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

May 07 /1 Awarded UN Special Consultative Status 1999

Local/National

Debate on Increasing Women in Political Life at the Assembly

Women in Northern Ireland listened with great interest to one of the first debates to be held in the Assembly.  The motion proposed by Ms Jennifer McCann, Sinn Fein was “that this Assembly expresses serious concerns about the under-representation of women in the Assembly and calls on all parties to commit themselves to addressing the situation; and for the establishment of an all-party working group to discuss these and other issues that have a negative impact on women; and further call on an incoming Executive to fully implement and resource a comprehensive strategy to tackle the under-representation of women in political life.”  There was an amendment to the motion by Ms Michelle McIlveen DUP and later adopted which was leaving out all after “situation” and inserting “recognises the commitment of the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to implementing the Gender Equality Strategy: and believes that individuals should obtain positions on merit, otherwise the argument for greater representation from women can be diminished.”

This amendment was very disappointing for many women as it weakened the actions which the working group could have develop in order to deliver innovate and forward programmes to increase women’s participation in politics as well as motivating political parties to consider structural and cultural change.   It could have been a platform for the working group to hold Ministers accountable, offer advice in the development of departments strong action plans to tackle gender inequality that are required to compliment the Gender Equality Strategy for Northern Ireland.   Instead it has been returned to the Gender Unit of the OFMDFM an overstretched, under-resourced unit to oversee this.  This debate may have highlighted the barriers women face in politics and other decision-making bodies but 51% of the population did not hear any actions in which to address these barriers.  Full debate is on www.niwep.org.uk

Northern Ireland Policing Board

Congratulations to those women who have been appointed to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. 

Policing Board members:              

                                      Dolores Kelly – SDLP

                                      Martina Anderson - Sinn Fein

                                      Rosaleen Moore – Social Worker

                                      Mary McKee – Director Groundwork

The Boards’ previous increase of 6 women was not maintained and has reduced to 4 out of 19 Board Members.  Given the disappointment following the debate within the Assembly this highlights that new structures are not being gender proofed or a commitment to implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325 - increase women’s participation at decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace processes and to increase women’s representation at all decision-making levels are not being applied.

Bill of Human Rights for Northern Ireland

The April meeting of the Bill of Rights Forum (BORF) saw the new Chairperson Chris Sidoti, welcome the participants to the second meeting.  Minutes from the meeting can be seen on NIWEPs website www.niwep.org.uk

A discussion paper for the BORF in relation to Public Outreach was circulated to members in May 2007.  The paper was prepared by the chair and raises questions and issues for consideration in relation to a public outreach strategy for the NI BORF.  It was prepared on the basis of discussion at the second meeting of the Forum and submissions by the members that both make specific proposals and pose questions.  The Human Rights Consortium and the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) have responded by preparing submissions.  The discussion paper and submissions are available on NIWEPs website www.niwep.org.uk

A paper which presented four options to of the working groups for the BORF was also circulated in May. 

OPTION A- list the nine working groups used by the NIHRC and add to it a working group on women.  There would be no working group on civil and political rights under this option, raising the question how these rights would be covered.

OPTION B – consolidate the ten working groups listed in Option A into five working groups.  A working group on civil and political rights is added to this option and the development of a preamble is added to the tasks of the implementation working group.  So this option has six groups.

OPTION C – proposes three gender working groups.

OPTION D – lists the working groups proposed by the Chair in his process paper. 

Full text of the papers can be found on NIWEP’s website www.niwep.org.uk

Interim Report on the Regional Consultation with UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women

The National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO) invited Yakin Erturk the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (UNSRVAW) to an NGO-led Regional Consultation on Violence Against Women held in London at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre over three days in January, 2007 at which NIWEP were represented by Margot Hesketh.   The interim report from the Regional Consultation is available on: http://www.nawo.org.uk/upload/documents/document68.pdf or through NIWEPs Website www.niwep.org.uk

European News

Europe for Citizens

The new “Europe for Citizens” programme was launched on the 10 May in a joint event taking place in Brussels and Rhodes.  The Europe for Citizens programme is about promoting civic participation in European issues by citizens across the EU.  It places the emphasis on achieving ‘active European citizenship’, to improve Europeans’ participation in the construction of Europe by co-funding projects relative to the following themes “Active citizens for Europe”, “active civil society in Europe,” “Together for Europe,” and “an Active European Remembrance”.  The overall budget for the Programme between 2007and 2013 will be 215 million euro.

Open Letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

On the occasion of the International Day on Families on May 15 2007 the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) sent the following letter to the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso.

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) would like to address the President of the European Commission to highlight some issues that are crucial for all women and men in Europe namely the European Union’s strategy and commitments in relation to care services for children and people with additional support needs.

