Posted by sabina on August 31, 2010
CALL for participants for an exciting week long workshop on ‘The politics of food, gender roles and environmental change‘.
Arrival 17 October 2010 and departure 24 October at the beautiful Convento S.Maria del Giglio, Bolsena, Viterbo, Italy.
Fifteen full scholarships are available through the Grundtvig programme for adult learners from EU countries outside of Italy, SEE countries and Turkey. The scholarships will cover all travel and accommodation. Apply by September 13 at http://www.conventobolsena.org/grundtvig.html
Or by sending your CV in EU format and motivation letter to puntidivista@pelagus.it
The workshop will explore the intersection between food systems, gender and environment, looking at the multiple links between food, gender and environment through a series of lectures, laboratories and field trips. The workshop will be run by Sabina Aguiari and Wendy Harcourt as part of their efforts to build a European wide network to encourage greater awareness of ’slow food’, traditional cuisine and how to appreciate the importance of women’s roles in food production and culture
Highlights of the workshop
· Off the press talks by Italian and international experts on the transformation of food systems produced by industrialisation and globalisation of markets
· Participatory dialogues on agribusiness and about the commodification of food in food industry
· In depth discussion on the transformation of food systems and related economies through a gender lens and debates in ecofeminism on the topics
· Organised Visits to the hubs of the slow food movement in Italy,
· Sharing of traditional knowledge on food preparation by nutritionalists and chefs
· Hands-on sessions of preparing food
· Meals at local slow food restaurants and wineries
· Creating a collective blog on the workshop, sharing recipes, ideas, networks and ways forward
Read the call for application for details. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by Monday 20 September 2010.
Posted by sabina on August 27, 2010
In a world plagued by ethnic and religious clashes, where some strive to impose their beliefs and lifestyles on all, women leaders from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East will speak to the challenges of accommodating diversity while striving for human rights.
Women Learning Partnership (WLP) in cooperation with Cultural Conversations of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University presents “Challenges of Change: Religion, Secularism & Rights“.
The event will be held on September 21, 2010, 9:30 am - 5:30 pm at Kenney Auditorium, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, 1740 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC.
Speakers will discuss the impact of a decade of “clash of civilizations” rhetoric on the intellectual as well as pragmatic work of those who struggle for gender justice and seek to transform cultures of violence into cultures of peace. They discuss the interrelation between violence against women in the home and violence in the community, nation, and internationally. They will share strategies for mobilizing communities to bring about non-violent, positive change.
Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places, close to home-so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world….Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Human rights is a universal standard. It is a component of every religion and every civilization.
- Shirin Ebadi
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Registration
Registration: $15 (includes light lunch, coffee and refreshments)
Students: Free (ID required, optional lunch $10)
Seats are limited. Register online.
Speakers:
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh (Iran), Founding Member, One Million Signatures Campaign
Mahnaz Afkhami (Iran/USA), Founder and President, Women’s Learning Partnership
Zainah Anwar (Malaysia), Founder, Sisters In Islam
Karima Bennoune (Algeria/USA), Professor of Law, Rutgers University
Marian Wright Edelman (USA), Founder and President, Children’s Defense Fund
Yakin Ertürk (Turkey), former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Anne Gahongayire (Rwanda), Secretary General, Supreme Court of Rwanda
Pregs Govender (South Africa), Deputy Chairperson, South Africa Human Rights Commission
Asma Khader (Jordan), Secretary General, Jordanian National Commission for Women
Azar Nafisi (Iran/USA), Executive Director, Cultural Conversations, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid (Saudi Arabia), Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund
Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil), Co-Founder and Director, Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (Cepia)
Eleanor Smeal (USA), Founder and President, Feminist Majority Foundation
Chairs:
LaShawn Jefferson (USA), Women’s Human Rights Program Officer, Ford Foundation
Frances Kissling (USA), Former President, Catholics for a Free Choice
Carolyn Long (USA), Director of Global Partnerships, InterAction
Regan Ralph (USA), Executive Director, The Fund for Global Human Rights
For more information: +1-301-654-2774 | wlp@learningpartnership.org | www.learningpartnership.org
Posted by sabina on August 26, 2010
On September 16, the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the Paley Center for Media will host “Burma and the Media: Amplifying Voices for Democracy” in New York City. This panel discussion—featuring Nobel Laureates, Burmese and international journalists and documentary filmmakers—will examine how global and social media are transforming Burma’s democracy movement.
The people of Burma suffer daily at the hands of the ruling military junta. The regime’s violent abuse of its own people—ranging from the imprisonment and torture of political dissenters to the systematic sexual violence and rape of women—puts it in the ranks of some of the world’s worst human rights abusers.
