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EWL Newsflash
October 2006
Editorial
EWL General Assembly meeting in Prague – three new member organisations are welcomed, a new Board and Executive are elected
The 17th General Assembly (GA) of EWL took place in Prague on 21-22 October. Two new national co-ordinations, the Macedonian Women’s Lobby and the Women’s Network Croatia as well as the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI) were welcomed unanimously into full membership of EWL. Kirsti Kolthoff, re-elected as EWL President for a further period of two years, said that she was looking forward to the challenges of leading the major women’s non-governmental organisation in the EU that now comprises 26 national co-ordinations and 18 European-wide organisations. The Macedonian Women’s Lobby and the Croatia Women’s Network bring together a wide diversity of women’s organisations in both countries. They will take a pro-active role in ensuring that women’s rights and gender equality are priorities in future negotiations regarding EU accession.
Due to the increase in membership, the EWL Executive Committee was also enlarged from the previous five to seven members. The new Executive Committee, elected for two years, is now composed of: Kirsti Kolthoff (Sweden), President, Iluta Lace (Latvia) Vice-President, Martine Levy (France), Vice-President, Tanja Auvinen (Finland) Treasurer, and three other members: June Jacobs (International Council of Jewish Women), Brigitte Triems (Germany) and Therese Murphy (Ireland).
The EWL Board of Administration, which is comprised of one member per national coordination as well as eight representatives from the European-wide membership, was also renewed. Further information on members, the Board and the Executive will be available soon on the EWL website.
Prior to the GA meeting itself, a seminar took place on 20 October in Prague, entitled Who Cares? Care Issues in Europe from a Gender Perspective. Speakers included Finnish State Secretary Leila Kostiainen and Maria Stratigaki, Department of Social Policy, Panteion University of Athens. A Round-Table discussion ensued and the seminar ended with the adoption of the EWL Manifesto on Who Cares? Care Services for all women and men in Europe. The Manifesto is part of EWL Campaign which aims to raise awareness on issues related to care that need to be addressed to achieve gender equality in European societies. The Manifesto and Campaign call for a real choice to combine work and private life and to remove the barriers that continue to maintain the gendered division of tasks between women and men in Europe. The Campaign will run until 8 March 2007 (see below for further information).
Table of Contents
EWL News
EWL Representation
EWL Civil Society Representation
European & International News in Brief
News from the European Parliament
Update on Violence against Women and Women’s Human Rights
Events
Publications - Web Sites
Funding, Training, Call for Papers
EWL News
EWL CARE CAMPAIGN AND PETITION: “Advancing equality between women and men through the better provision of care services in European Union” – The EWL electronic petition calls for action at national and European level to advance equality between women and men through the provision of affordable, accessible and high quality care services in the European Union.
The Petition is available for signing until International Women's Day (8th March) 2007.
YOU CAN JOIN THE CAMPAIGN AND SIGN THE PETITION ON EWL WEBSITE: http://ewl.horus.be/site/form_3.asp
Please distribute widely, via direct mail, links on websites and newsletters.
