tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-150078292024-03-06T08:09:59.711+00:00Lesley's WorldWomen's rights, travel, politics, democracy-building work, gender and security, post-conflict reconstruction programmes, international news and comment ... an odd mix, but that's my life!Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-23929312430536704422021-08-28T11:19:00.001+01:002021-08-28T11:22:02.200+01:00 Afghan Women Journalists – Open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP Subject: Immediate danger to all Afghan women journalists <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><h1 style="clear: both;">Below is a letter with 40 signatories sent to Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP. Please feel free to circulate it. Thanks!</h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Copies were also sent to Dominic Raab MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ben Wallace MP, Secretary of State for Defence and John Whittingdale MP, Minister of State for Media and Data).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">19 August 2021 Afghan Women Journalists – urgent letter</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Subject: Immediate danger to Afghan women journalists </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Several of us among the forty human rights activists, MPs, Peers and other signatories to this letter have worked in Afghanistan with women in media and women’s rights defenders. As women and as journalists these women are doubly targeted by the Taliban. As a debt to our commitment to free media, the UK could/should act swiftly to offer immediate refugee asylum to as many of them as possible. It is especially heart-wrenching for those of us who have worked in Afghanistan with these courageous women to see what is happening as the Taliban take over.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Context:</b> over the past 17 years Afghan media has flourished. Around 2000 media outlets have been functioning with an estimated 12,000 working journalists of whom 2,000 are women. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Afghanistan’s media women have a 100-years old history. Ershad al-Nuswan was the first women's magazine produced by the women of Kabul in 1921. Since then Afghan women in media have had stages of ups and downs. Media in general was silenced during the regime of Taliban (1996-2001). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Your sincerely</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Lesley Abdela. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, Member of Women in Journalism, Member of National Alliance of Women’s Organisations. Senior Partner Shevolution lesley.abdela@shevolution.com </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Urgent SOS messages: the following urgent messages are from Mandira Raut, Board Member of The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IWART), and separately from Afghan film-maker Sahraa Karimi. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">International Association of Women in Radio and Television Board Member, Mandira Raut says: ‘Dear Lesley, Thank you for your message. Yes Please add my name and I am forwarding this message to my board and also have copied them in this email as we all are trying our best to rescue our 9 Afghan IAWRT members who have received death threats. We are looking for every possible way to support them to leave the country and reside in any other countries.’</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Excerpts from an open letter from Sahraa Karimi. ‘My name is Sahraa Karimi, a film director and current general director of Afghan Film, the only state-owned film company, established in 1968. I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people from the Taliban, especially filmmakers. In the last few weeks, the Taliban have gained control of so many provinces.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We know that this decision to abandon our people is wrong, that this hasty troop withdrawal is a betrayal of our people and all that we did when Afghans won the Cold War for the West. Our people were forgotten then, leading up to the Taliban’s dark rule, and now, after twenty years of immense gains for our country and especially our younger generations, all could be lost again in this abandonment.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We need your voice. Everything that I have worked so hard to build as a filmmaker in my country is at risk of falling. If the Taliban take over they will ban all art. I and other filmmakers could be next on their hit list. They will strip women’s rights, we will be pushed into the shadows of our homes and our voices, our expression will be stifled into silence. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I do not understand this world. I do not understand this silence. I will stay and fight for my country, but I cannot do it alone. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Please help us get this world to care about what is happening to us. Please help us by informing your countries’ most important media what is going on here in Afghanistan. Be our voices outside Afghanistan. If the Taliban take over Kabul, we may not have access to the internet or any communication tool at all. Please engage your filmmakers, artists to support us to be our voice.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This war is not a civil war, this is a proxy war, this is an imposed war and it is the result of the US deal with the Taliban. Please as much as you can share this fact with your media and write about us on your social media.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The world should not turn its back on us. This support would be the greatest help we need right now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Please help us before the Taliban take over Kabul. We have such little time, maybe days. Thank you so much. I appreciate your pure true heart so dearly.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With regards, Sahraa Karimi.’ </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><h3 style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: small;">Letter Co-Signatories:</span></h3><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Zarghuna Kargar award winning journalist based in London. Formerly producer and presenter the BBC Afghan Woman's Hour. She has dedicated most of her journalistic career to working for and with Afghan women, reporting and writing their stories. She speaks Pashto, Dari, English, and Urdu. </span></span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mandira Raut, Board Member, International Association of Women in Radio and Television. Email: mandiraworks@gmail.com</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tim Crook - President of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative) MP Worthing West, Father of the House of Commons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Women in Journalism https://womeninjournalism.co.uk/about-us/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bahaar Joya.BBC correspondent in Afghanistan 2012/2015 Reuters 2017/2018 Focus on women’s issues in Afghanistan and Iran.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rachel Wright, BBC Film-maker, Journalist and Trainer for BBC Persian TV, BBC Arabic TV, BBC Urdu TV.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Layla Moran MP Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Julie Ward MEP Labour North West England region, 2014 to 2020.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Robin Squire, (Conservative) Parliamentary Under Secretary, Departments of Environment and Education 1992-1997.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jamie Stone MP for Cathness, Sutherland and Eastern Ross Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Defence), and (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: left;">Baroness (Jane) Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury- Liberal Democrat spokesperson in the Lords for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Journalist and TV producer - the BBC and Channel 4: Panorama, Newsnight and A Week In Politics and documentaries. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Janet Gunn CMG, Trustee of the BEARR Trust.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Right Honourable, The Baroness Featherstone, PC.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Martha Jean Baker – Former International Vice President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Qaisra Shahraz MBE, award winning peace & gender activist. Founder and Executive Director of Muslim Arts and Culture Festival, & Muslim Women Arts Foundation/Festival (2022) and trustee of We Stand Together.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Kali Mountford, former Labour MP, Colne Valley, Former Secretary to the APPG on Domestic Violence & PPS to Defence Secretary </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rt. Hon. Lord McNally</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Claire Curtis-Thomas (Labour) Former MP for Crosby. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Baroness Grender, Liberal Democrat Peer (Olly Grender).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Barbara Cleary Vice Chair, Security Women.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Dr Juliet Colman, Director, Security Wome</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sally Spear, Chair, Women’s Advisory Council to United Nations Association UK (UNA-UK)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rubi Bhattacharyya, Secretary of Women’s Advisory Council - UNA-UK</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">John Austin Past Chair British Group of the Inter Parliamentary Union. (Labour MP Woolwich/Erith & Thamesmead 1992-2010)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Annette Lawson, OBE. Ambassador, National Alliance of Women’s Organisations</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jane Grant, co-founder the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Britt Gustawsson, Zonta London Club, Zonta International</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Richard Burden, Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield 1992-2019</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nick Palmer, (Labour) former MP for Broxtowe</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Eileen Gordon former MP for Romford</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hilarie Owen, CEO The Leaders Institute and Author </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Dr Denis MacShane. Former Europe Minister</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Brenda Rosen</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Margaret Owen OBE, President and Founder Widows for Peace through Democracy. Barrister specialising in women’s human rights. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Maxine Peake, Writer, Film and Theatre Actress.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Khatija Barday-Wood, Founder of Empowers, Inspires and Motivates Muslim women through Advocacy and Nurture (EIMAN)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Felicity Read, Managing Director, Leapfrog PR </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Swadeka Ahsun</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Katherine Trebeck, Economist, The Wellbeing Economy Alliance</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><p></p>Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-20538172468581117962020-08-27T15:07:00.003+01:002020-08-27T15:24:30.385+01:00Anniversary. 'The Beijing Express Declaration' (UNSCR 1325). Aboard the trans-Siberian train to the 1995 Fourth UN Conference on Women<p> <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">‘THE BEIJING EXPRESS DECLARATION’ </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">By Lesley Abdela<o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">Lesley.abdela@shevolution.com<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><i>On this week 25 years ago I was aboard the UNDP ‘Beijing Express’</i><i><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> train travelling to the 1995 United Nations 4th Global Conference on Women. </span></i><i>The demands in the Beijing Express Declaration drawn up in carriage 16 aboard the train have a strong resonance for a post Covid 19 better world.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The half a kilometre long line of coaches set off from Warsaw’s main railway station at 9am on August 21, 1995, destination Beijing. The journey was to change the direction of my life. <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">My fellow passengers </span>were a microcosm of the 35,000 women (and the few men) from 189 countries heading to Beijing for the now iconic <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">1995 United Nations 4th Global Conference on Women. </span>They were former political prisoners, trade unionists, Members of Parliament, activists, business entrepreneurs, journalists, peace activists, authors, artists, and refugees.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Many had been directly on the receiving end of disastrous man-made policies. These women wanted the power to shape a better future.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Many of the passengers came from opposing sides in conflicts. At our eve of departure dinner in Warsaw, Greek and Turkish Cypriot women announced, ‘This is the first time we Greeks and Turks have been allowed to talk together in 25 years. We want to start a new peace initiative.’<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">It was on the train with these women from the Balkans, the Baltics, the Caucasus, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Mozambique, Lebanon and Cyprus that I realised my life growing up in the United Kingdom in peace-time democracy was not the norm. The normality for many others was to grow up in countries where there was conflict or full-scale war and very little, (if any) democracy. That was the first time this reality had been spelt out to me. Until then my main focus had centred on getting more women elected to the UK’s and world parliaments. In 1980 I had founded and led the all-Party 300 Group for Women in Politics campaign. After the Beijing Express experience my activities extended to women, peace and security.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The UNDP Beijing Express Train was dreamed up by UNDP Senior Executive Leueen Miller from the Republic of Ireland. It gave 250 women who would not have been able to financially afford to go to the historic conference the chance to participate. UNDP invited government and non-governmental representatives from 36 countries to travel aboard.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The UNDP chartered President Yeltsin’s t train from the Russians. The carriages were more accustomed to housing the Russian political and military glitterati than the world’s feminists. Eight burly members of the Russian Black Berets’ special commandos rode shot-gun to protect us from mafia and terrorist attacks, even a rumoured possible ‘train-nap’ by Chechen rebels. Our musclemen bodyguards made Rambo look like a wimp. When we set off from Warsaw one of them hoisted aboard my large suitcase, laden with books, and papers as though it were light hand-baggage.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The majority of the women on the Beijing Express were from <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">former Soviet Union and satellite nations</span>. This would be the first time they could represent their newly independent nations. At the time of the previous UN conference on women in 1985 in Nairobi, these nations had still been subsumed in the Soviet empire. Ziva Vidmar from Ljubljana, Slovenia, said, ‘Ten years ago I heard on the radio news about the UN Third World conference on women in Nairobi. The speaker said there would be a similar conference in 1995. I thought lucky women who will be there! I envied them but as it turned out I was envying myself. Here I am.’ <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><b>Life Aboard<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">In front of us stretched a journey of 8000 kilometers (5,734) miles along the trans-Siberian railway, the longest continuous rail journey in the world. The train was crammed to the gunnels with Oligocen mineral water, snacks from Kraft Jacobs Suchard, supplies from Xerox and 3M, five pallets of Danone Yoghurt, computers from Rent-a-PC plus Accent computer software and an umbrella size satellite dish.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Local bands, dancers, singers, political dignitaries and women with flowers greeted us with music and speeches along our route. We danced on railway station platforms from Moscow to Mongolia. In Minsk, capital of Belarus, as Greek and Turkish Cypriot women danced together to a local Belarus band they shouted, ‘We want the world to see us together - Greeks and Turks - we women will show you how to build a better future.’ Greek and Turkish Cypriots co-hosted an evening party aboard the train titled, ‘Enemies sing dance and read poetry together’. One of those singers was Katie Economidou. She is now a famous mezzo-soprano singer. The final entertainment in our honour was at 4 o’clock in the morning in a railway station car-park on the Mongolia/China border. We were greeted by Mongolian women MPs and a nine-year old boy Monglian boy singing karaoke.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Life aboard was exhilarating but tiring. <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">We travelled from Warsaw via Belarus, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia and Northern China, to Beijing. </span>We passed though seven time zones in eight days. The most oft-repeated questions each day was ‘what time is it?’<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Moving our clocks back one hour or two hours each night, being awakened in the extreme early hours for customs at borders or to sing and dance on railway platforms with reception committees of women and dignatories along the way and getting up early to catch breakfast before my first training shift meant I never got enough sleep. For eight days and seven nights I shared a two berth cabin with Katina. Mercifully for both of us Katina was the conflict prevention expert on the train.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The shower carriage was in the middle of the train. Our sleeping cabins were at one end of the train, and the bar and dining carriages were at the opposite end. My walks, several times a day, of the kilometre round trip between our cabin and my workshop sessions in the saloon-bar kept me physically fit. Government officials and NGO activists shared six-berth sleeping cabins. Along the train corridors posters and flags stuck on the cabin doors proclaimed the nationality of the room-mates. The corridor floor swayed like a ship’s deck. Striding along up and down the 19 carriages, with arms waving around like a tight rope walker to keep my balance acted as combined step exercises and aerobics. Wherever two carriages were linked I had to push a heavy door open and jump over two overlapping metal flaps slithering in opposite directions. The railway track below was clearly visible on either side. Not a comfortable sensation for someone like me who suffers from vertigo!<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The Russian Railways staff were helpful and polite. Our carriage attendant Natalie kept us supplied with tea from a samovar. She also rescued me on a couple of occasions when I needed a quick wash and a mirror and didn’t have time to wait in the queue for the showers in the shower carriage.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">My role aboard the train was to conduct workshops on activism, democratisation, and advocacy. </span>The UK Government Know-How Fund and The British Council funded my passage to represent the UK on the train as part of a multi-national team. We all gave our time free of charge.<span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> </span>My fellow <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Trainers and experts aboard the train came from the USA, Canada, Israel, Japan and Turkey and </span>South African-born anti-apartheid campaigner Stephanie Urdang. <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">They conducted workshops on negotiating skills, conflict mediation and conflict resolution, on how to change world trade agreements and create economic policies to suit the world's women - even courses in English language, computer skills and networking through e-mail.