thirty-one in favour) and that was a huge triumph. We didn't lose. We didn't get the law passed, but times are changing. Abortion has been taken out of the dark zone, out of the criminal zone in society’s imagination, it has been un-demonized. And now we talk about sexual and reproductive rights – young people talk about these. That’s how greatly we have advanced. And we have opened a breach, because we are achieving a change in social consciousness. We have won over teenagers and young people, who consider abortion a human right. And other important sectors, because networks of professionals, doctors, nurses, lawyers have also emerged – a real green tidal wave.

After so many decades of work and activism, how do you view feminism at the global level?

There is no doubt that popular movements have succeeded in advancing the feminist movement. But this progress has also provoked a reaction, which is rather hidden, but which works in a permanent way within the United Nations and other international forums. A recent report by the Observatory on the Universality of Rights, Rights at Risk, very clearly demonstrates how the most extreme supporters of various religions are joining forces with the most conservative sectors to try to return, on gender issues, to before the Beijing Conference (1995). The term “gender ideology” was coined there, for example. It is a movement that is advancing every day, and which, by the way, accuses UNICEF, or you at UNESCO, of promoting this supposed ideology. We must remain alert.

*Democracy was restored in Argentina in October 1983, following a bloody dictatorship that began in 1976.

**The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, ratified by Argentina in 2007, allows individuals and associations to file complaints of violations of the Convention to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) when they do not obtain prompt and effective judicial or administrative protection in their country, and to the Committee to open an ex-officio investigation procedure for serious or systematic violations of the Convention.