EWL Manifesto: “Who Cares? Care Services for all Women and Men in Europe”: adopted at the seminar organised on 20 October by EWL prior to its GA meeting. The Manifesto points to the lack of affordable, accessible and high quality care services in the EU which is a major obstacle to women’s full participation in all aspects of economic, social, cultural and political life. The Manifesto, which is part of the EWL Care Campaign aims to raise awareness on issues related to care that need to be addressed in order to achieve gender equality in European societies, including: 1) gender stereotypes, 2) the economics of care, 3) care and the labour market; 4) migrant domestic care workers; 5) European Union policies. It can be downloaded on EWL website:
REACH - New lobbying action by the European Women's Lobby and Women in Europe for a Common future (WECF) for a new European chemicals policy. A proposal to reform the European regulation concerning chemicals is currently in discussion in the European institutions in the form of a directive called REACH. EWL together with Women in Europe for a Common Future, has been working to influence the policy process in the European Parliament. Both women's networks lay down a set of key issues they are asking MEPs to support. In view of the second reading of the REACH proposal in the European Parliament Committee on the Environment which took place on 10th October 2006, WECF and EWL called on members of Environment and Women's Rights Committee to uphold commitments to substitute hazardous chemicals through REACH, which is in line with the European Gender Roadmap’s reference to chemicals as a threat to women's health. In its vote, the Environment Committee supported our amendments on the substitution of hazardous chemicals in the draft REACH regulation and voted for a general " duty of care" for the chemicals industry to ensure that their products are safe. REACH needs to close the information gap on chemicals in the EU, phase out the very worst of them, place a duty of care for its products on the chemicals industry and ensure that women have the right to know what chemicals are contained in the products they buy. For more information: http://www.wecf.de/cms/projects/reach/index.php or
http://www.womenlobby.org/site/1abstract.asp?DocID=1753&v1ID=&RevID=&namePage=&pageParent=&DocID_sousmenu
EWL lobbying action on women asylum seekers: The “Qualification Directive”, which defines who can be considered for refugee protection status and subsidiary status in all EU Member States was due to be transposed into national law by 10 October. However, only six countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Austria, France, Slovenia and Luxembourg) met the deadline. EWL prepared a lobbying action in the form of a model letter for national governments which can be downloaded from its web site:
http://www.womenlobby.org/site/1abstract.asp?DocID=1779&v1ID=&RevID=&namePage=&pageParent=&DocID_sousmenu
The Qualification Directive is particularly interesting for women asylum seekers as it contains specific measures and recognises that the perpetrators of persecution can be non-state actors, which is vital for women seeking protection on the basis of gender-based persecution perpetrated by family and community members.
EWL project on gender and immigration: “Equal Rights, Equal Voice – Migrant women in the European Union” - The European Seminar - announced in the EWL September Newsflash – which will bring together migrant women across the European Union will take place on 19-21 January 2007 in Brussels. For reminder, in July 2006, EWL was awarded a grant under the European Programme on Integration and Migration (EPIM) to develop a European project with and for immigrant women living in the EU - For more information, contact Clarisse Delorme (delorme@womenlobby.org) at the EWL Secretariat.
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EWL Representation
· Mary McPhail, EWL Secretary General, represented the EWL at “The Future For Employment in social care in Europe” conference organised by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Helsinki on 2-3 October.
· Audrey Vreugd, Dutch Board member of EWL, spoke on behalf of EWL at the European Round Table Conference “Mainstreaming anti-racism into integration policies” organised by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) on 4 October 2006 in Helsinki at which EWL was also represented by Mary McPhail and Clarisse Delorme.
· Cécile Gréboval, EWL Policy Director represented EWL at the launch of the publication “Women and their Toxic World” by Women in Europe for a Common Future in the European Parliament on 4 October.
· Kirsti Kolthoff, EWL President, Annette Lawson, Vice-President and Mary McPhail, Secretary General represented EWL at the at the conference on “Men and Gender Equality” in Helsinki on 4-6 October and at the European Seminar “The changing roles of men in families” organised by the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union in Helsinki on 4 October.
· Kirsti Kolthoff, EWL President, Mary Mc Phail and Cécile Gréboval represented EWL at the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men on 13 October.
· Georgia Tsaklanganos, EWL Policy Officer of the EWL represented EWL at the Fifth European Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion in Tampere on 16-17 October.
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EWL Civil Society Representation
Platform of European Social NGOs – EWL is member of the Platform of European social NGOs and has an elected seat within its Management Committee. More information on the Platform: http://www.socialplatform.org/code/en/hp.asp
· Clarisse Delorme, from the EWL Secretariat, attended the Migration Working Party of the Platform, on the 19th of September. Main issues discussed included: the work programme of the working party, information on the development of EU integration policies.
· Georgia Tsaklanganos, from EWL secretariat, attended the Social Services Working Party seminar on “Social Services of general interest- opportunities and difficulties with EU law”, on the 24th of October.