</span><span style="background: yellow;"></span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The 25 women in my training group were courageous campaigners from 17 countries alphabetically from Armenia to Uzbekistan. Ala Mindicanu MP, author of children’s books, had been branded ‘The most dangerous person in the Republic of Moldova’ and arrested twice for organising pickets in support of Perestroika. ‘I was lucky,’ she said, ‘I was only imprisoned for a few days. By then the judges had changed too. They said pickets are a new development there is no law against them.’ She added, ‘I am campaigning for more women in politics because we are only 4% in our Parliament, but women make up over 60% of high school graduates.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The Beijing Express was a bizarre training environment. Workshop sessions and discussions were held in the train’s dining carriage, eight-seater railway cabins or the saloon bar. The barman who served us vodka or Coca-Cola at US$2 a drink was the same barman who served Russia’s President Yeltsin. During my workshop sessions I glimpsed the scenes flashing past the train windows: the unending silver-birch forests of Russia, the sunlit Alpine scenery of Siberia, 25% of the world’s drinking water in the rapidly shrinking Lake Baikal, and herds of ponies and a few of the estimated two million double-humped Bactrian camels roaming the Mongolian steppes.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">From the train window the Siberian countryside looked green and attractive in the Summer sunshine. The reality for many aboard was different. Shortly before, during and immediately after World War II, the Soviet dictator Stalin conducted a series of cruel mass deportations which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949 nearly 3.3 million women, men and children were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics. Our travelling companions described the impact on their families exiled to the Soviet Gulags in Siberia. Tiia-Ingrid Kriisa from Estonia said the first time she travelled by train through Eastern Siberia was during the 1949 deportations. ‘I was six years old. I remember not only the journey, riding in wagons meant for animals, but also the night we were given a few minutes to pack before being taken away from our house and homeland and loaded on an open truck.’ She added, ‘This time I am travelling of my own free will with other free people!’<span style="background: yellow;"></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">‘I am following the footsteps of my father’ said Ziva Vidmar from Slovenia. ‘He spent three years living in camp barracks as a prisoner of war here in Siberia. He survived without a blanket or a coat.’<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Travelling on the UNDP Beijing Express was like living in a late-20<sup>th</sup> century version of Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. Each woman had a tale to tell. Bosnian lawyer Jasna Basksic-Mufti risked her life escaping Serb-encircled Sarajevo to join the Beijing Express. She escaped by dead of night through the famous tunnel from the besieged capital city with her two small children. ‘The tunnel is half a mile long and you have to stoop much of the way,’ she said. A truck met them at the end and drove them within 300 metres of the Serb front line over Mount Igman in the dark with the vehicle’s lights switched off. Jasna Basksic-Mufti was President of the Human Rights Commission in the International Peace Centre, Sarajevo. Her Commission was one of the first to document the concentration camp rapes and ethnic cleansing. En route to Warsaw Jasmin had temporarily left her children at her mother’s home in Croatia. She planned to collect them and return to Sarajevo after the Beijing conference: ‘I would rather face the shelling than have to live the life of a refugee,’ she said. Mozambique MP Lina Magala had been a farmer growing rice , maize and banana in Mozambique now she campaigned to ban the use of child soldiers. It was the first time I heard about child-soldiers. Bosnian and Croatian women showed a horrifying film about the Balkan war. They were seeking overseas donors to financially ‘adopt’ 10,000 children in refugee camps.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 6pt 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">The Beijing Express Declaration (27 August 1995)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">On the sixth day of our journey, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Director of the UNDP Human Development Report office, invited me to chair and facilitate the final session aboard. The historic session took place in the carriage more usually serving as President’s Yeltsin’s bar. The goal was to draw up a statement we titled <i>The Beijing Express Declaration</i>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><b>Key themes from the <i>UNDP Beijing Express Declaration</i> later formed the basis of the first ever UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security whose twentieth anniversary arrives in October 2020.</b> On 31 October 2000 The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325). <a href="http://www.peacewomen.org/system/files/global_study_submissions/ECPSubmission-GlobalStudyWPS_0.pdf" style="color: #954f72;">UNSCR 1325</a> called for an ‘increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict’<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">The Beijing Declaration was drawn up by a group of 25 women as we approached Beijing. It included women from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Poland, Moldova, Romania, the USA, the United Kingdom, Japan, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Tanzania, Kurdistan, Turkey , Bosnia, Cyprus and Russia. While mostly male diplomats and politicians continued along early 20<sup>th</sup> Century diplomacy, trying in vain to patch up over forty global conflicts, these women were looking for radical changes to prevent conflicts in the first place. Nani Chanishvili from Georgia said, ‘What we need is prevention diplomacy. We in Georgia know how the population suffers. As a result of the war in Georgia 300,000 people fled as refugees. 30,000 died. We must put pressure on governments to allow the UN to go in earlier to stop conflicts and not have to wait to be allowed in. Under the present system the results of your peace building before, through, and after conflict are worse than zero.’ <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 6pt 0cm;">The working group continued drafting the final Declaration throughout the night. It has a strong resonance at this time of discussions about a Post Pandemic world It included We affirmed the following:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><i>White Scarves, Not Blue Helmets</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">(This heading is symbolic - in certain Islamic countries, when a woman throws down her white scarf no person must pass. This has been used on occasion to stop men fighting)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">1.) We want women’s full participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peace-keeping. 2) The present system of peace-making and negotiations dominated by senior men at governmental levels has patently failed and is now discredited. We want women’s organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations from all sides in all future peace talks and working with governments on developing and expanding ‘Preventive Diplomacy’.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">3) We want a ‘Hot Spot’ Commission set up to try to prevent conflict where trouble is brewing. This Commission, consisting of women and men, would be set up to intervene in conflict prevention, resolution and settlement.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">4) We want the UN Mandate expanded to include Preventive Diplomacy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">5) We want economic and political sanctions imposed on parties violating human rights – but humanitarian aid should be allowed to continue to be delivered .<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">6) We want men who commit rape as a war crime to be brought to justice and prosecuted as war criminals. We believe this will only happen if women are included equally with men on committees responsible for bringing these men to trial.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">7) We want property rights recognised as Human Rights, and improved mechanisms for getting back property snatched away in conflicts.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">8) We want systems of national political and public life reformed to include women’s equal participation with men in political, economic and international decision-making at all levels, from local to national to global. This means also providing training and encouragement for women to participate in politics and public life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">9) We want government policies favourable to women. Many policies developed by governments either ignore women’s needs or actually harm women. We want governments in transition economies to show what impact their policies are having on women. This would be a way to get policymakers to develop policies that are women-friendly.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: yellow;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><i>The New '-ism'<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Neither Communism nor Capitalism has worked well for the majority of the world’s women. We believe the new ‘ism’ will come from a new approach to world economics.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Many economic policies have been disastrous for women. It is often women who bear the brunt of economic restructuring policies made by organisations who too often overlook the way their polices could impact on millions of women.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Under both Communism and Capitalism the quality of people’s lives is all too often sacrificed for the goal of wealth creation. Human development should not be sacrificed in the name of economic growth but rather economic growth should be used as a tool to help people achieve a healthy and creative life. We want governments to give financial support to women’s groups. These voices must be heard.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">We want women’s unpaid work measured and recognised in economic arrangements such as pensions. Nearly 50% of the US$23 Trillion global output is provided by women’s unpaid work. We need fairer sharing of the work and equality in the home. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr of the UNDP says, “When we get world leaders to recognise that 70% of the world’s GDP is unpaid work, they won’t say women working at home can’t qualify for pensions on an equal basis with men.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: yellow;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;">Since my life changing epic trip I have been feet on the ground in many conflict and post-conflict countries - as a journalist in Bosnia, as OSCE Deputy for Democratisation in Kosovo, as a Consultant assessing women’s needs in the immediate aftermath of the civil war in Sierra Leone, a Civil Society Consultant working with women’s associations and Human Rights associations with RTI in Iraq, compiling needs assessments with women in Afghanistan, Senior Gender Advisor to the UN Agencies Nepal. As a civil society consultant in Iraq. In 2019 I was in post-civil war Sri Lanka advising the British Council on mainstreaming gender into an language and arts Peace-building programmes. I have spoken about Women, Peace and Security at conferences across the world on the need to fully implement UNSCR 1325 and its ‘daughter’ resolutions, including in the Summer of 2019 at conferences organised by the NGO ‘Democracy Today’ in Yerevan, Armenia, and at The University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: yellow;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><a href="mailto:lesley.abdela@shevolution.com" style="color: #954f72;">lesley.abdela@shevolution.com</a><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration-line: underline;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration-line: underline;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-55795947955527079142020-03-08T09:44:00.000+00:002020-03-08T09:45:00.219+00:00International Women's Day, help to transform attitudes so that women and girls who have survived rape in deadly conflict are treated with dignity and respect by society, like other war veterans. <div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<b style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">I ask everyone to think about ways you can help </b><b style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">to transform attitudes so that women and girls who have survived rape in deadly conflict are treated with dignity and respect by society, like other war veterans. </b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Men wounded in battle get statues, pensions and respect, but women and girls wounded by Conflict Related Sexual Violence are seen as something shameful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Whether it’s Syria, Bosnia, Kosovo, Congo, the Yasidi community or elsewhere, one of the most destructive powers of rape as a weapon of war lies in the deep-rooted stigma attached to women and girls who are survivors of Conflict Related Sexual Violence. Their families fear being tarnished by the shame and stigma. Long after the end of the conflict, wives, mothers and daughters who are CRSV Survivors, are ostracised by their husbands, families and communities. They are even told to kill themselves because they ‘have brought shame on their family’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Female survivors of Conflict Related Sexual Violence could be helped to overcome their horrendous experience if their families, communities and everyone else treat them with dignity and respect.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">We are holding</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">a meeting</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">on Tuesday 24 March at the House of Commons. It would be super if you can come. You are welcome to bring a friend or colleague with you too. The link to register to attend is below.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Purpose of meeting on 24 March 2020</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Back in 2015 Lesley Abdela and Tim Symonds arranged a discussion on this matter at the British Council HQ, including people from the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Society of Sculptors, and significant activists from major women’s campaign groups.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We suggested the idea of a ‘Testament’, perhaps a physical monument (or?) in a public location, to mark the survivor spirit of the multitudes of women and girls who have been raped in war. We thought to start at home in the UK. People in diverse countries can choose some similar construct or their own ways and methods. The aim is to help to encourage everyone to take actions to transform attitudes towards women and girls who have been raped in war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The idea was met with great enthusiasm lots of good suggestions, but the main drivers of the idea, had to get on with their professional lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">By popular acclaim we are returning to the idea see if/how it can be moved forward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The main point of the meeting will be to decide what sort of Testament, and where could it be best located for the maximum impact if it has physical shape, i.e. a monument, or? And next steps for making it happen and how,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">who/how/where <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can register for the House of Commons meeting with this link. There is no charge to register nor to attend the meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-14716464509979329422019-07-30T12:33:00.000+01:002019-07-30T12:40:13.586+01:00Boris Johnson's new Brexit Chief David Frost - threat to UK women's rights.<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">UK women beware of losing your rights! Alarm bells are clanging. </span>Whether you voted to remain or leave the European Union or abstained – pay heed.<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/boris-johnson" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">Boris Johnson</a>’s new <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/brexit" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">Brexit</a> chief, <u>David Frost</u>, wants to scrap Theresa May’s commitment to protect British workers’ rights. This could result in women’s rights being consigned to the wheelie bin of history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I have worked on women’s rights and Gender issues in over 50 countries and have watched with alarm how, in the turmoil of a society in transition, whenever an opportunity arises to roll back women’s civil, social, economic and political gains, <i>they will be rolled back</i>. It can happen with frightening speed as it did in former Communist countries and in the Arab uprisings. It is happening here in the UK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">David Frost former chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was appointed last week by Mr Johnson to replace Olly Robbins as Downing Street’s EU chief, a role that will see him leading any future talks with Brussels. Just two months ago <u><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-boris-johnson-eu-workers-rights-david-frost-theresa-may-barnier-a9025596.html?fbclid=IwAR14hwQggjSww57VpV_3_FLRr1JZR9fyiNiGTBxjRXmo9u9_CQhR-cN_GL4" target="_blank">David Frost former chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that EU rights should not automatically be written into law after Brexit.</a></u> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Frost is not the only man happy to scrap women’s hard won rights. Over the period of the BREXIT debate:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A headline in the Sunday Express was specific: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #292221; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><u><a href="https://www.blogger.com/unday%20Express%20July%202015%E2%80%99%20%20http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/591066/Equal-pay-red-tape-business-gender-gap-women-s-rights" target="_blank">‘Equal pay diktat is just more red tape for business.’ </a></u></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Former Conservative MEP Martin Callanan said in a speech:<i>“One of the best ways to speed up growth is to … scrap the Pregnant Workers Directive and all of the other barriers to actually employing people if we really want to create jobs”. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The EU has been at the forefront of driving greater gender equality for women. It has often felt over the years as though the UK needed to be dragged along towards progress on women’s rights like an elephant on a piece of elastic. Without intervention from the European Union we would not have: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">equal treatment for part-time workers (the majority of whom are women); <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">anti-discrimination legislation on employment, training and working conditions; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the pregnant workers directive which gives women the right to take time off work to attend medical appointments; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">sex discrimination rules which place the burden of proof on the defendant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And it was the European Court of Justice that obliged the British government to amend the legislation to provide equal pay for work of equal value and to ensure women had equal pension rights with men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Women's hard won rights, are prone to reversal at times of major changes and upheavals. This first came to my attention in the years immediately following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. I was working as a Consultant for programmes on women’s leadership with the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard and with the EU across 11 former Communist countries from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary to the Baltics in the 1990s transition period.