July 10, 2008

Global Fund for Women Joins Lawsuit to Challenge Unconstitutional Spying Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 415-202-7640, Sande Smith, Global Fund for Women
                     (212) 549-2666; This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

San Francisco– The Global Fund for Women is one of the plaintiffs that have joined the ACLU lawsuit to challenge the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.  Signed into law today, this domestic spying bill allows wiretapping and unchecked access to Americans’ international communications without a warrant.

The Global Fund joined the lawsuit because the law will impede our ability to engage in international communications that are necessary to carry out our mission. 
•    The challenged law undermines GFW’s ability to gather the private and confidential information it needs to make grantmaking decisions and to support its grantees.
•    Some of the grantees and advisors with whom GFW staff communicate will not share information if they believe that the confidentiality of their communications cannot be assured. This is particularly true of people in the Middle East and North Africa.
•    Our grantees often work under repressive governments. Loss of confidentiality of communications with us could seriously jeopardize their safety if such communications were relayed back to their governments.

For details on the law, go to
http://www.aclu.org/faa (this will go live at 3:15 EDT)


About the Global Fund for Women
The Global Fund for Women is the largest grantmaking foundation in the world that focuses exclusively on advancing international women's rights. Grants made by the Global Fund expand the choices available to women and girls, securing their efforts to strengthen economic independence, increase access to education and prevent violence. Since 1987, the Global Fund has awarded over $64 million to seed, strengthen and link more than 3500 groups in 167 countries. More information is available in six languages at www.globalfundforwomen.org