· EWL contributed to the “10 Principles on Flexicurity” adopted by the Social NGOs for the October European Summit, which call for a structured consultation. The document is available at: www.socialplatform.org/module/FileLib/ENSocialPlatformprinciplesonFlexicurity.pdf
EU Civil Society Contact Group – EWL is member of the EU Civil Society Contact Group that brings together seven large rights and value based NGO sectors - environment, social, development, women, culture, human rights and public health. More information: http://www.act4europe.org/code/en/hp.asp
EESC Liaison Group with Organised Civil Society – EWL is member of the NGO Liaison group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). More information: http://www.esc.eu.int/sco/group/intro/index_en.asp
EWL is member of the Migration sub-group initiated by the UNHCR to discuss and exchange information on the development of immigration policies and legislations at European level. Clarisse Delorme attended the meeting of 19th of September.
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European & International News in Brief
Commission published its Communication on “The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity” on 12 October. The Communication highlights the ageing population and shrinking workforce and sets out five areas for concrete action to help Member States adapt to demographic change in their own national context. These include measures to:
balance work, family and private life; improvements of work opportunities for older people; increase in productivity and competitiveness; harnessing the positive impact of migration for the job market; and ensuring sustainable public finances to help guarantee social protection in the long-term. : http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf
Commission launches public consultation on health services – The Commission has adopted a consultation on health services and cross-border healthcare providing the framework for wide public consultation on how to ensure legal certainty regarding cross-border healthcare under Community law and how to support cooperation between the health systems of the Member States, on the other. The deadline for contributions is 31 January 2007. The Commission will bring forward proposals later in 2007. For more information, go to: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_overview/co_operation/mobility/community_framework_en.htm
Consultation on the Commission’s Green Paper on Mental Health: all contributions are now accessible on the Commission's public health website. In general, the consultations strongly welcomed the Commission’s initiative and a strategy document on mental health will be prepared and adopted in Spring 2007.
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News from the European Parliament
International Trade - Parliament wants more account taken of women's rights
Adopting report on women's perspectives in international trade by German Green MEP Hiltrud Breyer, the EP called on the Commission to 1) carry out gender impact assessment prior to concluding any trade agreement with third countries and to set up effective conditionality clauses with countries where human rights, and particularly those of women, were widely infringed, 2) immediately work with international economic institutions to set up an action plan to incorporate gender issues in international trade policies, and 3) to pay particular attention to legal obstacles impeding women's access to the means of production. Full report at
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/omk/sipade3?PUBREF=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2006-0254+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=0&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y
Hearing on Gender Budgeting on October 4 at the Women’s Rights Committee included statements by Commissioner Grybauskaite and Tuula Haatainen, Minister of Social affairs and Health, Finland. Professor Sylvia Walby from Lancaster University (UK) gave the example of the Common Agricultural Policy to demonstrate how gender budgeting can be done. Gender budgeting is not about creating separate budgets for gender equality or programmes promoting women’s rights, it is above all a gender-mainstreaming tool that is applicable to all financial and budgetary policies. MEP Lissy Gröner called for considering sanctions when gender is not mainstreamed into the national level budgets. MEP Eva-Britt Svensson called for a gender audit to accompany gender budgeting. Go to www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/default_en.htm
Mini hearing on the Roadmap for Equality Between Women and Men 2006-2010 in the Women’s Rights Committee. This hearing focused on what the Commission has committed to do to implement the Roadmap adopted in March 2006, and how these promises have been kept, or not. Members of the Women’s Rights Committee expressed disappointment by the lack of implementation and the gap between words and action. The report of the EP by MEP Sartori gave priority to the revision of the equal pay and parental leave directives, the start of pilot projects on gender budgeting and the creation of a charter for women’s rights. The report will be adopted in the Committee on 13 November and in Plenary in December 2006.