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Despite hopes that women would be one of the prime beneficiaries of the Arab Spring uprisings, they have instead been some of the biggest losers, as the revolts have brought conflict, instability, displacement and a rise in conservative religious groups in many parts of the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Until now here in the UK we women have mostly relied on EU law to make sure our rights get meaningful protection. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">EU directives provide a minimum standard for Member States. It is possible to go beyond these standards, but Member States cannot go beneath the floor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">An article in the Telegraph was headlined:</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/27/cut-eu-red-tape-choking-britain-brexit-set-country-free-shackles/" target="_blank">‘Cut the EU red tape choking Britain after Brexit to set the country free.’</a><i style="font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The article said: ‘B<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">ritain must sweep aside thousands of needless EU regulations after Brexit to free the country from the shackles of Brussels, a coalition of senior MPs and business leaders have demanded.’</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Calls to unravel what is seen by some as ‘European red tape’ are actually a threat to women’s hard won rights. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Red tape also means regulations that protect citizens – women and men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The loss of EU protection after Brexit would mean that the British government can do whatever it feels appropriate, unimpeded by international floors as the EU, safety net status will be removed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">At a meeting last year, to shine a light on how to ensure precious rights gained by the majority gender during our long membership of the European Union are not set aside, Professor Catherine Howard, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Professor in European Union Law and Employment Law at the University of Cambridge, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> explained “Under the current system if there is a conflict between EU and UK legislation, EU law would trump the UK directive. This means that an individual can go to their local court and get that <i>corpus</i>of the EU law enforced by the British courts. This principle is important for women. By abandoning such a system, rights for individual women and men are at risk of being downgraded.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-43889004690819530612019-04-21T19:07:00.003+01:002019-04-21T19:09:14.185+01:00Sevgul Uludag first woman from Cyprus nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her journalistic work bringing Turkish and Greek Cypriots together.<div class="_5pbx userContent _3576" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_5" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 6px;">
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<b>My friend Sevgul Uludag has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. </b></div>
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She is the first woman from Cyprus to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her journalistic work in bringing together the two main communities of the island – Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots – by showing them with her work that their pain is a common human pain and through her work producing democratic solutions to the problems of the communities in Cyprus and her peace activism.<br />
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She helped to set up TOGETHER WE CAN where relatives of “missing persons” and victims of war from the two communities have been working together for the first time in the past decade to find burial sites of “missing persons”, as well as pioneering for reconciliation and peace and for facing the history of the conflict together in order to move towards the future. She set up a “Hot Line” with her own mobile phone and mobilised readers from both parts of the divided island to call in and give information to her about this sensitive humanitarian issue and as a result of these calls, many burial sites of “missing persons” on both sides of the island were found and remains of “missing persons” were exhumed by the official Cyprus Missing Persons’ Committee and returned to the relatives for burial. Her work heals wounds of the war and conflict in Cyprus. </div>
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Uludag born in 1958 in Cyprus is an investigative journalist writing in newspapers in both parts of the divided island Cyprus in Turkish in YENIDUZEN and in Greek in POLITIS and on her blog in English, has focused for the past two decades on stories of “missing persons”, “mass graves” and “rapes during times of conflict” has been nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a gender and peace activist and spent last four decades of her life, bringing together women from across the dividing line in Cyprus, setting up joint women NGOs, training women on peace, gender and organisational skills, pioneering in this field as a peace activist. </div>
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She is one of the founders of HANDS ACROSS THE DIVIDE, the first bicommunal women’s NGO in Cyprus. She had also set up the Women’s Research Centre which held activities around gender and peace for many years, in coalition with women NGOs from both parts of the island. She was also one of the founders of Women’s Movement for Peace and a Federal Solution in Cyprus in the 80s… She worked voluntarily in the Women’s Platform in the 90s to train women on a big scale from rural to urban areas on issues of gender, peace and organisational skills.<br />
She is the first woman from Cyprus to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her journalistic work in bringing together the two main communities of the island – Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots – by showing them with examplary pieces of her work that their pain is a common human pain and through her work producing democratic solutions to the problems of the communities in Cyprus and her peace activism.<br />
She helped to set up TOGETHER WE CAN where relatives of “missing persons” and victims of war from the two communities have been working together for the first time in the past decade to find burial sites of “missing persons”, as well as pioneering for reconciliation and peace and for facing the history of the conflict together in order to move towards the future. She set up a “Hot Line” with her own mobile phone and mobilised readers from both parts of the divided island to call in and give information to her about this sensitive humanitarian issue and as a result of these calls, many burial sites of “missing persons” on both sides of the island were found and remains of “missing persons” were exhumed by the official Cyprus Missing Persons’ Committee and returned to the relatives for burial. Her work heals wounds of the war and conflict in Cyprus.<br />
Sevgul Uludag has several international awards for her work like “Courage in Journalism” given by the International Women’s Media Foundation, “European Citizens’ Prize” given by the European Parliament, “Press Freedom Award” given by the Reporters Without Borders Austrian section. She has several books like “Strategy and Planning for Women in Politics” (in Turkish) and “Oysters with the Missing Pearls – Untold stories of missing persons, mass graves and memories from the past of Cyprus” (in Turkish, Greek and English), “Cyprus: The Untold Stories” (in English).<br />
Throughout her life, Sevgul Uludag has been receiving death threats and she faced hate speech, psychological terror, intimidation… But she did not give up what she was doing and her work as an investigative journalist and as a peace and gender activist has been based on humanitarism and she works voluntarily as a humanitarian task, inspiring the two main communities of the island and giving hope for peace and reconciliation…</div>
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Contact details of Sevgul Uludag:<br />
Sevgululudag99@gmail.com<br />
Caramel_cy@yahoo.com<br />
00 357 99 966518 and 00 90 542 853 8436</div>
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Photo shows Sevgul Uludag at the burial site in Kytherea,Cyprus.</div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-1026987128172256042018-11-25T15:34:00.000+00:002018-11-25T15:58:53.059+00:00 Hannah Yilma - Ethiopian activist, refugee, United Nations diplomat. 1943 – 2018. A personal tribute by Lesley Abdela <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Hannah Yilma - Ethiopian activist, refugee, United Nations diplomat. </b><b>1943 – 2018</b></h2>
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<b>A personal tribute by Lesley Abdela</b></div>
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Hannah Yilma was a good friend for five decades. She was brave and cheerful no matter what life was throwing at her (and it did, in quantities). She was kind and funny and warm and passionate about politics. Hannah was quietly elegant with a wicked chuckle.<br />
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Born in Ethiopia, Hannah told me about happy times spent with her Father riding through their coffee plantation on horse-back when she was 14 or 15 years old. In this year of the 100th anniversary it is worth mentioning Hannah’s parents knew <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Pankhurst" target="_blank">Sylvia Pankhurst </a>who lived in Ethiopia from the 1950s. Hannah’s Father helped support the monthly journal, <i><a href="https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/" target="_blank">Ethiopia Observer</a>,</i> in which Sylvia reported on Ethiopian life and development. Hannah’s Mother was Elisabeth Workeneh, her Father, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yilma_Deressa" target="_blank">Yilma Deressa</a> was Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the United States and Minister of Finance, at the time of Emperor Haile Selassie.<br />
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I first met Hannah in the 1960s when she came to London to attend St Godric’s Secretarial College. We met through mutual friends. She lived with a British family in Surrey who knew her Father through major agricultural business in Ethiopia. I remember admiring the long light tweed winter dress she wore. It was under-stated quietly elegant with a pink coloured bodice and plaid checked skirt in the same pink with milky coffee beige. I went out and bought an identical dress.<br />
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The fact Hannah was at Secretarial College is ironic. She was dyslexic. Much of Hannah’s life was a kaleidoscope of contradictions. She looked well-behaved, demure and lady-like. Beneath she was unconventional. In the swinging sixties she shared a flat in London with a couple of other friends. One was Maggie Wolf. Maggie married Richard Mason, author of ‘The World of Suzie Wong’ on which the film of that name was based. Maggie and Richard moved to Rome. Hannah was a frequent visitor.<br />
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Activist</h3>
Hannah’s life changed after the Dergue government took power in Ethiopia in 1975. Following the ousting of Emperor Haile Selassie, her Father was imprisoned with other ministers and members of the Emperor’s family. The Communist dictatorship executed and imprisoned tens of thousands of its opponents without trial.<br />
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Hannah became active in the opposition movement against the military regime. <br />
She and her cousin Dereje Deressa formed the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) and ran the opposition radio station, “Voice of United Ethiopia” hostile to the military regime. She married the celebrated Ethiopian writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebhat_Gebre-Egziabher" target="_blank">Sibhat Gebre-egziabher.</a><br />
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After threats of assassination Hannah and her young son Iyassu were rescued secretly by a pilot in a small plane and flown across the border to safety. She and her husband lived apart from then on. Hannah never talked much to me about her husband. Their relationship, their marriage, and their publication ventures are said to be described in a fictionalised account in the book Derasiw by author <a href="http://www.baalugirmafoundation.org/bio.html" target="_blank">Baalu Girma</a>. Her Father died of cancer a political prisoner in an Addis Ababa prison.( Aged 71 in January 1979.)<br />
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Racism</h3>
Hannah experienced racism a number of times. At one stage when she rented author Neville Shute’s house in Seven Sisters, London she was furious with the local state school teacher who suggested 8 year son Iyassu should focus on sport rather than academic subjects. Hannah said, “ They jumped to the assumption because he is black he should do sport. ” Hannah battled with the school to ensure her son had every academic opportunity. <br />
When he was a bit older the friends in Surrey enabled Iyassu to continue his education at a Boarding School in Surrey. Iyassu graduated in Chemistry from Imperial College, University of London.<br />
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Later Hannah and her British Partner of many years, were living in flat in Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale. His company offered him promotion to a top job in the USA. He told Hannah his employers, a major petroleum company said he would not be allowed to take Hannah with him to the United States. He would need to choose between career promotion and living with his ‘black girl-friend’.<br />
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She was left with the apartment, but she had no way of earning an income in the UK.<br />
Hannah usually gave an outward positive view of life. But one day confided to me how tough things had become, ‘ Who wants to employ a 40 something, who is dyslexic, and who is black’ she said. I was able to lend her money from winnings from a bet I put on John Major to become Leader of the Conservative Party. The odds were 50 to 1. (She paid me back the loan many years later.)<br />
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Hannah’s life continued to be under threat. One day when I was staying with her and Iyassu in their Flat in Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale. London. She loaned me her dark red Volvo to drive somewhere. I opened the glove compartment to look for the ‘A to Z map’ and saw a gun there. I was shaken. In the UK almost no-one carried guns. I asked Hannah about the gun ‘I keep the gun for my protection’ she said.<br />
<h3>
Diplomat</h3>
In 1991 she was finally offered a job where she could use her diplomatic skills. Hannah was an ace networker. She became an Information Officer in the UN Department of Public Information. <a href="http://www.un.org.za/in-memory-of-hannah-yilma/" target="_blank">Hannah Yilma</a> participated in two field missions; the UN Protective Force (UNPROFOR) in the former Yugoslavia, from 1994 to 1995, and the UN Observer Mission to South Africa (UNOMSA), from 1992-1994, as Civil Affairs Officer and Peace Observer. Prior to her final posting in South Africa, she served as a Political Affairs officer in the Situation Centre in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations from 1995-1998 and then held the post of Associate Spokesman in the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General from 1998 to 2000.<br />
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She retired as the Director of the UN Information Centre Pretoria in 2005 and stayed on living in Pretoria. I stayed with Hannah overnight in 2005 on my way to catch my flight home to UK from Johannesburg after a month I spent working on a project assessing the situation on women’s rights in Swaziland. Life had finally worked out for her. She was living in a large gated community in a nice house with a garden beside a lake. In retirement she remained actively involved in in non-governmental work, as well as in the diplomatic corps in South Africa.<br />
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<h3>
Reunion</h3>
Several of us from London of the 1960s remained lifelong friends with Hannah. In 2016 She organised a small reunion dinner in a Greek taverna in Bayswater for Advertising Photographer Sanders Nicolson from Scotland, Maggie Wolf from Rome and her brother Adrian. Five decades earlier we had all been together just across the road at Queensway Ice skating rink when we heard the news US President John Kennedy had been shot .<br />
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Hannah and I last spoke on the phone in early June this year She told me she had ovarian cancer and it had been treated with a hysterectomy and chemo. She thought she was on the road to recovery. . She sounded optimistic and busy. It was a tremendous shock when her son Iyassu called.<br />
She died in S.Africa where she lived for the past 20 years.<br />
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Here is a pic I took of Hannah in 2012. We had lunch together at the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington and made a ‘pilgrimage’ to her son Iyassu’s alma mater Imperial College, nearby.<br />
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Hannah was rightly immensely proud of <a href="http://iyassu./">Iyassu.</a> He is a leader in preclinical drug discovery, early clinical development programs and therapeutic areas spanning cardiometabolic (diabetes, obesity, hypertension) and neuroscience (cognition). He was Director of Chemistry at Merck Pharmaceuticals in the USA and is now Head of Chemistry and Senior Director at Kallyope, New Jersey, USA.<br />
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As well as her son Iyassu Sebhat, Hannah Yilma leaves two sisters Salome and Sophia.<br />
(31 May 1943 – 14 August 2018)<br />
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Lesley.abdela@shevolution.com<br />
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<br />Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-64379407658433143202018-02-06T08:15:00.001+00:002018-02-06T08:18:21.660+00:00#Vote100 Salute to Millicent Fawcett women's suffrage campaign Leader <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQt263QmWKZhX5RJenIH2pGN7pt3zpmba5NHZ69jnZ27aIXWinbR-K4KTDXLE-vLzDLHo623YaI5aaYzQ39XANauUvyHD2JwLr0tUEWVVNdwcOzqymHcXEPXRGA9c2Oe0iy_mK/s1600/Millicent_Fawcett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQt263QmWKZhX5RJenIH2pGN7pt3zpmba5NHZ69jnZ27aIXWinbR-K4KTDXLE-vLzDLHo623YaI5aaYzQ39XANauUvyHD2JwLr0tUEWVVNdwcOzqymHcXEPXRGA9c2Oe0iy_mK/s320/Millicent_Fawcett.jpg" width="249" /></a><br />
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<u style="text-align: center;">Salute to Dame Millicent Fawcett DBE </u><br />
<u style="text-align: center;">President of the -The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) 1897 until 1919.</u><br />
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Millicent Fawcett campaigned within the law which is why she is less well known today than the Pankhursts' suffragette movement. As a campaigner myself for women's rights I can truly say that the scale of Millicent Fawcett's achievement, her tenacity and determination is absolutely awesome. Millicent Fawcett was President of The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) 1897 until 1919.<br />
The NUWSS was fifty times bigger than the militant suffrage movement - the Women's Suffrage and Political Union (WSPU)with only some 2,000 members. Millicent Fawcett's suffrage union had 500 local branches and over 100,000 members. They held over 300 public meetings per week and massive peaceful marches, organised petitions, wrote letters. Millicent Fawcett Millicent Fawcett was an exceptionally capable organiser, mobiliser and fund-raiser for 'the cause'. She used constitutional methods. Her approach was to use reason an<a href="https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/vote-100/" target="_blank">/</a>d patience, based on persistent lobbying and public education.<br />