But, as the list of human rights abuses grows, so do the calls from within Burma for peace, justice and democracy. These calls are building global momentum, as global and social media bring the world previously untold stories from within Burma.
Human rights violations and stories of survivors are documented in real time by bloggers, documentary filmmakers and through the use of Twitter, Facebook and mobile devices. The world, it seems, may be finally opening its eyes to what is happening in Burma.
The evening will also premiere a new, short documentary on the recent International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma, an unprecedented event held last year in New York and witnessed by people around the globe on the Internet.
View the invitation to Burma and the Media: Amplifying Voices for Democracy here.
Posted by sabina on August 6, 2010
Credit Fabricio Caiazza
A new edition of Gender.IT - the gender and ICT policy monitor by APC WNSP - examines how violence against women (VAW) affects our privacy rights in the digital age, with reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, South Africa and Argentina.
VAW survivors often experience intrusions into their privacy from their partners, spouses or the State. Moreover, privacy does not always work to women’ s advantage.
Family-centred approaches to privacy impose modesty and domestic isolation on women and make it hard to enforce domestic violence as a crime. So how have ICTs shifted where we see the line between what is private, and what is public?
How much privacy are women comfortable to give up in order to protect themselves from abusive behaviour online? Are national laws ready to deal with the situation when women are not able to leave a violent relationship because their partner has intimate photographs or video clips of them?
These are some of the questions examined by GenderIT.org’s writers in the third edition in a row that connects ICTs, VAW and Millennium Development Goal Three (MDG3). This edition also features the work of some of APC’s MDG3 partners and includes a new GenderIT podcast and 16×16 multimedia presentations.
The edition is part of APC WNSP´s MDG3 project Take Back the Tech! to eliminate violence against women.
You can contact Flavia, Katerina and Sonia from the GenderIT.org team at genderit@apcwomen.org.
Posted by sabina on August 5, 2010
Civicus, the Johannesburg-based international NGO is holding its 9th World Assembly in Montreal, Canada, August 20 - 23, gathering hundreds of civil society groups from around the world. Along with the World Social Forum, Civicus’ World Assembly is one of the most comprehensive and representative international meeting of social activists.
The focus theme of the World Assembly this year is economic justice as its core theme underpinned by development effectiveness and climate justice. For more information (speakers, programme etc) see www.civicusassembly.org.
Economic justice has proven to be strictly connected with gender justice. On the occasion of South Africa’s National Women Day, 9 August, Sifiso Dube, Chair of Gender Equality Team at CIVICUS, writes about how, 54 years after the historic march of women against the apartheid regime in Pretoria, the struggle for equality, power, recognition is still a challenge.
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Celebrating Women Everyday
By Sifiso Dube, Chair, Gender Equality Team, CIVICUS
August one marked the start of Women’s month celebrations in South Africa. This is a month where every woman in South Africa and beyond should be proud of. It is now 54 years since women of courage marched towards the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest of the apartheid regime’s extension of passes that limited their freedom of movement. It goes without saying that the rise of women that day shook the apartheid regime and made the powers that be understand not to under-estimate women. We should also not forget the multitude of women who could not attend the march but were in solidarity with those who marched towards the Union buildings and individually hoped for change which would enable them to move freely.
As we celebrate women this month, let us not forget the burden, the struggle and the pain that our mothers, daughters and sisters bore to be where we are today. If we could take a telescopic view of the status of women in South Africa and the whole of Africa, we can generally say that a lot needs to be done to improve the lives of women, to empower them and to emancipate them – this is basically a mammoth task that needs many hands to complete. The struggle for equality, power, recognition and just being heard has forced many a woman to continuously run in heels trying to approach a mark which comes with appreciation.
But there is some light starting to emerge. According to this year’s MasterCard Worldwide Index of women’s advancements the index saw South Africa’s score increase by almost six points from 87.96 to 93.5 between 2009 and 2010.
Read the full story
Posted by sabina on August 4, 2010
Cover of publication "Freedom of Information (FOI) & Women's Rights in Africa. Copyright: UNESCO.
Recognising the importance of freedom of information laws and policies for the promotion and protection of women’s rights, UNESCO and the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) are partnering in the implementation of the Freedom of Information and Women’s Rights in Africa Project. The first stage of this ongoing regional initiative consisted in the publication of the Resource Book Freedom of Information (FOI) and Women Rights in Africa. A Collection of Case Studies from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia, which aimed at documenting the involvement of African women’s organisations in collective efforts to advance freedom of information.