http://europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/pr/629/629296/629296en.pdf
Implementation of Gender Mainstreaming in the work of the EP Committees - The report by MEP Zaborska summarises the replies from the EP committees and shows that there are still committees that do not consider gender mainstreaming to be relevant in their work. Members of the Women’s Rights Committee called for a similar evaluation to be made on national level. Adoption of the report will be on 13-20 December in the Women’s Rights Committee and adoption in Plenary is scheduled for January 2007. See http://europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/dt/631/631204/631204en.pdf
Educational Discrimination Against Young Women and Girls – The draft report by Vera Flasarova of the EP Women’s Rights Committee focuses on the removal of discriminatory barriers for women and girls in terms of access to education and lifelong learning. It also calls for gender-disaggregated data in the field of education. The report will be adopted by the Women’s Rights Committee on 13 November and adoption in Plenary is in December.
http://europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/pr/632/632069/632069en.pdf
PROGRESS - New community programme including gender equality –MEPs have accepted the Council’s common position paper on this new programme on employment and social cohesion that brings together and simplifies a number of action programmes which are due to expire. The programme’s five strands are gender equality, employment, social protection and inclusion, working conditions, anti-discrimination and diversity and will run from 2007-2013 with a budget of ?743.25m. For more info:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/047-10964-268-09-39-908-20060922IPR10881-25-09-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm
Update on Violence against Women and Women’s Human Rights
“Violence Against Women Is a Human Rights Violation” states the UN Secretary-General’s study on VAW prepared for the 61st session of the General Assembly. The report contains an in-depth study on the forms and manifestations of violence against women. It is a comprehensive 140 pages report setting out the broad historical and contemporary institutional and socio-cultural context of VAW, exposing gaps in regards to availability of data, discussing States’ responsibility for preventing and addressing VAW and identifying promising practices and effective strategies for addressing VAW. Read the 140 pages report at:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/violenceagainstwomenstudydoc.pdf
The human rights aspects of the victims of trafficking in persons, especially women and children – The UN report states that laws and policies that penalize victims of prostitution and trafficking should be condemned, measures to address demand should ensure that victims of trafficking are neither criminalized nor subjected to punitive measures and it recommends the criminalizing of the use of prostituted persons. More information: http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/trafficking/annual.htm
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Events
How Do We Want to Raise Our Children? The 3-day international conference organized by Centers International will be held 17-20 November 2006, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The conference will focus on how grassroots women's groups can support the development of children. More information http://www.mine.cc/files/brat_prog.html or e-mail: jaeckel@mine.cc
Social security, employment and mobility in the EU - In the context of the European Year of Workers' Mobility, the ESIP European Conference on December 11 2006 will focus on the challenges and opportunities for social security and employment in a Europe of free movement of persons and free provision of services. More information: http://www.socialplatform.org/code/en/even_detail.asp?id_events=240
Information Society Technologies - EPWS and WINNET (European Network of Women Resource Centres) are organising a network session during the IST event “Strategies for Leadership” in Helsinki on 21-23 November. For more information contact EPWS project manager at marianne.dasilva@epws.orgWINNET
The Economic Council of Sweden will be organising a conference on "Gender and Ethnic Discrimination", on Monday October 30. For information about the programme and registration go to www.ekonomiskaradet.se.
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Publications - Web Sites
Taking CEDAW Seriously report from the Conference organised by, among others, the Women’s Human Rights Alliance is now available. The aim of the conference was to promote, apply and enforce the CEDAW. Info on conference at http://www.whra.ie/file_download/26 and the report at http://www.whra.ie/News/23/taking-cedaw-seriously-conference-report
Gender Mainstreaming & Its Consequences in the European Union – this analysis by Eva Fodor of the Central European University focus on the efficiency and consequences of gender mainstreaming and implementation in terms of its relevance in post-communist countries. Fodor comes to the conclusion that for Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, the degree of gender inequality has converged to the levels in western-European societies. Unfortunately, however, while this convergence and levelling has meant that gender equality in Western Europe has increased; east-European women have become even more vulnerable in the labour market. Full report at http://www.euractiv.com/29/images/Gender%20mainstreaming_apdf_tcm29-157876.pdf
Eurostat has released the statistics on gender differences among skilled workers in Europe. Among the results are that women are still more likely than men to become unemployed. To access the statistics and read the report, see Eurostat webpage at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
Achieving Women's Economic and Social Rights: Strategies and Lessons from Experience – this new report examines the strategies 50 feminist activists found most useful in their efforts to improve economic and social rights for women. It includes case studies and examples, strategies for success and lessons from experience in translating "rights on paper" to concrete implementation in women's lives. See http://www.awid.org/go.php?pg=escr_report
World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation -It is, according to this report, now time to invest in better education, healthcare, and job training for the future; youth in development countries are healthier and better educated than any previous generation. Find the World Development report 2007 at World bank webpage: www.worldbank.org
Moving Young, State of World Population 2006: Youth Supplement - This report explores the lives of young women and young men who have ventured into new lands to chase their dreams or to escape oppression, war, poverty or misfortune. It profiles the lives of young women and men from ten countries, some have never migrated, but their lives are marked by the experiences of spouses or relatives who have moved abroad.