Millicent Fawcett was one of the vintage generation of women activists who brought about reforms for women's lives that impact on us today. One of the scenes in history that I would most like to have witnessed is a scene in 1860 at the Garrett family home - Alde House, Aldeburgh. In front of the bedroom fire, three girls were brushing their hair. They were two sisters : Elizabeth and Millicent Garrett, and their friend, the famous feminist Emily Davies. Emily was 29, Elizabeth 23 and Millicent 13. As they brushed their hair they chatted: "Women can get nowhere", said Emily, "'unless they are as well educated as men. I shall open the universities." She did it. In her life Emily Davies succeeded in opening up access to women for university - including founding Girton College College.<br />
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"Yes," agreed her friend Elizabeth Garrett . 'We need education but we need an income too and we can't earn that without training and a profession. I shall start women in medicine." She did it. Elizabeth Garrett became the first qualified British woman Doctor. Elizabeth Garrett Browning Hospital is named after her.<br />
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Elizabeth looked at her younger sister and said, "But what shall we do with Milly?" They agreed that Millie should get the parliamentary vote for women. Millicent too succeeded in her allotted life- task. <br />
Millicent (Garrett) Fawcett campaigned for over 60 years from 1857 until 1928 - for women to have the right to vote and to stand for parliament and to have full rights as equal citizens with men. She was author a number of publications. Her: 'Political Economy for Beginners' became a bestseller with ten editions in twenty-five years.<br />
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<u>Shameful behaviour of Gladstone, Churchill and Asquith</u><br />
In giving her entire adult life to the great cause, fighting every day for votes for women, she and her suffragist supporters were endlessly mocked, derided and treated with contempt by these pillars of the British Establishment The great political 'A' List celebrity beasts who are so revered today, Gladstone, Winston Churchill, Asquith and their colleagues have a shameful record of duplicity and arrogance. These men in no way behaved as democrats.<br />
For daring to ask for democracy - the right for half the population to have a say in who governs Britain Millicent Garrett Fawcett and her fellow suffrage campaigners were the butt of ribald humour, adverse press comment, and duplicity. The very mention of the word 'women' in the House of Commons produced laughter and derision. In a debate in the House of Commons, Liberal MP Labouchere said - "it would be as useful to extend the vote to rabbits as to women!"<br />
Despite being tricked and trivialised by Gladstone, Asquith Winston Churchill and their colleagues, year after year Millicent sat patiently in the lobby of the House of Commons waiting for appointments with Ministers and Members of Parliament. I think it would be a fitting and ironic tribute for a bronze statue of Millicent Fawcett sitting on one of the benches in Central Lobby……….similar to the bronze figures of Churchill and Roosevelt who sit on a bench in Bond Street. <br />
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Having a blind husband turned out to be a great asset in learning about politics<br />
Three other men played a pivotal role in Millicent Fawcett's life - the first was her Father - the second was Radical MP and philosopher John Stuart Mill<br />
and the third was her husband Henry Fawcett, an economics professor at Cambridge who was also a Liberal MP. He had been blinded in a shooting accident when he was aged 22.<br />
The result of her having worked alongside her blind husband in his political activities meant that after his early death in 1884, Millicent Fawcett was the only woman in the early suffrage movement who understood how to wheel and deal with politicians - how to choose the right people to lobby and how to approach them. At this time in Victorian England it was not considered proper for a woman to speak on a platform at a public meeting. The partnership with her blind husband gave Millicent the chance to learn the trade of politics. Because of Henry's condition, Millicent Garrett Fawcett served as his amanuensis, secretary, and companion as well as his wife. The husband and wife team of Henry Fawcett and Millicent Garrett Fawcett was similar to that of their mentor John Stuart Mill and his platonic love, (and later wife) Harriet Taylor. Besides being among the leading feminists of their time, the two women provided both intellectual stimulation and feminine perception of the highest degree to their partners.<br />
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<u>World War 1 and Lloyd George</u><br />
Millicent Garrett Fawcett supported the British war effort in World War I, believing that if women supported the war effort, suffrage would naturally be granted at the end of the war. In the London Suffrage Society's case this was mainly through the setting up of the Women's Service Bureau, to place women both as volunteers and into essential paid war work -which included ambulance drivers, medics, the setting up of training schemes for women welders and munitions workers. This war work contributed to their main purpose - with increased activity in Parliament in 1917 around the Representation of the People Bill.<br />
In March 1917 Millicent Fawcett led a deputation that included representative of 24 women's suffrage societies to see new Prime Minster, Lloyd George and in February<br />
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<u>Victory in 1918. Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act.</u><br />
The Representation of the People Act allowed the vote, to women with property over the age of 30.<br />
After a struggle of 52 years Millicent returned home to Gower Street from the House of Lords, triumphant from witnessing the victory of Women's suffrage. The press flocked to her home. A journalist knowing of her fifty years association with the movement, asked her to describe briefly its 'ups' and 'downs'. She replied that it had been all 'ups' and no 'downs.' He looked perplexed and incredulous. Millicent Fawcett continued with words that I feel best sums up the progress since the 1950s….<br />
She said : "The history of the women's movement for the last fifty years is the gradual removal of intolerable grievances. Sometimes the pace was fairly rapid; sometimes it was very slow ; but it was always constant , and always in one direction. I have sometimes compared it, in its slowness to the movement of a glacier; but like a glacier it was ceaseless and irresistible. You could not see it move, but if you compared it with a stationary object and looked again after an interval of months or years, you had proof positive it had moved. It always moved in the direction of the removal of the statutory and social disabilities of women. It established their individual liberty and freedom; they were in fact passing from subjection to independence . That is why I said the history of the movement has been all 'ups' and no 'downs. " <br />
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Millicent Garrett Fawcett turned over the NUWSS presidency to Eleanor Rathbone, as the organization transformed itself into the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC) and worked for lowering the voting age for women to 21, the same as for men.<br />
In 1924, Millicent Garrett Fawcett was given the Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, and became Dame Millicent Fawcett.<br />
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Until her death Millicent continued to campaign for votes for women on the same basis as men including - in her 80s - taking part in the famous Mud March in Hyde Park.<br />
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She died in London just months after women got the right to vote on an equal basis with men in 1929.<br />
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Millicent Fawcett earned the words on the memorial she shares with her husband in Westminster Abbey. The words say : "A wise, constant and courageous Englishwoman who won citizenship for women."<br />
(Dame Millicent Fawcett DBE - June 11, 1847 - August 5 1929) <br />
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf<br />
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https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/vote-100<br />
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-64674642730333152072017-11-13T11:53:00.003+00:002017-11-13T11:59:38.392+00:00BREXIT Repeal Bill. Women's rights may be dumped in the wheelie bin.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Please feel free to circulate my
article. I would appreciate if you attribute quotes by name to Lesley Abdela.
Thanks!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />The last time Britain's laws were up for modification on such an immense scale it was under the Normans. It took 800 years before women got back rights they lost in the process. Unless amended the Government ‘Repeal Bill’ may ultimately result in women’s
rights being dumped in the wheelie bin of history. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Women in the UK have mostly
relied on EU law and the European Court of Justice to make sure our rights get
meaningful protection. </span><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">Ministers will import thousands of EU rules and
regulations on to our statute books as part of the Repeal Bill. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">All existing EU legislation will be copied across into
domestic UK law.</span><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Under the Government’s
proposed fast-speed ‘Henry V111’ procedures unless there is oversight and
scrutiny it will be all too easy for business interests to persuade Government
to get rid of what they perceive as ‘red – tape’.<span class="apple-converted-space"> <u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Warning Signals for UK women to
beware of losing their employment rights in the BREXIT transition process are
coming thick and fast.</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Sunday Express<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">announced, ‘<i>Equal pay diktat is just more red tape
for business.</i> <a href="applewebdata://152A3C08-20D8-4CD2-A8AF-D60EA1FC911F#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Telegraph</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>article titled ‘<i>Cut the EU red tape
choking Britain after Brexit to set the country free’</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>stated, ‘Britain must sweep aside
thousands of needless EU regulations after Brexit to free the country from the
shackles of Brussels, a coalition of senior MPs and business leaders has
demanded.’<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref2"></a><a href="applewebdata://92F5BEA1-84A3-43D0-B46C-EC61DA39A38E/#_ftn2"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref2;"><sup><span style="color: purple;">[</span></sup></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref2;"></span></a><u1:p></u1:p><span style="mso-bookmark: _ftnref2;"></span><a href="applewebdata://152A3C08-20D8-4CD2-A8AF-D60EA1FC911F#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MEP Martin Callanan
said in a speech, ‘<i>One of the best ways to speed up growth is to … scrap the
Pregnant Workers Directive and all of the other barriers to actually employing
people if we really want to create jobs.</i>’<a href="applewebdata://152A3C08-20D8-4CD2-A8AF-D60EA1FC911F#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The EU has been at the forefront
of driving greater gender equality for women including:</span><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> equal
treatment for part-time workers (the majority of whom are women); anti-discrimination
legislation on employment, training and working conditions; the pregnant
workers directive which gives women the right to take time off work to attend
medical appointments; sex discrimination rules which place the burden of proof
on the defendant. And it was the European Court of Justice that obliged the
British government to amend the legislation to provide equal pay for work of
equal value and to ensure women had equal pension rights with men.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> EU directives provide a minimum standard for
Member States. It is possible to go beyond these standards, but Member States
cannot go beneath the floor.</span><span style="color: #252324; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I have worked on women’s rights in
over 50 countries and seen how in the turmoil of a society in transition
whenever an opportunity arises to roll back women’s civil, social,
economic and political gains, <i>they will be rolled back</i>. It can
happen with frightening speed. I saw first-hand how women's rights
gained in the Soviet era - often considerable, due to industrial
development, were scrubbed, out as financially costly and unnecessary in
the new free market world in the opinions of men from the corporate world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">More recently we witnessed a
dramatic example of rapid reverse during and after the uprisings in the Arab
World. At the height of the revolutions men welcomed women as partners in
the struggle for democracy as, for example, in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.</span><span lang="DE-AT" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: DE-AT; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> But</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> after the uprising women’s rights were
deliberately damned and reversed as a hangover from the ancienne regimes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Here at home in the UK the loss
of EU protection after Brexit would mean the British government can do
whatever it feels appropriate, unimpeded by international floors. The EU,
safety net status for women’s rights <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>will be removed. Brexit secretary David
Davis has told Parliament any substantive policy issues would be dealt
with by new laws scrutinised by parliament with a topping up by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a fast-track process now dubbed the ‘Henry
Vlll’ process after the Statute of Proclamations 1539 which gave him the power
to legislate by proclamation. This will not involve the usual
Parliamentary scrutiny process, opposition parties (and some Conservatives) have protested at Ministers
being handed "sweeping powers" to make hasty, ill thought-out
legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When Britain's laws were last up
for modification on such an immense scale. It started a few miles from where I
live in East Sussex, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The evidence which has
survived from Anglo-Saxon England is that women were more nearly the equal
companions of their husbands and brothers than at any other period before the
modern era. In the Anglo-Saxon legal system women Anglo-Saxon women were their
own creatures and not merely appendages to their husbands. In the higher ranges
of society this rough and ready partnership was ended by the Norman Conquest
which introduced into England a military society relegating women to a position
honourable but essentially unimportant. It took over 800 years after the
Norman conquest before Britain's women gained the right not to be viewed as a
husband's property, with the Married Woman’s Property Act of 1882!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What can you do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Please ask MPs and
Peers to propose an amendment demanding <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the public sector equality duty (section 149
Equality Act 2010) be used to protect women's rights during the BREXIT Repeal
Bill process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><u1:p>The Equality
Act <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>imposes a duty on all public
authorities and bodies performing public functions to give ‘due regard’ in the
performance of functions to the need -<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></u1:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">a) to eliminate
discrimination; b) to advance equality of opportunity;<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">c) to foster good
(gender) relations. The need to give 'due regard' to the advance equality
of opportunity means identifying the barriers to equal opportunity in any
particular context and considering what steps could.<span class="apple-converted-space"> <u1:p></u1:p></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This duty is often
honoured more in the breach, or in an entirely 'tick-box' way, but the UK Supreme
Court says it must be conducted "in substance, with rigour and an open
mind" (Hotak v London Borough of Southwark, 2013).<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MPs and Peers should
be Government Ministers the following questions <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>:<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Will the repatriation
processes be monitored in compliance with Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010?<u1:p></u1:p>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, by whom at each stage? What
powers will they have? For example, will there be opportunities for outsiders
with particular interest and expertise to scrutinise areas considered important
from the women’s rights perspective to ensure that in all political,
employment, economic and societal spheres women and girls do not lose rights
they had gained. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">In addition to my suggestion you can support ‘Face
Her Future’. A call to action by over 20 women's and equalities organisations </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: purple; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/faceherfuture</span><a href="https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/faceherfuture" target="_blank">https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/faceherfuture</a></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">-----<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="applewebdata://152A3C08-20D8-4CD2-A8AF-D60EA1FC911F#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sunday Express</i>, (14 July 2015):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><a href="http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/591066/Equal-pay-red-tape-business-gender-gap-women-s-rights"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/591066/Equal-pay-red-tape-business-gender-gap-women-s-rights</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-56457983699586095422017-11-11T17:59:00.001+00:002017-11-11T17:59:11.913+00:00EU Article 50. Full text of Lord John Kerr's speech - there's nothing in Article 50 to stop the British people changing their minds on BREXIT.<div class="intro" id="intro" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Effra, "Myriad Pro", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Brexit process is reversible and the British people have the right to change their minds should they want to, Lord John Kerr, who played a central role in drafting Article 50, said in a speech in central London 10 November 2017 hosted by the Open Britain campaign. </strong></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
Lord Kerr says that the Article 50 letter that Theresa May sent in March this year can be unilaterally withdrawn. “We are not required to withdraw just because Mrs May sent her letter”, he says. “We can change our minds at any stage during the process.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
He says that “Mrs. May's letter was only a notification of the UK's "intention" to withdraw. Intentions can change. We still have all the rights of a member-state, including the right to change our minds.” He points to statements from European legal experts and leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk and Antonio Tajani to prove that the door is open for the UK to change its mind on Brexit, despite the fact that “Putin and Trump would be disappointed” if that happened.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
He says: “As new facts emerge, people are entitled to take a different view. And there's nothing in Article 50 to stop them. I think the British people have the right to know this – they should not be misled.” </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
