Invitation to Feminist Forum, 8-11 November, Florance, Italy
with two weeks of European activity.
Unparalleled assaults from financiers coupled with the imposition of inhuman austerity policies inhuman attack our most fundamental rights; today, we are oppressed to the extreme. Faced with limited economic means, the massive participation of women in such international meetings is increasingly difficult. However, it is more urgent than ever for women’s movements to be able to discuss and take action.
The objective of this Forum is to participate in the construction of a new process that unites feminists in Europe. At this meeting, we, as feminists, could use our experience in our different struggles as the basis for a discussion on how to face these new challenges; we could develop new strategies and a set of common demands.
This feminist Forum will be held in Florence during the event Firenze 10+10, from 8 to 11 November at Fortezza da Baso, Florence, in Italy. The initiative comes from a network of European feminists (each of them from different collectives, such as CADTM).
For two weeks just before Firenze 10+10 between October 22 and November 8, feminist activists from Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Greece, England and Hungary will be travelling across France for a series of meetings and seminars on the same subject ‘Illegitimate Debt, Austerity, Social crash and Feminism.’ But the tour could be expanded to other countries in Europe.
If you are interested, please write to info@wide-network.org and we will put you in touch with the organizers.
New website developed by KARAT: Women and development
KARAT has launched a new website: http://www.womenanddevelopment.org dedicated to the problem of feminization of poverty, the role of women in social and economical development, the importance of gender equality perspective in development policies and its role in overcoming stereotypes in the context of developing countries.
WIDE Austria publishes publication around gender-budgeting and budget support (in German)
This discussion paper reviews how in development cooperation the rules of budget support include little to no action to implement gender budgeting or gender justice in general, and do not ensure the implementation of democratic principles. Therefore, civil society and the gender budgeting community greatly fear that gender goals and concerns of unorganized / marginalized groups are forgotten in the implementation of general budget support. Gender budgeting would help in ensuring that the reforms will bring better results in terms of gender equity, and therefore has an essential role to play. Read more (in German).
UK Gadnetwork briefing paper “Gender Equality and the post-2015 framework”
As the 2015 deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, debate has begun in earnest as to what should follow. The recommendations of the Gender and Development Network (GADN) outlined in this briefing are intended to complement the various proposals for a post-2015 development framework currently being debated, rather than to add yet another alternative. We argue that it is critical to maintain a strong and explicit focus on gender equality in any new global framework, with priority given to reaching the poorest women and girls. Achieving this will require a two-pronged approach of mainstreaming gender in targets and indicators across the board, and a standalone goal or domain for gender equality.
DFID publishes UK Gadnetwork ‘How to’ notes on Violence Against Women and Girls
The guidance package that the UK Gender and Development Network produced for DFID on tackling violence against women and girls is now available for a wider audience. One can download the following ‘how-to’ notes: 1) A Theory of Change for Tackling Violence against Women and Girls, 2) A Practical Guide on Community Programming on Violence against Women and Girls, and 3)Guidance on Monitoring and Evaluation for Programming on Violence against Women and Girls.Although they were produced with an internal DFID audience in mind, DFID are very happy for us to share them widely and they are available on GADN’s website.
MIGS Report on Combating Honour Related Violence and Forced Marriage in Cyprus
MIGS is pleased to announce the publication of the “Cyprus National Report on Combating Honour Related Violence and Forced Marriage”, which is part of the EU funded Daphne III Programme. The study was carried out in Cyprus with NGOs and grass-roots organizations that work in the area of gender-based violence in order to identify best practice examples in addressing honour-related violence and forced marriage. The study also provided an overview of the national legal framework and policies to combat these forms of violence. To download the publication please click here.
Spanish civil society recommend stronger human rights approach in new plans government’s development cooperation
Many Spanish NGOs that focus on women’s rights and equality in development have published a set of recommendations for future Spanish development cooperation in the framework of the IV Spanish Master Plan. The document analyzes key aspects on gender issues demanding a more effective and human rights based cooperation, fulfilling the commitments made by Spain. Link to document: http://www.ceim.es/GENERO%20EN%20EL%20IV%20PLAN%20DIRECTOR_2012.pdf
Spanish women activists defend abortion rights in Global Call initiative
On 28 September, Spain took part, for the first time, on a Global Call initiative defending the abortion rights coming from Latin America. Many women went out in many cities protesting in defense of the abortion rights: “Deciding is not a crime. ABORTION OUT OF PENAL CODE”. They also denounced the neoliberal and conservative attacks to women`s rights. This event arose in 1990 in Argentina, within the V Latin American and Caribbean Feminist meeting, to show how many women died due to clandestine abortions, being the first cause of death for women in many countries in this area of the world (6,000 women killed each year in Latin America for a total of 4 million abortions). Link to the Manifiesto: http://nosotrasdecidimos.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-MANIFIESTO_5_Junio1.pdf
Upcoming activities for the next Latin-American summit
Some organisations from Latin-America and Spain, under the leading of the Spanish WIDE platform (WIDE-E), are mobilizing several actions in the framework of the Latin-American Summit to be held in Cadiz on 16 and 17 November, as it was proposed during the feminist seminar “Diálogos Consonantes” held in Madrid in April this year, reported in the previous newsletter.
Among the different actions that we are organizing are the following:
1. Virtual Campaign, focus on the collection of signatures of the Social and Feminist Manifesto
2. A Feminist Seminar: “Women standing: Not one single step backwards in equality policies”
3. Mobilization, in the framework of the official summit in Cadiz.
The online campaign has already started and you are kindly invited to sign the Manifesto and announce the initiative among your members and allies, supporting Latin-American, Spanish and Portuguese women`s and social demands. The Manifesto.