May 2006 Newsletter
European Observatory on Violence Against Women: Strengthening women’s human rights and eradicating all forms of violence against women (VAW) is an essential part of the work of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) towards achieving gender equality.
The EWL European Observatory on Violence against Women was set up in 1977 with experts from all EU countries; it shares best practice and identifies emerging policy issues in Europe. It will meet in Budapest for 3 days in May with new experts coming from new Member States and neighbouring countries, to map legislation, policies and NGOs participation on VAW and to discuss what could be considered common standards for good practice. The UK Joint Committee for Women of which NIWEP is a member will be attending.
Against Domestic Violence Against Women for 2007: The Council of Europe is preparing a pan-European Parliamentary campaign against domestic violence against women for 2007. At an EU level, the Economic and Social Committee just adopted an Opinion on domestic violence against women and the European Parliament is discussing the new DAPHNE proposals, firmly requesting to separate the actions on drugs prevention and the actions on violence against women, youth and children.
Road Map on Gender Equality 2006-2010: One of the key promising steps forward from the European Commission’s Road Map on Gender Equality 2006-2010, as it includes actions to support Member States and NGOs to eradicate Violence Against Women, including by encouraging Member States to establish national action plans. The European Women’s Lobby is invited to participate in the Commission Conference on European gender equality policies on May 4-5, stresses the importance of mechanisms to monitor the implementation of commitments and of human rights standards, to ensure that the root causes and consequences of violence against women are tackled at all levels, from the private sphere to the international level.
Call for signatures on reproductive rights: The declaration adopted during the hearing on Reproductive Health and Sexual Education organised by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament on International Women’s Day, calls for greater respect for sexual and reproductive rights as well as comprehensive sexual education, easy access to information, guidance and family planning, safe abortion and the abolition of restrictive clause on reproductive rights in the legislations of all EU Member States. The organisers of the hearing ask for support and signing of the declaration which is available in 21 languages on: www.guengl.org
Portraying Politics: project to challenge the media to put women in the picture: A toolkit was launched in April 2006 by the European Federation of Journalists. This initiative follows the Global Media Monitoring project 2005 which pointed out that although women represent 25% of politicians in Europe only 10% of politicians in the European news are women. The toolkit consists of a DVS and companying text that raises issues and questions for journalists, trainers and programme makers. The aim is to encourage media professionals to re-think the gender perspective in their work. More information: www.portrayingpolitics.org
Gender Equality in Schools: This Oxfam paper discusses the content and delivery of education and how it can reflect and reproduce gender inequalities. Girls’ and Boys’ learning and interaction with each other, and the teacher, are influenced by ways of teaching, the content of the curriculum, and relations within the classroom. The paper considers these aspects of education provision and recommends changes needed to ensure that education provision will promote gender equality. The paper can be found on www.oxfam.org.uk