John Kerr served as Britain’s Permanent Representative to the EU from 1990-1995, as UK Ambassador to the United States from 1995-1997, and as Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Office from 1997-2002. In 2002-2003 he acted as Secretary-General of the European Constitutional Convention, which drafted Article 50. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The full text of Lord Kerr’s speech is below:</strong> </div>
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*<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY</strong>*</div>
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“Article 50 emerged 15 years ago, in a Convention of 200 Parliamentarians from all the countries who then were members of, or were then negotiating to join, the EU. I was their Secretary-General.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“One of their concerns was to demonstrate that the Union was a voluntary partnership of sovereign nation-states, based on treaties between states, not the incipient super-state of Eurosceptic nightmares. Including an Article setting out a procedure for orderly divorce was one of several ways of underlining the voluntary nature of the Union. Though we called our product a Constitutional treaty I can't recall anyone suggesting adding any “We, the People…" claim to a legitimacy going over the heads of elected national governments. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Nor do I remember any serious opposition to the idea, enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty in what became Article 50, that nation-states were entitled to change their minds, and leave if they so choose. Equally I'm certain no-one dreamed that in 2017 a member state would trigger the procedure, as Mrs. May did on 29 March.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Now that we're in the procedure, it's important to understand it; and I am concerned that some aspects of the Article seem to me rather inadequately reflected, or indeed misinterpreted, in our current public debate. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“I want to highlight 4 points.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“First, while we're in, we're in. While the divorce talks proceed, the parties are still married. Reconciliation is still possible. The Article requires the parties to negotiate the "arrangements" for our withdrawal; but we are not required to withdraw just because Mrs. May sent her letter. We can change our minds at any stage during the process. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Second, however, there is a time-limit. To reassure a member-state wishing to leave that it could not be trapped in endless fruitless negotiation, the Article is clear that after 2 years, one is out. But the time-limit can be extended if all parties consent: this could become important. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Third, Article 50 is only about divorce. Any Agreement about future relationships, e.g. on trade, between us and the 27 would be negotiated under other Articles, with different voting rules; and could only be concluded after we had left; and, unlike an Art 50 Agreement, would probably require ratification in every member-state, which in some countries would require referendums.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Fourth, once we're out, we're out. The Article is clear that there can be no keeping a back-door key. If, once we'd left, we were to change our mind, and want to go back in, we would have to go through the full Accession procedure, like any other candidate-country. That would entail paying a price.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Taking these in turn… </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“First, and crucially, as required by the Treaty, Mrs. May's letter was only a notification of the UK's "intention" to withdraw. Intentions can change. We still have all the rights of a member-state, including the right to change our minds and our votes, as member-states frequently do, for example after elections. The Article is about voluntary withdrawal, not about expulsion: we don't have to go if at any stage, within the two years, we decide we don't want to.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“The clause that says that "once we're out, we're out" says just that, and only that. If we had wanted declaring an intention to go to be the Rubicon moment, if we had wanted a notification letter to be irrevocable, we would have drafted the clause to say so. But we didn’t, and the clause doesn’t. So, the die is not cast irretrievably. The letter can be taken back.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“That has subsequently been confirmed by formidable legal experts. Let me cite just two. Jean-Claude Piris, Legal Counsel to the Council in my Convention days, is clear that “even after triggering Article 50, and notifying the EU of its intention to leave, there is no legal obstacle to the UK changing its mind." Sir David Edward, UK Judge in the ECJ when the Article was drafted, says the same. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“The Government give the impression that the Rubicon has been crossed, but they currently refuse to publish their Law Officers' Opinion: I think we know why. They have been careful not to say that we could not take back Mrs. May's letter. During the Miller case, and at the Despatch Box in both Houses, Government spokesmen have consistently said only that "as a matter of firm policy ", we won't take it back. That formula in itself confirms that we could take it back. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“The fact is that a political decision has been made, in this country, to maintain that there can be no going back. Actually, the country still has a free choice about whether to proceed. As new facts emerge, people are entitled to take a different view. And there's nothing in Article 50 to stop them. I think the British people have the right to know this – they should not be misled. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Supposing we were to exercise our right to withdraw Mrs. May's letter, how would leaders across the Channel react? We know from what they have said: they would applaud. Let me cite a couple of Presidents… </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“If the UK wanted to stay, everybody would be in favour. I would be very happy.” </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
That's Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“It is in fact up to London how this will end: with a good deal, no deal, or no Brexit.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
That's Donald Tusk, President of the European Council.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Or take the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar … “The door remains open for the UK to stay in the EU." Yes. It does. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
And President Macron has said the same.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Most EU leaders think Brexit would be a disaster, worst for us, but bad for all. Most believe that, in a world of Trump and Putin, of Daesh and Islamic State, of Asian competition, of climate change and migration misery, Europe should stick together and work together. They of course recognise that we have every right to take a different view, but they hope that in the end we won't. They value our contribution to the Union's vitality, remembering with respect how Mrs. Thatcher fought to create the Single Market, and John Major and Tony Blair insisted, when the Wall came down, that we must bring in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“They often find us difficult partners, annoyingly pragmatic and practical. But they now find us puzzlingly dogmatic and doctrinaire on Brexit. If we were to change our minds, Putin and Trump would be disappointed, but our near neighbours, and our true friends across the Atlantic and in the Commonwealth, would cheer. I think the country should know that.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“My second concern is less fundamental, but I am uneasy that the country isn't being told much about the possibility of taking more time. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“I don't know why Mrs. May was in such a rush to send her letter in March, before her Cabinet had an agreed plan. It was odd to start the clock and not start negotiating, instead calling an Election. And I don't know why both Government and Opposition now seem to discount the possibility of our seeking an extension. Predicting how the 27 would react to such a request is harder than predicting how they would react to our withdrawing the letter, and if anyone refused there would be no extension. I believe much would depend on our perceived motive. If we were seen as simply wanting to take a deadlocked financial negotiation into Extra Time, I doubt if we could be sure of the necessary unanimous consent. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“But if, for example, we were to need time for Parliament to consider a final deal, an Election, and/or to pass the legislation needed for a referendum giving the people the final say on this process, to check that the country, having seen the facts emerge during the negotiation process, still wanted to Leave, I do not see any of 27 democracies denying us the chance to consult the people. They would think we had every right to check that the country, by then aware of the facts, still wanted to Leave. How the people should be consulted at the end of this negotiation process is an issue for the politicians not me, but the country is entitled to know that different options are open to it. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“My third concern is over confusion about "transitions", "implementation periods", "standstills", and cliff-edges. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“I believe it was unwise of the 27 to insist on "sufficient progress" on money before turning to the future relationship. I think they were wrong to be misled by suggestions here that they could "go whistle", and that we might refuse to honour our commitments: I'm sure we never would. And it would of course be self-defeating: lengthy arbitration or court proceedings about unpaid bills would severely complicate full WTO accession. I believe that there should now be parallel tracks, one looking back, on settling debts, one looking forward, on future partnership plans, everything on the understanding that nothing can be finally agreed on either until all is agreed on both. I hope that will now happen.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“But I am puzzled by UK suggestions that a fully comprehensive agreement about the future can be completed and initialed by this time next year. EU trade agreements with third countries come under Article 218, not Article 50. They take time, and Association agreements take longer. And getting widely-drawn agreements ratified can be tricky: the Canadian negotiations have taken 7 years, and I hope that a UK/EU agreement would go wider, extending beyond Goods into Services. And ratifying widely-drawn agreements can be problematic: the Canadian deal got stuck in the Wallonian parliament. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“But we, the Article 50 drafters, had thought of the timing problem: hence the stipulation in the Article that the divorce settlement must be drawn up "taking account of the framework for the future relationship with the Union." When will we at last put forward a draft framework, a "Heads of Agreement " text, the basis for an agreed outline, or set of principles, which would guide the subsequent detailed sectoral negotiations? And why do we insist that the ball is in the EU court? Having service is usually seen as conferring an advantage. The best time to submit our ideas for the framework might have been before starting the 2-year clock. But better late than never.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“And do we really envisage that by next October we shall have not only initialed a permanent agreement, but will have also, subsequently, reached agreement on a transitional regime to get us from here to there, so avoiding the cliff-edge in 2019? This seems no less puzzling. Since we won't have a clear picture of the detail of future permanent arrangements, I don't see how we could build a bridge to them. Without some framework, we risk having nothing to "transition" to, nothing to "implement".</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“In her Florence speech Mrs. May seemed to acknowledge this, and floated instead the idea of a standstill, for some two years, during which we would, after Leaving, continue to apply all EU rules and regulations. The 27 have in fact offered that from the start: their April Guidelines say that " should a time-limited prolongation of Union acquis be considered, this would require all existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary, and enforcement instruments and structures to apply." In Florence, it sounded as if Mrs. May might buy all that, for two or three years. But subsequent statements by Mr. Johnson, Dr. Fox and Mr. Gove suggest that they don't.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“But the key point about such a standstill is that it doesn't avoid the cliff-edge; It merely postpones it for a couple of years. That wouldn't provide the certainty business so badly needs. And whether it’s called Transition, Implementation or Standstill, it would follow our Leaving. Once we're out, say in March 2019, we're out, with no votes, no judge, no commissioner, no MEPs, and no way back, other than an Accession negotiation, starting from scratch. Again, I think the country needs to know that. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“My last point can be briefly put. I think the country should also be aware of one big difference between, on the one hand, negotiating for accession, and, on the other, drawing back from secession: in the former, there's a price to pay; in the latter, there isn't. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“If we were eventually to apply to re-join the EU, it might be rather difficult to persuade 27, or by then maybe more, member-states, many of them less wealthy, in per capita terms, than us, that we should have a budget rebate. Mrs. Thatcher secured it from inside, after quite a fight, and it isn't universally popular. To sell the idea again, from outside, would not be possible. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“Conversely, while we're in, we're in; and there would be no price to pay if we were to decide to stay in. The rebate is part of a legal text known as the Own Resources Decision, which can be amended only if all member-states agree. While we remain a member-state, we would not agree to drop the Rebate. and since we are entitled to remain a member-state, we could not be forced to do so. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“My conclusions are simple.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“The national debate about Brexit should take account of the facts that: </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
i. our Article 50 letter could be withdrawn without cost or difficulty, legal or political;</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
ii. a standstill agreement is no panacea;</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
iii. once out, there is no easy way back in, and there would be a price to pay; but</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
iv. while still in, the option of stopping the clock, in order to consult the people again, is available.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
“All four facts will still be relevant when Parliament next autumn gets the chance, as it must, to assess the outcome of the negotiations.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 11px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">/ends</strong></div>
<div class="padtop padbottom" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 11px; padding-top: 11px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-67344872884244440162017-11-08T13:40:00.001+00:002017-11-08T13:49:37.610+00:00President Trump in Beijing China. Sherlock Holmes visited a century ago. <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">President Trump is visiting the Forbidden City in Beijing this week. An Empress was in charge of China when <a href="http://www.twitter.com/" target="_blank">Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes visited a century ago. </a>Sherlock Holmes and the Nine-Dragon Sigil is set in 1906– 1907 and Watson is our trusty narrator. In case you’re wondering, a “sigil” (pronounced ‘sijil’) is an inscribed or painted symbol or occult sign considered to have magical power. The three main Chinese characters in the novel – Yuan Shikai, the Guangxu Emperor, and Empress Dowager Cixi – are all real people from that time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Watson is invited to Peking by General Yuan Shikai, one of the most powerful men in China, to help form a National Medical Corps. As part of a secondary mission he travels to Peking overland through Asia and across China, making notes along the way on the country’s defences and military preparedness. In China he meets Holmes, there to investigate and thwart an assassination of either the Empress Dowager Cixi or the Guangxu Emperor. Yuan Shikai fears that the murder could trigger a civil war and the intervention of foreign powers into China.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Taking up residence in the Forbidden City, Holmes and Watson soon find themselves enmeshed in a tense atmosphere of political intrigue. The Imperial Qing Court, clearly is divided between progressives under the leadership of the Guangxu Emperor and conservatives under the Empress Dowager Cixi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">As such, any student of Chinese history already knows much of the ending; Symonds not only has to give us a nice mystery, but he has to do so with factual constraints. Published by MX Publishing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Available from: The Strand Magazine, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, MX Publishing, and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository .<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 18.66666603088379px;"> </span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Holmes-Nine-Dragon-Sigil-Symonds/dp/1787050351" style="font-size: 18.66666603088379px;" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Holmes-Nine-Dragon-Sigil-Symonds/dp/1787050351</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><img height="475" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D35895.30C19240" width="325" /></span></div>
Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-48429014331944584592017-02-17T09:00:00.000+00:002017-02-17T09:03:02.616+00:00Will UK Women' s Rights be sacrificed in BREXIT negotiations?Ask Teresa May and the Brexiteers, "exactly how do you plan to preserve our hard won rights?"<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Will UK Women' s Rights be sacrificed in BREXIT negotiations? Ask Teresa May and the Brexiteers, "exactly how do you plan to preserve our hard won rights?"</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #355799; font-family: "helvetica";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #355799; font-family: "helvetica";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #355799; font-family: "helvetica";">I</span><span style="color: white; font-family: "helvetica";"> </span><span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">do</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica";">w</span><span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">nloaded
the following as a briefing for anyone who wants a few facts and figures on why
membership of the EU has been good for women...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Questions
and Answers: What has the EU done for women? 50 years of EU action on Gender
Equality for One Continent<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Five decades of European Union action have advanced gender equality on
our continent. EU have put in place laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work,
equality in the workplace and minimum rights to maternity leave. This is something we can and should be proud of: gender equality is a European
achievement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What do
the Treaties say about gender equality?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The Treaty
of Rome in 1957 already included the principle of equal pay for equal work.
