PLATFORM
NEWSLETTER
The Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform
Working towards
equality and peace for women on a local, national European and international level
58 Howard Street, Belfast BT1 6PJ
niwep@btconnect.com
www.niwep.org.uk
NOVEMBER 1
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European
News
European Women’s Lobby 17th General Assembly
Maria Morgan the alternate to Liz Law who is the NIWEP representative to the UK Joint
Women’s Committee and the European Women’s Lobby, attended the EWL’s 17th General Assembly which
was held in October in Prague.
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 of two years, said that she was looking forward
to the challenges of leading the major women’s NGO in the EU which now comprised of 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’ organisations in both countries. They will take a pro-active role in ensuring that women’s rights and gender equality and 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 Kirsti Kolthoff , President (Sweden); Iluta Lace Vice
President (Lativa); Martine Levy, Vice President (France); Tanja Auvinen, Treasurer (Finland)
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 co-ordination
as well as eight representatives from the European-wide membership was also renewed.
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Prior to the GA meeting itself a seminar took place 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 roundtable 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 in order
to achieve gender equality in European Societies.
For more information on the General Assembly contact Liz Law @ niwep@btconnect.com
Council of Europe Domestic Violence Campaign goes Online
A website designed by the Human Rights Directorate General to introduce the new Council of Europe Campaign to Stop
Domestic Violence against Women has just been created and is available in English on: www.coe.int/stopviolence/intergov. There will be a launch conference on 27 November 2006 in Madrid.
Working-time opt-out leaves employees no choice
(Extracted from EuroActiv.com)
Under the opt-out scheme of
the Working Time Directive, workers don't have a real choice of not working longer hours if their employer wants them
to, say MEPs from the Parliament's two largest groups.
"Today's working conditions resemble the beginning of the
industrial revolution more than the 1970s, when working time was highly regulated," said Parliament President Josep Borrell
(PSE, Spain) in the meeting organised
by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). Borrell cited the example
of his own children, who are in their thirties and hardly have any time to share with their respective partners due to high
workloads. He said that the working
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conditions at the beginning
of the 21st century stand as a proof that the Working Time Directive is urgently needed and needs to be more effective.
He was backed by Portuguese
Conservative MEP José Silva Peneda, who said that the personal opt-out clause in the Working Time Directive was "absurd, like
saying this is a law that must not be obeyed". The opt-out clause says that workers can work longer hours than the directive's
weekly maximum of 48 hours if both the worker and the employer agree, but, Silva Peneda argued, workers who are dependent
of their employers are never free to opt for what is best for their private lives. The opt-out, which was introduced due to
pressure from the British government, "is essentially a UK
solution, rather than a European one", the MEP argued.
Unsurprisingly, Renate Hornung-Draus,
Chair of UNICE's employment committee and Vice-Chair of the Economic and Social Committee's Employers' group, argued for a
more flexible workforce, including occasional longer working hours which, she said, were important, particularly for
smaller companies. She fiercely attacked the European Court of Justice's ruling that on-call times must be counted as working time.
ETUC Confederal Secretary Catelene
Passchier said that the individual opt-out should never have been allowed. She recalled trade unions' campaign for a
statutory maximum working week of 48 hours, fought in the early years of the 20th century, and the ILO's very first convention in 1919, which laid down the 48-hour working week as a worldwide limit.
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Local News
Encouraging Women into Politics and Public Life
The Secretary of State recently held a successful conference
Encouraging women into politics and public life which heard women from all the
major political parties share their experience as local Councillors, MLA and MPs.
Balanced participation by both sexes in decision-making is an essential condition for democracy, says the European
Parliament which adopted a report by Ana Maria Gomes (PSE PT) focussing on the situation of women's participation in international
and national politics and decision-making and proposing measures to promote women's participation. It was adopted in a plenary
session on 16th November with 377 votes in favour, 77 against and 31 abstentions.
The report stresses that the European Union must see that all requirements it has established for itself are met
with regard to political parity. It "deeply regrets that in spite of a large number of political statements and recommendations,
programmes of actions adopted worldwide and specific legislation introduced at national level, inequality and gender discrimination
and under representation of women in politics still persist in Europe and worldwide."
Associated Parliamentary Group Meeting (APG) – Women Peace and
Security
Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform
attended the APG on UNSCR 1325 - Women Peace and Security meeting at the House of Commons.
This UK Associate Parliamentary Group
on SCR 1325 was set up to include an array of members of the government, civil servants and civil society.
Joan Ruddock MP chaired the meeting and the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO, the Ministry for Defense (MoD) and the Department for International Development (DFID) gave updates on their
work, along with the NGO Gender Action
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on Peace and Security (GAPS).
Guest speaker Janet Benshoof, President of the Global Justice Centre Human Rights
Through the Rule of Law gave an overview of her work with judges in Iraq
on dealing with rape and honour crimes.
NIWEP got the opportunity to inform the APG of the work it
was doing in Northern Ireland in relation
the UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
International News
Margaret Chan of China New Chief WHO
The World
Health Organisation had some leading public
health officials worried the new chief may not have the strength to stand up to Washington
on drug and sexual health policy.
Critics say WHO has been
largely controlled behind the scenes by the United States
_ its biggest donor, and one which many contend is intent on promoting the interests of its pharmaceuticals industry and the
Bush administration's ideological line on issues like abortion.
Congratulations to world
bird flu expert Margaret Chan of China who was elected to head the World Health Organisation (WHO), and upon her appointment
at the WHO's World Health Assembly in Geneva pledged to help two groups of people in particular - women and the people of
Africa.
"I want us to be judged by the impact we have on the health of the people of Africa,
and the health of women. … Improvements in the health of the people of Africa and the
health of women are key indicators of the performance of WHO," Chan told the assembly which is made up of the U.N. agency's
193 member countries
Congratulations also to…..
- Nancy Pelosi –
the first woman in history to hold the post of US speaker of the House
- Amy Klobuchar and
Claire McCaskill, two new female senators
- 16 women in the Senate
come January, a new record
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- Josette Sheeran -
American diplomat has been chosen to head the U.N. World Food Programme and will oversee a worldwide staff of 10,500 who deliver food staples to people in 80 countries
- Katharine Jefferts
Schori has taken office as the first female leader as presiding
bishop and primate of the US Episcopal Church
- Segolene Royal - France’s Socialist Party candidate for the 2007 presidential elections
Roundtable to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the CSW
During the 61st session of the General Assembly
NIWEP was invited to take part in the round table discussion on the role of
the United Nations in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women: Progress made and future opportunities.
2006 marks the 60th anniversary of the Commission on the Status of Women.
This important milestone in the work of the United Nations to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women is an occasion
to assess the achievements of the United Nations in this area over the past 60 years.
Important examples include the four world conferences on women, the establishment of the treaty on women’s human
rights - the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the adoption of the global policy
framework – the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action and, more recently, the adoption of Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.
The commemoration of the 60 years of work of the CSW also provides a key opportunity to look forward,
and to examine how the United Nations can better deliver on commitments to gender equality as the organization adapts to the
21st century. At the World Summit in September 2005, world leaders
reiterated their commitment to promote gender equality and to eliminate pervasive gender discrimination. They stressed that “progress for women is progress for all”.
In recognizing the need for increased efforts to achieve gender equality, they undertook to “strengthen the capabilities
of the United Nations system in the area of gender”.
Summary link available at www.niwep.org.uk
