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
Local/National
Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW)
Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform is holding a meeting on the 7 March with the NGO respondents to
the consultation in 2003 in preparation of the NGO Shadow CEDAW Report. The meeting
is to ensure what was identified in 2003 are still the main issues to be provided with evidence to the CEDAW Committee. NIWEP will be holding a session at a conference on the 29 March (see next article
below) for women to contribute to the final issues to be raised in the CEDAW report.
The Human Rights Commission and NIC-ICTU are planning to hold an event on March 14 to explore women's social and
economic rights in light of CEDAW. The event, which is open to women and men, will take place on Wednesday 14 March 2007 in
the Hilton Hotel, Belfast, from 9.30am to 2.30pm. It
is free and a light lunch will be provided. Registration is through NIC-ICTU - pauline.buchanan@ictuni.org Tel: 028
9024 7940. Please note that places are limited to 60 participants.
1325 Women, Peace and Security –What’s It Got To Do With Me?
Northern Ireland Women's European Platform and Women Into
Politics are hosting an international one day event on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, Women, Peace and Security in the
Europa Hotel, Great Victoria Street, Belfast
on Thursday 29 March 2007. The event will include participation in a mock trial of UN Security Council Resolution, Women,
Peace and Security – and you the jury gets to vote, international speakers, and an opportunity participate in an open
forum.
There are bursaries available and remember places are limited. You can register at www.niwep.org.uk or www.womenintopolitics.org
Is the World Protecting Women?
If you are asking questions such as what is UN Security
Council 1325? What is our country doing about it? What can you do? Then come
along to an event being held by Trocaire and have these questions and more answered by Dr. Mona E-Farra, Physician, Human
& Women Rights Activist from the Occupied Gaza Strip and Scolastique Harushiyakira, Women’s Activist, Dusirahamwe,
Burundi.
Thursday 1 March 2007, 7-9pm
Linenhall Library
If
attending contact Lawrence McBride, Campaigns Officer, Trócaire
02890 808030E: lmcbride@trocaire.ie www.trocaire.org/takeaction
The 2007 Assembly Elections
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the Women’s Committee of the Irish Congress
of Trade Unions, the Women’s Policy Group and the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement, have published a Women’s Manifesto containing a set of demands around a number of key gender
equality areas that need to be addressed by the incoming Assembly.
The
launch of the Manifesto will take place on Thursday 1 March in the Equality Commission,
7-9 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast
from 2.30pm to 4.00pm. Tea and coffee will be available from 2.30pm and the launch
will begin at 3.00pm.
Please Tel. WRDA (028 9023 0212) or e-mail margaret.ward@wrda.net if you wish to attend.
Europe
The United Nations 51st
Session - Commission on the Status of (CSW) 26 February to 9 March 2007
This years event is the
elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child. Also a review of progress in implementing
the agreed conclusions of the 48th session (2004) will also take place in relation to the role of men and boys in achieving
gender equality.
The European Women’s
Lobby (EWL) will attend the 51st CSW and will hold a parallel session on “Dispelling the generation myth and promoting
participation: are the needs and rights of girls and women so different?” will take place in joint collaboration with
the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), Plan International and the European Youth Forum. The aim is
to explore and discuss issues relating to the life-cycle of women – are girls and women’s needs, aspirations,
right to participation and access to their rights different across the life-cycle of women regardless of where they live?
Speakers from the four organisations will represent the different phases from girls, to youth and women of a mature age. Further
details will be posted soon.
EWL will also be supporting
the call for a Special Rapporteur on Laws that Discriminate against Women.
EWL position paper
on the girl child can be found on www.womenlobby.org/SiteResources/data/MediaArchive/policies/Internation%20women%20rights/Final%20EWL%20position%20paper%20girl%20child%20CSW%202007_EN.pdf or a link through NIWEP’s
website www.niwep@btconnect.com
Violence Against Women
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) report maps policies and legislation on violence against women in Europe is available on www.womenlobby.org/SiteResources/data/MediaArchive/Violence%20Centre/News/NAP-final-feb07.pdf or a link through NIWEP’s website www.niwep@btconnect.com
International
All statements to the
General Secretary of the United Nations and the Member States including the EWL’s and NIWEP’s are now available on the United Nations
website www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw51/OfficialDocuments.html
Death of Angela King
Jamaican
diplomat Angela E. V. King, former United Nations assistant secretary general and special adviser on gender issues and advancement
of women, dies aged 68 of breast cancer. For those of us very privileged
to have met her can only described her death as a great loss.
Angela served the UN as special adviser on Gender Issues
and Advancement of Women from 1997 until her retirement in April 2004. In expressing regret at King's death, Jamaican Prime
Minister Portia Simpson Miller said the international community has lost a pioneering champion in the achievement of women.
She
had also a long history of active work for the advancement of women in the UN Secretariat she was a founding member of the
ad hoc Group on Equal Rights for Women (GERWUN) and chaired the Secretariat's high-level Steering Committee on Improving the
Status of Women. She previously served as director of the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department for Economic
and Social Affairs (1996), where she was responsible for the follow-up to the Beijing Conference and for managing the central
UN program for the advancement of women. She also chaired the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender and Equality (IANWGE)
and supervised the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW).
Her diplomacy and advocacy with the Security Council,
in cooperation with other UN entities and non-governmental organisations, led to the adoption of the Council's resolution
1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon issued the following statement on King's
death "Angela King led the United Nations' efforts for the empowerment of women with knowledge, passion and courage as the
United Nations worked to translate into practice the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women. A fervent champion of the equality of women and men, and women's enjoyment of their
human rights, she knew that all parts of the United Nations had a responsibility to uphold those principles -- including in
the area of peace and security.”
New Deputy Secretary-General Takes Oath of Office and Pledges Loyalty to UN
Former
Tanzanian Foreign and Development Minister Asha-Rose Migiro was sworn in today as Deputy Secretary-General, making her the
third ever and the second woman to fill the post, and she vowed to advance the work and increase the cohesiveness of the United
Nations