(Article 119 EEC, then 141 EC, now Article 157 TFEU). The background to this
provision was mainly economic: Member States and in particular France wanted to
eliminate distortion of competition between businesses established in different
Member States. As some EU countries (for example France) had adopted national
provisions on equal pay for men and women much earlier, these countries were
afraid that a cheap female workforce in other countries (for example from
Germany) could put national businesses and the economy at a competitive
disadvantage owing to lower labour costs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In 1976,
the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided in the Defrenne case
that Article 119 EEC had not only an economic but also a social aim. This
judgment paved the way for modern European gender equality law. It has been
followed by an impressive amount of case law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">With the
entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1999, the promotion of equality
between men and women became one of the essential tasks of the European
Community (Article 2 EC). Since 1999, the EU has had the competence to take
further action to combat discrimination based on gender (Article 13(1) EC, now
19(1) TFEU). This Article provided a legal basis for the Directive on the
principle of equal treatment between men and women in access to and the supply
of goods and services (Directive 2004/113/EC).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">EU gender
equality is also an integral part of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union, which prohibits discrimination on any grounds, including sex,
(Article 21) and recognises the right to gender equality in all areas and the
necessity of positive action for its promotion (Article 23).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In 2009,
the Treaty of Lisbon confirmed once again the importance of gender equality in
the European Union. Equality between men and women features amongst the common
values on which the European Union is founded (Article 2 TEU), which means, for
instance, that it will be used as a yardstick for determining whether a
European state can be a candidate for accession. The promotion of equality
between men and women is also listed among the tasks of the Union (Article 3(3)
TEU), together with the obligation to eliminate inequalities. The Lisbon Treaty
thus clearly reiterates the obligation of ensuring gender equality for both the
Union and the Member States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What has
the EU done for women in the workforce?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The share
of women working has risen from 55% in 1997 to 63% today. Yet the labour market
participation of women in the EU is somewhat lower than in other regions of the
world (U.S. 65%, Japan: 65%).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">There are
also enormous differences between Member States when it comes to women in
employment. The female employment rate is lower than 60% in Greece, Italy,
Malta, Croatia, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Poland while it is above
70% in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria and Estonia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">EU-28
female and male employment rates (in %) and the gender gap in the employment
rate, people aged 20-64, third quarter 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Source:
Eurostat, LFS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">It is not
enough to get more women into jobs: there is also the question of the quality
of these jobs. 32% of women work part time compared to only 8% of men. While
this can reflect individual preferences, it still leads to diminished career
opportunities, lower pay and lower prospective pensions, underutilisation of
human capital and thus lower economic growth and prosperity. Gender gaps
therefore give rise to both economic and social costs and should be effectively
tackled whenever they result from societal or institutional barriers or
constraints (see IP/14/43).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Some
Member States with the highest female employment rates also display a high
share of part-time employment among women. Member States with an above EU
average of female part-time employment are the Netherlands, Germany, Austria,
Belgium, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and Ireland. This is
then reflected in women's lower pensions, and their higher risk of poverty. The
'gender pension gap' shows that, on average across the EU, women’s pensions are
39% lower than men’s (IP/13/495).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Proportion
of employed women working part-time (in %), 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Source:
Eurostat, LFS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Only some
Member States (mainly the Nordic and Baltic countries) succeed in combining
high female employment rates with a low gender gap in hours worked. An
effective policy mix appears to include gender-equal working time, widely
available flexible work, incentives for the division of unpaid work within a
couple, and employment-friendly, accessible and affordable childcare with
longer day-care hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What is
the EU doing to address outstanding challenges to employment in the Member
States?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">As part of
its economic strategy, Europe 2020, all EU Member States have committed to
raising the employment rate of adults to 75% by 2020. The Commission is
following up on this national commitment by proposing country-specific
recommendations to the Member States every year, which include the issue of
female participation in the labour market. The 2013 Country Specific
Recommendations (CSR) adopted by the Council advocated the provision of
high-quality and affordable childcare as well as adequate tax incentives for
women to stay in or to return to work. In addition, the Recommendations address
the need to provide elderly care services to allow women to work more, and to
tackle both the pay and pension gaps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">There has
been progress following these Recommendations, as noted by the Joint Employment
Report presented in November 2013. Member States have implemented measures to
boost female employment rates and to reconcile work and private life, such as
making more education and care services available for younger children and
revising parental leave regulations to extend this right and to encourage more
fathers to use it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In
addition to the Europe 2020 Strategy, the EU supports Member States’ objectives
by providing funding for projects under the European Social Fund (ESF),
including projects that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Promote
women’s access to, and participation in, all levels of the labour market and
help close pay gaps and support women’s financial independence;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Promote
women entrepreneurs and women’s participation in science and technology, in
particular in decision-making positions;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Combat
gender stereotypes in career selection and the professions, and promote
lifelong learning; and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Reconcile
work and family life and offer support for childcare facilities and carers of
dependents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Support
the integration into employment of immigrant women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What is
the European Union doing on maternity leave?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Under EU
legislation (Directive 92/85/EEC), all women in the EU have the right to at
least 14 weeks maternity leave and to protection from dismissal for being
pregnant. In 2008, the Commission proposed to improve the situation further
with longer and better maternity leave (IP/08/1450). The Commission’s proposal
– which would increase the minimum entitlement to 18 weeks paid at least at the
level of sick pay – is still under discussion in the Council of the EU and the
European Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Self-employed
workers and their partners can enjoy better social protection – including the
right to maternity leave for the first time – under new EU legislation on
self-employed workers (IP/10/1029). Member States had until 5 August 2012 to
transpose the Directive on self-employed workers and assisting spouses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The law
considerably improves the protection of female self-employed workers and
assisting spouses or life partners of self-employed workers. For example, they
are granted a maternity allowance and a leave of at least 14 weeks, should they
choose to take it. At EU level, this is the first time a maternity allowance is
granted to self-employed workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
provision on social protection for assisting spouses and life partners
(recognised as such in national law) is also a considerable improvement from
the 1986 Directive. They have the right to social security coverage (such as
pensions) on an equal basis as formal self-employed workers, if the Member
State offers such protection to self-employed workers. This helps provide a
stronger social safety net and prevent women from falling into poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What is
the EU doing to promote Parental leave?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">EU law
(Directive 2010/18/EU) sets out minimum requirements on parental leave, based
on a framework agreement concluded by the European Social Partners (Business
Europe, UEAPME, CEEP and ETUC). Under the Directive, male and female workers
have individual entitlement to parental leave on the grounds of the birth or
adoption of a child, enabling them to take care of the child for at least four
months (IP/09/1854). The aim is to help people balance work and family life,
while promoting equal opportunities for men and women in the labour market. To
encourage fathers to take parental leave as well, under the revised directive,
one of the four months is not transferrable which means that if the father does
not claim it, it is lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What are
the objectives and results of the Strategy for equality between women and men
(2010-2015)?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
Strategy for equality between women and men for the period 2010-2015 was
adopted in September 2010 and reflects the Commission’s commitment to stepping
up its activities in the field of gender equality (IP/10/1149). The Strategy
lists actions to be implemented between 2010 and 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
Strategy outlines six priority areas:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">equal
economic independence for women and men;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">equal pay
for work of equal value;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">equality
in decision-making;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">dignity,
integrity and ending gender violence;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">promoting
gender equality beyond the EU;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">horizontal
issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The mid-term
review of the Gender Equality Strategy, published on 14 October 2013, found
that, half-way through the strategy’s five-year time scale, the Commission is
delivering on its commitments (MEMO/13/882). It has taken action in the
majority of areas covered, in particular action to improve the gender balance
in economic decision-making (see IP/12/1205 and MEMO/12/860), promoting equal
pay (IP/13/165 and IP/14/222), tackling violence against women (see factsheet
for more information) and female genital mutilation (IP/13/1153) and promoting
gender equality through the Europe 2020 strategy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The most
recent achievement is the proposal for a Directive on improving the gender
balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges
(IP/12/1205).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
European Commission provides a detailed assessment of equality between women
and men across all priority areas of the Strategy, as part of the annual
progress report on equality between women and men in Europe (IP/12/371). The
next progress report will be published in April 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What is
the gender pay gap and what has the EU done about it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The gender
pay gap is the average income difference between male and female employees
across the entire economy. The latest figures (IP/14/190) show an average 16.4%
gender pay gap in 2012 across the European Union. They show stagnation after a
slight downward trend in recent years, with the figure around 17% or higher in
previous years. The very slight decreasing trend for the past years is largely
a result of the economic crisis, which has seen men's earnings decrease –
especially in some male-dominated sectors such as construction or engineering –
rather than women's earnings increase.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The gender
pay gap has numerous complex causes thus tackling it requires a comprehensive
approach. The Commission has carried out different legislative and
non-legislative actions to address the persisting gender pay gap:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">It is
constantly monitoring the correct application and enforcement of the existing
EU legal framework on equal pay at national level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
Commission published a report in December 2013 on the implementation of EU
rules on equal treatment for women and men in employment (Directive 2006/54/EC)
addressing different elements of the equal pay principle (IP/13/1227). The Report
found that equal pay is hindered by a number of factors, including a lack of
transparency in pay systems. In inlcudes a section on gender-neutral job
evaluation and classification systems, a summary of equal pay case law of the
European Court of Justice, examples of national case-law on equal pay and
examples of national best practices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Today, the
Commission adopted a Recommendation on strengthening the principle of equal pay
between men and women through increased wage transparency. A number of recommendations
aim at helping Member States to reduce the persisting gender pay gap (see
IP/14/222 and MEMO/14/160).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Awareness-raising
actions: the Commission has established a European Equal Pay Day to increase
awareness of the fact that women need to work longer than men to earn the same
amount. The fourth European Equal Pay Day took place on 28 February 2014 (see
IP/14/190).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Actions
supporting the business case of equal pay: a project called "Equality Pays
Off" took place in 2012 and 2013. Its aim was to support employers
throughout Europe in their efforts to tackle the gender pay gap with the
provision of training and tools to highlight the business case for equal pay
and to help them detect pay inequalities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Support to
national authorities and stakeholders: the Commission has also organised in
recent years exchanges of good practice on issues related to the gender pay gap
(tools to detect unequal pay, equal pay days). The Commission published an open
call for proposals to support and fund civil society actions aiming at
promoting gender equality and more specifically, actions addressing the gender
pay gap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In the
framework of the European Semester, the Commission annually proposes Country
Specific Recommendations drawing the attention of Member States to the need to
address the gender pay gap and its main causes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Gender pay
gap statistics<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What is
the situation with childcare facilities across the EU?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">One
important factor in the pay gap is the burden of care that women carry. Figures
show that the moment men become fathers, they start working longer hours. The
same is not the case with women. When they become mothers, they either stop
working for longer periods or work part-time – often involuntarily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Only 67.8%
of women with one young child (less than 6 year old) are working compared to
89% of men. Ensuring suitable childcare provision is an essential step towards
equal opportunities in employment between women and men. In 2002, at the
Barcelona Summit, the European Council set targets for providing childcare 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. Since 2006, the proportion of
children cared for under formal childcare arrangements has slightly increased
(from 26% to 29% for children up to three years of age, and from 84% to 86% for
children from three years of age to mandatory school age). In June 2013, the
Commission published a report on the progress towards the so-called Barcelona
targets for providing quality and affordable childcare (MEMO/13/490).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What has
the EU done to promote gender equality on company boards?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In 1984,
the Council adopted a recommendation on the promotion of positive action for
women (84/635/EEC).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In 1996,
the Council adopted a recommendation, based on a proposal by the Commission, on
the balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process
(96/694/EC).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In 2010,
the Commission identified 'equality in decision making' as one of the
priorities of the Women's Charter and of its Strategy for Equality between
Women and Men 2010-2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In 2011,
Vice-President Viviane Reding launched the 'Women on the Board Pledge for
Europe' calling for publicly listed companies in Europe to voluntarily commit
to increasing women's presence on their boards to 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020.
A year later, only 24 companies had signed the pledge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In March
2012, the Commission took stock of the situation and found only an average
improvement of just 0.6 percentage points over the past years. At this slow
rate of progress it would take around 40 years before companies would naturally
reach gender balanced representation in boards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
European Parliament called for legislation in its resolutions of 6 July 2011
and 13 March 2012 on equality between women and men in business leadership in
the European Union.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Between 5
March and 28 May 2012, the Commission held a public consultation inviting the
public – individual businesses, social partners, interested NGOs and citizens –
to comment on what kind of measures the EU should take to tackle the lack of
gender diversity in boardrooms. The results have fed into the proposal
presented by the European Commission in November 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In
November 2012, the Commission proposed a Directive setting a 40% objective of
the under-represented sex in non-executive board-member positions in publicly
listed companies, with the exception of small and medium enterprises
(IP/12/1205 and MEMO/12/860). Companies which have a lower share (less than
40%) of the under-represented sex among the non-executive directors will be
required to make appointments to those positions on the basis of a comparative
analysis of the qualifications of each candidate, by applying clear,
gender-neutral and unambiguous criteria. Given equal qualification, priority
shall be given to the under-represented sex. The objective of attaining at
least 40% membership of the under-represented sex for the non-executive positions
should thus be met by 2020 while public undertakings – over which public
authorities exercise a dominant influence – will have two years less, until
2018.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Has there
been progress regarding the number of women on boards?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Although
the Commisiosn's proposal for a procedural quota is not yet law, it is already
having an effect. The share of women on boards in the major publicly listed
companies is on the rise (see IP/13/943): today, women represent on average
17.8% of board room members in October 2013, up from 11.9% three years earlier,
when the European Commission put the issue of under-representation of women on
boards high on the political agenda. Since October 2010, the share of women on
boards has risen 5.9 percentage points (pp), an average of 2.2 pp/year - four
times the rate of change between 20031 and 2010. An increase in the share of
women on boards has been recorded in all but six EU Member States. Progress is
generally higher in countries with legislation in this area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What has
the EU done for victims of domestic violence?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Declaration
19 annexed to the Lisbon Treaty states that Member States should take all
necessary steps to tackle domestic violence and help protect victims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Women and
girls who are victims of violence need appropriate support and protection,
which is reinforced by effective and deterrent laws. The Commission has put
such laws in place:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Victims of
violence, in particular domestic violence, can soon count on EU-wide
protection. The EU has put in place a package of measures to ensure that the
rights of victims are not forgotten, and victims are treated justly. The
Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection
of victims of crime was adopted on 25 October 2012 (Directive 2012/29/EU)
ensuring that victims are recognised, treated with respect and receive proper
protection, support and access to justice. The Directive considerably
strengthens the rights of victims and their family members to information,
support and protection as well as their procedural rights when participating in
criminal proceedings. EU Member States have to implement the provisions of this
Directive into their national laws by 16 November 2015 (IP/12/1200).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Additionally,
the Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters
(see IP/13/510), will help prevent harm and violence and ensure that victims
who benefit from a protection measure in one EU country are provided with the
same level of protection in other EU countries should they move or travel
there. In this way, the protection will travel with the individual. The law
will benefit women in particular: around one in five women in Europe have
suffered physical violence at least once in their life, according to surveys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">This
measure complements the Directive on the European Protection Order which
applies to protection orders adopted under criminal procedures. The EU Member
States have to implement the provisions of this Directive into their national
laws by 11 January 2015. The Directive means that women who have suffered
domestic violence will be able to rely on a restraining order obtained in their
home country wherever they are in the EU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
European Commission also funds numerous awareness-raising campaigns in EU
countries and supports grassroots organisations, NGOs and networks working to
prevent violence against women. The main funding programmes are called DAPHNE
III and PROGRESS. As from 2014, provision of funds will continue with the
Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, supplemented by funds under the
Justice Programme. Examples of recent projects can be found here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">What is
the EU doing to end female genital mutilation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">An
estimated 500,000 women and girls in the EU alone have suffered from female
genital mutilation. Ending this form of violence is among the priorities of the
European Commission's efforts to combat violence against women (see
MEMO/14/85).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">In
November last year, the Commission announced a new push to fight female genital
mutilation in the European Union and beyond (IP/13/1153), with a series of
actions to work towards the elimination of FGM. The strategy paper published by
the Commission last November set out a series of actions to work towards the
elimination of FGM, including:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Better
understanding of the phenomenon: developing indicators (through the European
Institute of Gender Equality and at national level) to better understand
numbers of women and girls affected by and at risk of mutilation;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Prevention
of FGM and victim support: making use of EU funding (such as the EU's Daphne
programme, the Lieflong Learning and Youth in Action programme and the future
Asylum and Migration fund) to support activities to prevent FGM, raising
awareness of the problem, empowering migrant women and girls, and training
health professionals and those working with victims. During 2013, the
Commission distributed €2.3 million to projects specifically fighting FGM;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">More
effective prosecution by Member States: support enforcement of the existing
national laws prohibiting FGM through the analysis of criminal laws and court
cases brought so far, disseminating training material for legal practitioners,
and enforcement of rights of victims to specialist support as under EU law;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Protection
of women at risk on EU territory: ensuring correct implementation of EU asylum
rules (notably the revised Qualifications Directive and the Asylum Procedures
Directive) to guarantee protection of women at risk, raising awareness of
professionals working with asylum and encouraging Member States to resettle
children and women at risk by providing support through the European Refugee
Fund and the future Asylum and Migration Fund.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Working to
eliminate FGM at global level: addressing FGM in bilateral dialogues with
relevant partner countries, working with the African Union and at the United
Nations to promote global initiatives against FGM, advocating for improved
national legislation and supporting civil society initiatives in countries
affected, training and guidance for staff in EU delegations on FGM-related
issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">To ensure
the various actions are followed up and remain on the political agenda
continuously, the Commission has committed to monitoring and taking stock of
progress on an annual basis around 6 February: the International Day of Zero
Tolerance for FGM.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">The
Commission is all continuing to raise awareness about the practice of female
genital mutilation through its Zero Tolerance Campaign, launched last year.