http://www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID=312&filterListType
Female Migrants: Bridging the Gaps Throughout the Life Cycle – this publication identifies challenges throughout the life cycle of female migrants, including reproductive health and violence against women migrants and against victims of trafficking. It also fills research gaps on migration and sex-disaggregated data. Go to www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID=313
Millennium Development Goal data updated – the MDG data of the UN Statistics Division can be accessed via the MDG database at http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Data.aspx and the report on MDGs as well as progresses made can be accessed via the UN site for the MDG indicators http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx
Trends in Government Support for Non-Governmental Organizations: Is The "Golden Age" of the NGO Behind Us? – this report outlines the role of International NGOs in development policy from the 80s and onwards. In conclusion, the role of INGOs in the current development paradigm is not diminishing, but changing. Full report on
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(LookupAllDocumentsByUNID)/E8BC05C1E4B8AD6FC12571D1002C4F0B?OpenDocument
NGO Leadership Development: A Review of the Literature - This Paper examines the role of leaders and leadership in NGOs. It draws on the analysis of recent research into the characteristics of NGO leaders, and explores the challenges of designing leadership development programmes appropriate to the needs of NGOs. This paper identifies the elements of successful leadership development, and assesses the skills or competencies that need to be developed.
http://www.intrac.org/pages/PraxisPaper10.html
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Funding, Training, Call for Papers
Third Millennium International - International Human Rights Fellowship - Young activists committed to human rights on a broad range of perspectives, situations and experiences related to human rights issues can apply for practical training fellowships aiming to provide the fellows with the skills necessary to start or advance a career in the field of human rights. See http://www.seedsoftolerance.org/initiatives.html
Call for papers: Reproductive Health Matters – Reproductive Health Matters 15(30) November 2007 invites submission on “Maternal mortality and morbidity: Is pregnancy getting safer for women?” The deadline for submission is 1 May 2007.
More information on the guidelines of submission at: www.rhmjournal.org.uk
Call for papers: Feminist media studies - Commentary and Criticism. The topics included are Women and Radio, Ethnography and Media Activism. Deadline for the next issue is December 1, 2006. To express preliminary interest, contact Jane Arthurs or Usha Zacharias:
jane.arthurs@blueyonder.co.uk, usha.zacharias@gmail.com.
Call for article: Gender Research Methodologies in the Development Context – Oxfam Gender & Development Journal calls for articles for its July 2007 issue dealing with the role gender research methodologies can play in the design and implementation of development policies and programmes that are effective in promoting gender equality. For more info, e-mail jhoare@oxfam.org.uk or go to www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/gad/index.htm.
Call for abstracts: Women Writing and Reading: Past and Present, Local and Global – at the University of Alberta, Canada, offers a forum for academics and the wider community to discuss issues around the theme of women as writers and readers. The aim of the conference is to explore these issues in the past and present, and in a local and global context. Deadline for proposals is 28 February 2007. See: http://www.crcstudio.arts.ualberta.ca/wwr_conference
Call for papers: Past, Present, Future. From Women's Studies to Post-Gender Research at Umeå University, Sweden. The purpose of the conference is to build bridges between generations of researchers in gender studies. The deadline for papers is 1 November 2006. See http://www.umu.se/kvf/aktuellt/ppf/ppfconf.html
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