The resource book stresses the linkages between freedom of information and women’s empowerment. It presents good practices illustrating how civil society organisations specialized on women’s rights, as well as others, have helped advance women’s freedom of information in Africa. It also surveys the status of freedom of information and the challenges it faces in a region that is relatively lagging behind others in terms of the adoption and effective implementation of laws guaranteeing this right, whose international recognition has notably increased in the past decade.
“Ultimately freedom of information is about power, power and power. Women are subject to unequal power relations internationally,” states one of the practitioners interviewed in the course of the research. Women can change that by taking power in their own hands, she adds, concluding that among the many interesting ways for them to do so is through the “ability to organize and demand information,” which allows them to “shift power relations, mediate them and own their own lives.”
To clearly picture the connection between freedom of information and the well-being of women and girls, one only needs to think about the potential benefits derived from their improved access to information on education, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, land rights, food security, agricultural methods, access to social programmes, loan opportunities and income-generating activities, among many other key issues. Better information flows can contribute to raise awareness about women’s rights both among women and the population at large, help unveil instances where these entitlements are infringed upon and spread knowledge on how to seek assistance for their protection. Furthermore, access to public information in the custody of governments can strengthen the work of civil society actors promoting women’s rights, and efforts monitoring the extent to which governments fulfill their commitments to ensure gender equality.
Despite all the above, the resource book’s findings underline the limited engagement of women’s organisations in processes related to the drafting, adoption and implementation of freedom of information laws in Africa. Several reasons are cited for this low level of involvement, such as insufficient awareness about freedom of information, and particularly regarding the advantages it represents for women’s empowerment and actions to guarantee their rights. Moreover, in a context of scarce resources and multiple competing priorities, civil society organisations in the countries under study tend not to focus on freedom of information, and generally lack the necessary capacity to address the related issues. In addition, it is common for freedom of information to be misconceived as a matter predominantly relevant to the media rather than affecting every individual. Further, efforts to bring women’s organisations on board FOI coalitions on the part of the media and other actors who often lead these have shown to be rather poor.
To mark the international launch of the resource book, an expert roundtable discussion was held at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris on 16 March 2010, as part of the organisation’s celebrations of International Women’s Day. Building on the insights emerging from this exchange of ideas and the resource book’s conclusions, UNESCO and FEMNET are currently planning follow-up actions to promote the involvement of African women’s organisations in freedom of information advocacy efforts, their use of FOI laws and the direct exercise of this right by women and girls themselves.
Posted by sabina on
Vienna, Austria–– While funding for HIV prevention and treatment has reached billions of international dollars, a new study conducted by the Huairou Commission suggests that volunteer care and support makes a huge – and largely unrecognized – economic contribution to the response.
Research in six countries shows that tens of thousands of unpaid female caregivers between the ages of 20 and 49 routinely donate on average 69 hours per month to care for the sick and vulnerable––a donation of time worth millions of dollars each month.
The study, Compensation for Contributions: Creating an enabling policy and institutional framework for home-based care, was conducted by caregivers, care giving organizations and the Huairou Commission in six countries to quantify unpaid labor contributions and highlight the gaps that exist between AIDS policies and working conditions on the ground. The countries studied were: Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi,Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.
Calculating the number of hours worked into wages in each country the study found, for example, that in Kenya where volunteers work an average of 24.4 hours per week, professional wages would translate into KShs 13,704 (US$168.46) per caregiver per month.
“If we estimate the unpaid care labor force in Kenya to be 16,000, the government wage scale per month to compensate these women would be US$844,640 and private wages would be US$2,695,360,” said Debbie Budlender, the chief researcher for the project. “In Malawi, where volunteers work an average of 8.2 hours per week, monthly compensation would average MK1947.70 (US$12.82) while in South Africa, 22.2 hours per week would translate into R780.44 (US$101.82) monthly.”
“Caregivers understand that AIDS is not just a health concern but a complex development issue with local and global economic, human rights and gender implications,” said Winnie Byanyima, director of the Gender Team, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP.
“The findings from this study are an important platform for galvanizing government and donor recognition of caregivers’ relentless contributions to coping with the HIV epidemic, including their vital work as community development change agents locally and globally.”
The study is one of the initiatives of the five-year-old Home-Based Care Alliance, active in 7 countries. The network addresses the marginalization of volunteer caregivers in AIDS and fiscal policy by building dialogue and collaboration with heath care systems and policy decision-makers. In Kenya, for example, district governments and hospitals have issued formal letters of recognition and invited caregivers to participate in the Kenya National AIDS Strategic Planning process for the next five years. Most striking, in
Uganda, the Kampala City Council has committed to include compensation for caregivers and community health workers in its next fiscal year budget. Verbal commitments have been made to ensure the participation of home-based caregivers in newly forming Village Health Teams.