Join the campaign by emailing your photo to COMM-SOCIAL-MEDIA-TEAM@ec.europa.eu
or tweet using the hashtag #Zero</span><span style="color: #4167b2; font-family: "helvetica";">F</span><span style="color: #355799; font-family: "helvetica";">GM.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #355799; font-family: "helvetica";">MEM</span><span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">O<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Brussels,
7 March 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">For more
information<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Factsheet
– Actions to combat Violence Against Women<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Factsheet
– Boosting equality between women and men in the EU – Key actions and figures<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Factsheet
– Gender balance on corporate boards<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Commission
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<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Press
release: IP/14/222<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">MEMO:
MEMO/14/160<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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opportunity targets 11 months in advance:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">IP/14/226<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Gender
Equality in the World - Statement by the High Representative on International
Women's Day:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">'Statement
by EU Commissioner Piebalgs on women in developing countries':<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c2129; font-family: "helvetica";">http:</span><span style="color: #355799; font-family: "helvetica";">//europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-14-51_en.htm</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-39558247908927395812016-08-31T22:10:00.000+01:002016-08-31T22:10:33.509+01:00 ‘In The Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The Fawcett Society 1866-2016. By Jane W. Grant. Francis Boutle Publishers. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-pQZp_SoNPNNRnG5PKqPaB4ygBULp1DFnV4QoBZjd4Qp8jD6jfW6Qa0XApeTQv0h8ZGqCmd4iM10yo5UPsQEkUxuR_mOcTMkqSY4i6wIIC3kXwa4h3tMHAI4lNbe_aU8TpeJ/s1600/IMG_0027.JPG+copy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-pQZp_SoNPNNRnG5PKqPaB4ygBULp1DFnV4QoBZjd4Qp8jD6jfW6Qa0XApeTQv0h8ZGqCmd4iM10yo5UPsQEkUxuR_mOcTMkqSY4i6wIIC3kXwa4h3tMHAI4lNbe_aU8TpeJ/s320/IMG_0027.JPG+copy.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">‘In The
Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The Fawcett Society 1866-2016. By
Jane W. Grant. Francis Boutle Publishers. 2016. £14.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">My Summer
reading has included ‘In The Steps Of Exceptional Women’ by Dr Jane
Grant. Her book celebrates the remarkable story of The Fawcett Society
from its inception in 1866.‘ The Society is the UK charity campaigning for
gender equality and women’s rights, now celebrating its 150</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">th</span></sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">
anniversary. Millicent Fawcett after whom the Fawcett Society is named, has
long been one of my women’s rights campaigner role model heroines. I
selected<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>her as my choice for BBC Radio
4 Great Lives hosted by Matthew Parris (</span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The names
of the Victorian and Edwardian Greats who have left their foot-prints on the
path towards women’s equality are there in the book – the Garrett sisters
(Millicent, and Elizabeth), Emily Davies, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, Jessie
Boucheret and other ‘Ladies of the Langham Place Group. The Langham Place Group
was an acorn of the feminist movement in the UK. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The
author’s research for ‘In The Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The
Fawcett Society 1866-2016<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>grew out of
her doctorate at the University of Kent on Governance, Continuity and Change in
the Organised Women’s Movement. (the strapline to her thesis was ‘We walk in
the footsteps of some exceptional women.’) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">To those
of us who have spent our adult lives campaigning for equality for the majority
gender Jane W. Grant is just about as remarkable (and exceptional) as the
Society itself, and her book must be considered the yard-stick on the Society’s
history. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane has been a member of the
Fawcett Society for over 30 years, with three years on the Executive Board. I
have known Jane since the late 1980s when during her time in policy development
at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane became mid-wife to the National Alliance
of Women’s Organisations (NAWO)(launched in 1989.) She was Director of NAWO for
five years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Jane has
always had an international perspective. In the 1990s when I was CEO of NGO
Project Parity helping women to be included in democratic politics<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>during the transition in Central and Eastern
Europe, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She came on trips as a member of
my Project Parity Team. We also<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>share an
interest in women and peace issues. Jane is a supporter of the Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">There are
several periods of history where I would order my Time Machine to return to. To
listen in on the conversations the campaigners held in 1914 would be very high
on my SatNav list.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I turned
at once to Chapter 3 covering one of the most intriguing periods of the
suffrage campaigners lives – how should they respond to (or take advantage of)
the advent of the Great War? Suffragettes Emmeline and Christabel
Pankhurst took the decision to back the war against ‘the German Peril’. They
and their followers –threw themselves into the fray, helping to recruit women
into the munitions industry, even in 1915 rechristening The Suffragette
newspaper the Britannia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a family rift, their sister Sylvia was a
staunch Peace Campaigner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane Grant
notes, the response of Millicent Fawcett and the non-militant suffragists was,
initially, ‘more nuanced’. Mrs. Fawcett’s International Women’s Suffrage
Alliance (IWSA) delivered an international manifesto to the foreign Embassies
in London commencing, ‘ We, the women of the world, view with apprehension and
dismay the present situation in Europe which threatens to involve one
continent, if not the whole world, in the disasters and horrors of war…’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">As the
terrible conflict drew to an end, the campaign for women’s right to vote hotted
up again, though never to its former militancy. In March 1917 Millicent Fawcett
and leaders of 24 women’s suffrage societies and 10 other organisations went to
see the new Prime Minister Lloyd George. The debate in the House on 10
January 1918 resulted in a majority for the women’s suffrage clause in the
Representation of the People Bill. On February 6 1919 it received the Royal
Assent. Women property owners over the age of 30 could now vote. Another ten
years passed before women could vote on equal terms with men, i.e. at aged 21.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">In her
book Jane Grant pays tribute to the invaluable help in tough financial times the
Fawcett Society received from the Barrow Cadbury Trust. Funding is a major
hurdle for women’s equality campaigns. The human rights world has great cause
to be grateful to the Quaker founders of the chocolate industry. I appreciate
how the 300 Group survived and developed through the funding and free offices
provided at 9 Poland Street by the Rowntree Trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Jane
brings the story to the present day, through the struggles of women Members of
Parliament like Jo Richardson, the ‘Listen To My Vote’ campaign developed ahead
of the 1997 election by Fawcett’s Mary-Anne Stephenson, the joint campaigns run
by the Society with the Royal College of Nursing and the Low Pay Unit, to
Fawcett’s major report ‘Sex Equality: State Of The Nation 2016’ (‘Equality.
It’s About Time’).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The job
isn’t finished. The struggle goes on. The tide moves ever-forward, but there is
still a way to go. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I titled the movement
I started back from the Mill House in the tiny Oxfordshire hamlet of Burford
‘The 300 Group’ because the aim was to achieve 300 women MPs, just about 50% of
‘the Mother of Parliaments’. Even now, in 2016, some 46 years later, that
number has not fully been attained, though it’s very nearly 200 and I’m happy
to see new groups such as the 50/50 Group carrying on where the 300 GROUP left
off (they ran out of funds) . Parliament makes or breaks the laws which guide
and control the nation’s life. Decisions are made which take us to war or
decrease or increase the still-wretched gap between what women and men earn for
work of equal value, even the right to have control over our own bodies. 300 or
more women in Parliament would help do the job. Millicent Fawcett would most
certainly agree: the struggle goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">‘In The
Steps…’ contains a wonderful set of historic photographs and illustrations,
including a woodcut-like cityscape of Parliament titled ‘View From The Top
Window’ of the Women’s Service House on Marsham Street.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">A must for
researchers, students, teachers, journalists, politicians, and all keen to know
more about the long, hard, valiant and ultimately successful struggle for that
most basic and precious of human rights, the right of a woman to help decide
who we choose to run our communities and nation and critical aspects of our
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">‘In The
Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The Fawcett Society 1866-2016. By
Jane W. Grant. Francis Boutle Publishers. 2016. £14.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">For
information on The Fawcett Society see </span><a href="http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">www.fawcettsociety.org.uk</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-3616147080602962072016-08-31T15:47:00.001+01:002017-02-17T09:06:01.337+00:00<span id="goog_851514647"></span><span id="goog_851514648"></span><br />Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-35754670053757034482016-08-31T09:14:00.000+01:002016-08-31T09:20:11.195+01:00‘In The Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The Fawcett Society 1866-2016. By Jane W. Grant. Francis Boutle Publishers.<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">-------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="webkit-fake-url://e424444d-ca8d-43c6-a5ec-2e3b99bb08d4/application.pdf" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="webkit-fake-url://e424444d-ca8d-43c6-a5ec-2e3b99bb08d4/application.pdf" /></a><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16pt;"><img src="webkit-fake-url://e41967a0-7a5c-4861-b9c7-491584a43dc8/application.pdf" />‘In The
Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The Fawcett Society 1866-2016. By
Jane W. Grant. Francis Boutle Publishers. 2016. £14.99</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16pt;">My Summer
reading has included ‘In The Steps Of Exceptional Women’ by Dr Jane Grant. Her
book celebrates the remarkable story of The Fawcett Society from its inception
in 1866.‘ The Society is the UK charity campaigning for gender equality and
women’s rights, now celebrating its 150</span><sup style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt;">th</span></sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16pt;">
anniversary. Millicent Fawcett after whom the Fawcett Society is named, has
long been one of my women’s rights campaigner role model heroines. I
selected her as my choice for BBC Radio
4 Great Lives hosted by Matthew Parris (</span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face'; font-size: 16pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gj7nf</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16pt;">.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The names
of the Victorian and Edwardian Greats who have left their foot-prints on the
path towards women’s equality are there in the book – the Garrett sisters
(Millicent, and Elizabeth), Emily Davies, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, Jessie
Boucheret and other ‘Ladies of the Langham Place Group. The Langham Place Group
was an acorn of the feminist movement in the UK. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The
author’s research for ‘In The Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The
Fawcett Society 1866-2016<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>grew out of
her doctorate at the University of Kent on Governance, Continuity and Change in
the Organised Women’s Movement. (the strapline to her thesis was ‘We walk in
the footsteps of some exceptional women.’) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">To those
of us who have spent our adult lives campaigning for equality for the majority
gender Jane W. Grant is just about as remarkable (and exceptional) as the
Society itself, and her book must be considered the yard-stick on the Society’s
history. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane has been a member of the
Fawcett Society for over 30 years, with three years on the Executive Board. I
have known Jane since the late 1980s when during her time in policy development
at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane became mid-wife to the National Alliance
of Women’s Organisations (NAWO)(launched in 1989.) She was Director of NAWO for
five years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Jane has
always had an international perspective. In the 1990s when I was CEO of NGO
Project Parity helping women to be included in democratic politics<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>during the transition in Central and Eastern
Europe, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She came on trips as a member of
my Project Parity Team. We also <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>share an
interest in women and peace issues. Jane is a supporter of the Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">There are
several periods of history where I would order my Time Machine to return to. To
listen in on the conversations the campaigners held in 1914 would be very high
on my SatNav list.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<img src="webkit-fake-url://82856cc3-a16e-45f5-bfd8-2b42728334f8/application.pdf" /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">I turned
at once to Chapter 3 covering one of the most intriguing periods of the
suffrage campaigners lives – how should they respond to (or take advantage of)
the advent of the Great War? Suffragettes Emmeline and Christabel
Pankhurst took the decision to back the war against ‘the German Peril’. They
and their followers –threw themselves into the fray, helping to recruit women
into the munitions industry, even in 1915 rechristening The Suffragette
newspaper the Britannia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a family rift, their sister Sylvia was a
staunch Peace Campaigner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane Grant
notes, the response of Millicent Fawcett and the non-militant suffragists was,
initially, ‘more nuanced’. Mrs. Fawcett’s International Women’s Suffrage
Alliance (IWSA) delivered an international manifesto to the foreign Embassies
in London commencing, ‘ We, the women of the world, view with apprehension and
dismay the present situation in Europe which threatens to involve one
continent, if not the whole world, in the disasters and horrors of war…’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">As the
terrible conflict drew to an end, the campaign for women’s right to vote hotted
up again, though never to its former militancy. In March 1917 Millicent Fawcett
and leaders of 24 women’s suffrage societies and 10 other organisations went to
see the new Prime Minister Lloyd George. The debate in the House on 10
January 1918 resulted in a majority for the women’s suffrage clause in the
Representation of the People Bill. On February 6 1919 it received the Royal
Assent. Women property owners over the age of 30 could now vote. Another ten
years passed before women could vote on equal terms with men, i.e. at aged 21.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">In her
book Jane Grant pays tribute to the invaluable help in tough financial times the
Fawcett Society received from the Barrow Cadbury Trust. Funding is a major
hurdle for women’s equality campaigns. The human rights world has great cause
to be grateful to the Quaker founders of the chocolate industry. I appreciate
how the 300 Group survived and developed through the funding and free offices
provided at 9 Poland Street by the Rowntree Trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Jane
brings the story to the present day, through the struggles of women Members of
Parliament like Jo Richardson, the ‘Listen To My Vote’ campaign developed ahead
of the 1997 election by Fawcett’s Mary-Anne Stephenson, the joint campaigns run
by the Society with the Royal College of Nursing and the Low Pay Unit, to
Fawcett’s major report ‘Sex Equality: State Of The Nation 2016’ (‘Equality.
It’s About Time’).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The job
isn’t finished. The struggle goes on. The tide moves ever-forward, but there is
still a way to go. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I titled the movement
I started back from the Mill House in the tiny Oxfordshire hamlet of Burford
‘The 300 Group’ because the aim was to achieve 300 women MPs, just about 50% of
‘the Mother of Parliaments’. Even now, in 2016, some 46 years later, that
number has not fully been attained, though it’s very nearly 200 and I’m happy
to see new groups such as the 50/50 Group carrying on where the 300 GROUP left
off (they ran out of funds) . Parliament makes or breaks the laws which guide
and control the nation’s life. Decisions are made which take us to war or
decrease or increase the still-wretched gap between what women and men earn for
work of equal value, even the right to have control over our own bodies. 300 or
more women in Parliament would help do the job. Millicent Fawcett would most
certainly agree: the struggle goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">‘In The
Steps…’ contains a wonderful set of historic photographs and illustrations,
including a woodcut-like cityscape of Parliament titled ‘View From The Top
Window’ of the Women’s Service House on Marsham Street.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">A must for
researchers, students, teachers, journalists, politicians, and all keen to know
more about the long, hard, valiant and ultimately successful struggle for that
most basic and precious of human rights, the right of a woman to help decide
who we choose to run our communities and nation and critical aspects of our
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">‘In The
Steps Of Exceptional Women’, The Story Of The Fawcett Society 1866-2016. By
Jane W. Grant. Francis Boutle Publishers. 2016. £14.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">For
information on The Fawcett Society see </span><a href="http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">www.fawcettsociety.org.uk</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Jane Grant
can be contacted by email at </span><a href="mailto:jane.wentworthgrant@gmail.com"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;">jane.wentworthgrant@gmail.com</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "baskerville old face"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-42324358769711548302016-08-08T10:50:00.000+01:002016-08-08T10:50:12.291+01:00Congratulations Majlinda Kelmendi of Kosovo a on winning Gold at the Olympics in Rio!
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Kelmendi of Kosovo and her support team on winning Gold at the Olympics in Rio<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-judo-w-halflight-idUSKCN10I0OP" target="_blank">http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-judo-w-halflight-idUSKCN10I0OP</a>. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #16191f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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another milestone for Kosovo.I first visited Kosovo in 1999 in the immediate
aftermath of the conflict. I was Deputy Director for Democratisation with the
OSCE. Russian troops were still camped at the airport. On the drive into
Pristina I noticed the roofs of nearly every building had been smashed.