In 1957 in the Treaty of Rome, Europe made its first commitment to equality between women and men. In 2002, with the Barcelona targets, all Member States of the European Union made concrete commitments to improve the situation in relation to care services. Time has passed since those commitments were made, and in 2007, the lack of care services in the EU is an issue for many households in Europe and still a major obstacle women’s full participation in all aspects of economic, social, cultural and political life. One prerequisite to achieve equality between women and men is for women to be economically independent. Caring responsibilities, which are still mainly carried out by women, impact on to gender equality and on women’s ability for life-course integration into the labour market.

In 2006-2007, the European Women’s Lobby has been leading a campaign on Care, entitled “Who Cares?” in which it appeals to decision makers to create affordable, quality and accessible care services in Europe.  The petition, which we are presenting to you today, was part of the EWL campaign and was signed by thousands of women and men of all ages throughout Europe, who are concerned and affected by this issue.

On behalf of the concerned Europeans who signed the EWL petition and in view of the commitments made by the European Commission, notably in the Roadmap for equality between women and men, we would like to ask you what the intentions of the European Commission are in relation to the points raised by the petition, namely:

1. The achievement of the childcare targets adopted during the Barcelona Council (to provide childcare by 2010 to at least 90% of children between 3 years old and the mandatory school age and at least 33% of children under 3 years of age);
2. Universal and affordable provision of care services for older, disabled and other dependents, including setting European targets to achieve this goal;
3. Strengthening of EU legislation on the reconciliation of work and private life for women and men including maternity, paternity and parental leave.

On the occasion of International Families Day and at the occasion of the informal meeting of the Ministers for Gender Equality and Family Affairs on 15 and 16 May in Bad Pyrmont, we would like to stress that families in Europe are of many different kind and that the “breadwinner” model based on nuclear families, on which social protection systems and social policies are often based in Europe doesn’t bring appropriate answers to the daily life of women and men in Europe. Concrete measures to improve the situation in relation to care services and to reconciliation of private and working life are urgently needed. We very much hope that that European Commission will take the lead in tackling these issues in a way that will contribute to achieving equality between women and men and strengthening the European social model.

International

Global Summit of Women

Sixty-seven economics to date are being represented at the 2007 Global Summit of Women, which takes place June 14-16 in Berlin, Germany.  Sizeable delegations are coming to this year’s Summit and participation is projected to match last year’s 900 delegate attendance.  Forty-one high-ranking government officials who range from Latvia’s President to 38 ministers and sub-ministers attending the Ministerial Roundtable preceding the Summit comprise the government side of this global gathering.

On the corporate side, Daimler Chrysler, Deutsche Telekom, Accenture, Microsoft, IBM, Pfizer, among others are having their own pre-meetings with their respective ‘delegations’ while the Ministers are holding their own exchanges. 

On the entrepreneurial side, the Vice President of Vietnam leads a delegation of 70, including 60 top businesswomen organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce.  Iceland’s Minister for the Environment, Jonina Bjartmarz, is leading a trade mission of women small business owners from her country, while the Deputy Minister of Trade of South Africa is bringing 20 women business owners to join the Summit.

Organisations like AED from Spain and the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs are also forming groups of businesswomen from their respective countries, as well as the Summit’s 50 International Member and Partner Organisations.  The Summit will be posting on its website www.globewomen.com a listing of delegations so that groups can arrange to meet each other at the Summit during the designed networking sessions.

A special Youth Forum at Humboldt University has also been scheduled before the Summit itself, in which German students will be hearing from a panel of accomplished businesswomen from different parts of the world.

United Nations Civil Society Development Forum 2007

Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform has been invited to participate in a forum at a conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) entitled “A Platform for Development – Countdown to 2015”.

The Forum is to highlight:

(i)                 the crucial role of the internally agreed development goals (IADGs) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the pursuit of a results-oriented global development strategy; and

(ii)               the need for an assessment of the development community’s efforts and achievements, so far, in meeting these goals

The Forum will be held from the 28-30 June at the International Conference Centre in Geneva and the Forum aims to bring together global civil society actors to ‘think future’ and to work on issues related to the wider development agenda.  Its output and conclusions are to be instrumental for the work of the strengthened Economic and Social Council, especially for its development Co-operation Forum and the Annual Ministerial Review.  NGOs and their partners will have a special opportunity to contribute to the implementation of innovative policies to achieve the IADGs and MDGs.

Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

The UK report to the CEDAW Committee is now available on NIWEPs website www.niwep.org.uk NIWEP has been informed there will be a pre-session of select CEDAW committee members who will meet to draw up questions for the government to answer.  This will give NIWEP a chance to shape and influence the questions which will include:

• The most important issues facing women in Northern Ireland
• What is missing from the UK government’s report
• What the working group should be asking the UK government

The submission is be the 2 July and will appear on NIWEP’s website.