Compensation for Contributions was conducted in partnership with six care giving organizations in Africa: Ntankah Village Women Common Initiative Group, Cameroon; GROOTS Kenya; Coalition of Women Living with HIV/AIDS, Malawi; International Women’s Communication Centre, Nigeria; Land Access Movement, South Africa; and the Uganda Community-Based Organization for Child Welfare.
The study was sponsored by the United Nations Development Program/Japan Partnership Fund (WID/GAD).
For a full copy of the study, please go to: www.groots.org
Posted by sabina on July 23, 2010
AMwA - one of our MDG3 partners - is actively involved in the AU Summit that is taking place in Kampala, Uganda for the first time in July.
The theme for this year’s AU Summit is “Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa”. AMwA will work together with its partners, Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) and the Uganda Coalition for African Women’s Rights, particularly in calling on governments to popularize, ratify, domesticate and implement the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).
Some of the exciting activities that SOAWR and the Uganda Coalition have lined up in the lead up to the Summit are:
1. East African Caravan – 9th – 15th July 2010
2. Consultation meeting for Ugandan Rural Women – 20th July 2010
3. Regional Rural Women’s Conference – 21st – 22nd July 2010
For more civil society activities, visit www.soawr.org
For more information on the AU Summit, go to www.africa-union.org or www.mofa.go.ug
Location : Kampala, Uganda
Contact : amwa@akinamamawaafrika.org
Posted by sabina on July 22, 2010
San Francisco—Thanks to generous donors and skillful financial stewardship, women’s groups around the world can continue to count on the Global Fund for Women to support their work. Our June docket of grants totaling $1.89 million will support 151 women’s groups in 67 countries. This brings the total amount given to women’s organizations in the 2009-2010 fiscal year to more than $8.5 million, in the face of lingering economic recession both domestically here in the US and globally.
The Global Fund for Women makes “high impact” grants to women-led organizations that promote women’s rights and address the root causes of women’s oppression. Most groups work under extraordinary circumstances, from natural disasters to rural areas without water to conflict zones. “The groups we support all work intimately with their communities to transform women’s lived realities,” says Shalini Nataraj, Vice President of Programs. “This is crucial to support the multi-faceted ways that women work to promote and protect their rights and the well-being of their communities, even in the face of shrinking resources.”
For more information, check GFW website.
Posted by sabina on July 7, 2010
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 6 2010 - A draft Bill proposing a ban on sexual content on the internet and cellphones submitted to the South African Department of Home Affairs in May 2010 claims to have the best interests of women and children in mind but has set alarm bells ringing in the women’s movement.
“The Bill equates women with children –taking a protectionist approach to the rights of women– and promotes state censorship,” says Sally-Jean Shackleton, director of Women’sNet, a feminist technology organisation based in Johannesburg.
The Bill was drafted by Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA), an anti-gay, anti-choice organisation. The countries mentioned by JASA as having enacted similar legislation to the proposal Bill – Yemen and the United Arab Emirates – both censor LGBT as well as political content that they deem undesirable.
Taking into consideration the social context within which laws operate in South Africa, where violence against lesbian women and transgender people is common, “a law focussing on sexual content is likely to see content that focuses on lesbian sexuality or even women’s sexuality as deviant and undesirable” says Shackleton.
“The Law Reform Commission in South Africa, tasked with investigating internet pornography should consider freeing up funds from the Universal Access Fund to promote positive content by women and for women,” says Shackleton. “That way we tip the balance of content in favour of more positive representations of women and more diversity.”
“The Law Reform Commission’s investigation at the very least must be framed by considering that children and women are not the same entity. Children are a separate category of people that require very different legislative approaches than those addressing women,” Shackleton concludes.
Read the complete story.
More information on Take Back the Tech! To end violence against women
Sally-Jean Shackleton is director of APC member Women’sNet, South African partner in the Association for Progressive Communication’s Take Back the Tech! To end violence against women initiative which is talking place in 12 countries worldwide and supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS).
AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT: A CRITICAL MOMENT TO SUPPORT SUDAN 
THE PRIVATISATION OF LIVELIHOOD
WOMEN'S HEALTH - A SMART INVESTMENT IN TROUBLED TIMES
POOR COUNTRIES RAILROADED INTO WEAK COMPROMISE AT UN FINANCIAL SUMMIT
LET THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT DO ITS WORK
WORLD MUST KEEP UP PRESSURE ON AFGHAN LAW AGAINST WOMEN