Buildings in the town of Gjakova and many other parts of Kosovo had been
utterly destroyed in the conflict. I met women and men across Kosovo who had
come through appalling experiences. Thanks to the energy of many Kosovars
combined with international support much has changed for the better. It is
still work in progress and mistakes have been made along the way, but now it's
time to celebrate! Sending all Kosovar friends warmest wishes of
congratulations.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-88810718197957677262016-07-21T09:02:00.000+01:002016-07-21T09:03:11.000+01:00Female role models - '50 Bedtime Stories to Inspire Girls.' <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
It's been a week of female role models in UK politics. On TV we saw the new British Prime Minister Teresa May's first meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and with Scottish Nationalist Party Leader, Nicola Sturgeon. I am sorry to see Labour MP Angela Eagle drop out of the leadership race for Leader of the Labour Party. I was invited to review a book of female role models from around the world titled '50 Bedtime stories to inspire girls,' compiled by Lisa Hill. This book is for children. I am not a child so I invited my Grand daughter Daisy to review the book. Daisy is 7 years old and loves reading books. She also loves writing book reviews. Below is Daisy's review of '50 bedtime stories to inspire girls.'</div>
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<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5185QYTVu7L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5185QYTVu7L.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21pt;">'50 bedtime stories to
inspire girls' </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;">Author: Lisa Hill </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: 19px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21pt;">Illustrator: Vlada
Repeykova</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21pt;">I really liked how she explained
what each lady did or when she was born or when she died. I also loved the
illustrations they were bold, bright and they popped with colour. I think this
was a great book and recommend it to girls 6+ and would totally read the second
book if there ever was one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;">My favourite woman was Germaine
Greer because she wrote for magazines about woman’s equality. The reason I
liked her is because I like making magazines myself. I also liked J.K.
Rowling because she wrote the Harry Potter books and I really like them.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;">In my opinion I think there
shouldn’t be any royals that didn’t do very much because the only reason they
became famous was because they were a royal. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;">By: Daisy H</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "american typewriter"; font-size: 21.0pt;">Age:7</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-45360509248535654642016-05-23T20:42:00.001+01:002016-05-23T20:42:27.679+01:00Free Speech vs Feminism - an ongoing battle<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
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The journalist and feminist in me are fighting an on-going battle. The women’s rights campaigner inside me gets angry at sexist and discriminatory public statements. Is it better for voters to hear Donald Trump’s (what many consider to be appalling) attitudes towards women, Mexicans and Muslims, or should we banish him and other politicians and speakers from the public forum, and thus not know what they are thinking?…..'<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the other hand as a journalist and a democrat I am a firm believer of free speech and believe that a citizen’s right to freedom of expression within public discourse is a precious right to be nurtured. <span style="color: #1d2129;">My article on Feminism versus Free Speech has just been published and can be found here:<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/lesley-abdela/democracies-free-speech-and-right-to-offend">https://www.opendemocracy.net/lesley-abdela/democracies-free-speech-and-right-to-offend</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The article also refers to , 'Hate speech and Democratic Citizenship' by Eric Heinze, Professor of Law and Humanities at Queen Mary University of London. He says, the more a country is a genuinely developed democracy, the less it needs to impose 'speech bans'.</span></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-27758963048175843512016-04-03T09:35:00.000+01:002016-04-03T09:51:36.133+01:00Anti-Muslim prejudice is a major concern in both Donald Trump's and Ted Cruz's campaigns.<div style="line-height: normal;">
The following e-mail was sent to me by US journalist and friend Arnold Isaacs:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">It's a challenge to single out any one toxic issue from the current</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Republican presidential mudfight, but it's worth noting that ugly and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">dangerous anti-Muslim prejudice is a major concern in both Donald</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Trump's and Ted Cruz's campaigns.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Trump's call to bar Muslims from entering the country has gotten most of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">the headlines. But there are many more stories that should have had more</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">attention than they've received, showing among other things that Ted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Cruz is NOT the lesser evil in this regard. Cruz's naming some of the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">most fanatical members of the Islamophobe network to his team of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">advisors is an example. It drew some critical comments when he announced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">the list but as far as I could tell was pretty much a one-day story, and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">the reporting I saw did not come close to explaining how shocking his</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">choices really were.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Exhibit A is retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who has said things such as</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">"Islam is evil. Islam is an evil concept," "Islam is not a religion and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">does not deserve First Amendment protections," and "those following the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">dictates of the Quran are under an obligation to destroy our</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Constitution and replace it with shari'a law.” He's also declared that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Christians should "go on the offensive" to prevent Muslims in America</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">from building any more mosques.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">(Not directly on this topic but I can't resist noting that Boykin also</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">preached a couple of years ago that when Jesus returns, he will be</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">carrying an AR-15 assault rifle. Not a joke. You can listen to it at</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">http://aattp.org/ex-army-general-claims-jesus-will-be-returning-to-earth-sporting-an-ar-15-audio/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">-- and ask yourself, are you reassured that a possible U.S. president is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">listening to this guy's advice on foreign policy? Or on anything?)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Cruz also named Frank Gaffney and a couple of his colleagues from his</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Center for Security Policy, one of the major-league anti-Muslim</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">organizations, which specializes in dire warnings about the imminent</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">danger that Muslims will impose shari'a law on the United States.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Gaffney has said that Muslims who observe shari'a should be prosecuted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">for sedition. He advocates banning "not just refugees, but anyone coming</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">in under any immigration program from Syria and Iraq"; all immigration</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">from a list of other countries including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Somalia, Libya, and Afghanistan; and a moratorium on ALL refugee</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">resettlement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">As I said, there was a bit of tongue-clucking from the pundit tribe when</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Cruz announced those appointments, but it was pretty transitory. That</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">tells something about the different yardstick the media and our society</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">in general apply to anti-Muslim views as opposed to bias against other</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">minorities. I am pretty sure that if Cruz had named someone with a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">comparable record of bigotry toward Jews or African Americans, the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">outrage and outcry would have been far more intense and lasted a lot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">longer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">As to Trump, it's striking that the one story with staying power has</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">been his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country, while other</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">more outrageous statements are mentioned much more sporadically. At the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">top of my list is his saying he would "take out" terrorists' families --</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">and that not doing so is "fighting a very politically correct war."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Personally I think that is the single worst thing he or anyone has said</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">in this campaign. (Worth noting that he backed it up with one of his</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">most blatant lies, about the 9/11 hijackers sending their families out</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">of the country -- a story he has repeated even after it was conclusively</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">shown to be false.) The second worst statement is Trump's enthusiastic</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">endorsement of torture -- "Believe me, it works... If it doesn’t work,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">they deserve it anyway, for what they’re doing.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">I'm not sure why embracing those flagrantly illegal and immoral policies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">has gotten so much less coverage than banning Muslim entry to the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">country. Maybe it's because the latter ties more directly to the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">immigration issue, which has raised broader public concern. But it's</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">hard to avoid a sense that bigotry against Muslims is fairly widely</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">accepted as a legitimate viewpoint, compared to prejudice against other</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">minorities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">This is not only troubling about our values. It is also dangerous on</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">completely practical grounds. Just about all real terrorism experts will</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">tell you that anti-Islamic attitudes and actions will not lead to more</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">effective counter-terror efforts, but exactly the opposite. Treating</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Muslim communities as a potential enemy population reinforces the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">extremist narrative. It says exactly what they want Muslims here and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">around the world to believe -- that America is at war with Islam and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">Muslims have to strike back. We are safer when Muslims in this country</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">feel accepted and respected, trust American law enforcement and identify</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">with American institutions. We are less safe when we alienate Muslims by</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">public hostility and suspicion and repressive policies. Those make the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">extremist argument more credible and will make people more reluctant to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">cooperate with anti-terror authorities. Trump and Cruz may win some</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">votes by playing to people's fears, but the attitudes and policies they</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">support help the jihadists, not public safety.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">There are very few if any Trump or Cruz supporters in my address book,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">so this mailing will largely be preaching to the choir. But I think it's</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">an important message, and if any of you can find useful places to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";">deliver it, I hope you'll do so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas";"><br /></span>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-42355080647439755812016-02-16T20:14:00.001+00:002016-06-18T08:13:56.655+01:00Women in politics in Egyptian Elections 2015<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Here is a summary about women in 2015 Parliamentary elections prepared by the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights - ECWR</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://ecwronline.org/?p=6788" style="color: #954f72;">http://ecwronline.org/?p=6788</a> - </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://ecwronline.org/?p=6788" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="color: #171c22; text-decoration: none;">February 16, 2016</span></a><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fighters On The Individual System, Warriors On the Electoral Lists<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #838383; font-family: "asap"; font-size: 21pt; text-transform: uppercase;">EGYPTIAN WOMEN IN 2015 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS</span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Edited by<br />Nehad Abol-Komsan<br />ECWR Chairwoman</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Introduction</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Egypt’s Parliamentary election is the third and final step of Egypt’s roadmap that was set after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi after mass protests in 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The electoral marathon started off with liquidity of parties as the number of political parties in Egypt after the January 25 revolution was estimated at 104. Nonetheless, Most of those parties did not succeed in creating populist bases. Moreover, a number of party leaders withdrew from running in Parliament, reducing the party’s chances of winning seats in Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Within this context, and since the announcement of the start of the preparation for the Parliamentary elections, many coalitions were dissolved before the decision of postponing elections and after, also new coalitions were formed. There were several conflicts and withdrawals within the parliamentary coalitions mostly due to disagreements on the number of seats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The administrative court deemed that the decision of former PM Ibrahim Mehleb to redistribute some electoral district as invalid in addition to order another medical check up to even those who took it. This put more financial burden on the candidates. The Court’s verdicts caused more confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The verdict led some lists as “Sahwet Masr”, translated as “Egypt Awakens”, and Social Justice Coalition and individual candidates to withdraw, in addition to some coalitions threatening withdrawal. This verdict increased the financial burden on female candidates allowing capital to lead the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Law No. 46/2014 of the House of Representatives stipulated the presence of 56 women on the electoral lists as well as 14 women as presidential appointees ensuring a total of70 women in Parliament.<br />As Article 5 of the law of the House of Representatives stated that, as the translated in the official Gazette:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the first elections of the House of Representatives following the entry into force of this law, each list for which 15 seats are allocated must at least include the following numbers and designations:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">– Three candidates who are Christian.<br />– Two candidates who are workers or farmers.<br />– Two candidates who are youths.<br />– A candidate who is a person with a disability.<br />– A candidate who is an Egyptian residing abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Provided that the candidates with the above-listed designations along with other candidates include no less than seven women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Each list for which 45 seats are allocated must at least include the following numbers anddesignations:<br />– Nine candidates who are Christian.<br />– Nine candidates who are workers or farmers.<br />– Six candidates who are youths.<br />– Three candidates who are persons with disabilities.<br />– Three candidates who are Egyptians residing abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Provided that the candidates with the above-listed designations along with other candidates include no less than twenty-one women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />In addition, according to Article 27 of the law of House of Representatives: The President of the Republic may appoint to the House a number of members not exceeding 5% of the number of elected members, half of whom at least shall be Women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nonetheless, the law disregarded allocating individual seats for women leading women to suffer from a law disregarding their candidacy on individual seats which account for 80% of the Parliament seats, given it have her an acceptable representation in around 20% of the seats and the financial burden of the individual candidacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It is as if the law came to throw dust in one’s eye.In reality, the law does not further women’s representation in the Parliament; it does not allocate women seats in 80% of the Parliament. Decision makers did not care about having a Parliament properly and adequately representing women and their contributions in society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The total of female candidates are 652 women, out of which 279 running for individual seats out of a total of 5420 candidates, amounting to only 5.1%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Meanwhile, there was has been 376 female candidates out of a total of 780 representing to 48.2 %.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Thereby, the total number of candidates is 652 female candidates out of a total 6200 candidates running on the electoral lists and individual lists in the Parliamentary elections 2015, representing 10.03%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">As for political parties’ nomination of women,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It seems the political parties settled for the quota stipulated by the Parliamentary law, as most of the political parties either did not nominate woman for individual seats or nominated a limited number of women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">According to ECWR statistics, 23 political parties did not nominate any woman as individual candidates. Meanwhile, Wafd party, which nominated the highest number of women, nominated only 9 women out of a total of 149 candidates for individual seats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">As for the electoral lists, all of them with the exception of National Reawakening bloc settled for the minimum number of female candidates according to the law. The number of female candidates on the main lists was 135 out of a total of 285 candidates with a percentage of 47%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Regarding the media coverage of female candidates, small news coverage cared about them in quality and quantity. Many news pieces did not properly focus on female candidates’ problems and obstacles as the news headlines just focused on the low numbers of female candidates. There was also conflicting news on the number of female candidates in different candidates, which came as part of the inaccuracy of the news coverage of the electoral process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Report Methodology<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The report was based on a number of research methodologies and documentation, including:<br />– Monitoring reports of ECWR’s Operating Room<br />– Data and reports of the High Elections Committee (HEC).<br />– Media reports from a number of newspapers varying from governmental, privately owned and partisan. There are El Watan, Al Akhbar, Al Wafd, Nisf El Donya magazine, Parlmany website, Youm7 website, Al Masry Al Youm website site, Al Shorouk website. Al Tahrir website<br />– Direct contact and phone calls with potential female candidates to collect data and make sure whether they are running for Parliament or not.<br />– Personal interviews with some female candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Challenges faced in the preparation of this report<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">– There is no gender segregated data produced by the HEC. Given that the HEC is the institution responsible to present accurate information on the number of female and male candidates. This put extra burden on ECWR operation room, which took on itself to produce gender segregated, numbers and percentages of women’s candidacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">- There are some errors in the number of women on the published electoral lists in some newspapers, in addition to some spelling mistakes. This hindered the identification of the candidate in some cases. In these cases, ECWR operation room had to check the number of female candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Report’s Division:<br /><b>The report consists of:</b>• First: History of women’s political participation<br />• Second: Legislative environment for 2015 Parliamentary elections<br />• Third: The Nomination Phase for 2015 Parliamentary elections, from a gender perspective<br />• Fourth: Voting & Results Round<br />• Recommendations<br />• Annexes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">First: History of women’s political participation Egyptian women and Parliament:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />Egyptian women preceded women in all Arab countries in the field of parliamentary representation. Egyptian women’s participation in parliamentary representation in the legislative assemblies began in the mid-twentieth century when women entered Parliament for the first time as a MP in 1957. However, despite the fact that it has beenalmost half a century since Egyptian women entered parliament, women’s participation in parliamentis still weak.<br />The stages that women went through to seek political rights can be summarized in five stages in addition to the current one:<br /><b>– First stage 1956 – 1970</b>The 1957 elections witnessed 8 women running for Parliament, with two women winning who are RawyaAttia and Amina Shoukry<br /><b>– Second stage 1970 – 1986</b>This stage witnessed 1309 women becoming members of the basic units of the Socialist Union in 1971. Afterwards, the law no 38/ 1972 was amended to allocate 30 seats in Parliament for women, with at least one seat per governorate for women. This resulted in 35 female MPs amounting to 8% out of total seats of Parliament; 30 of out them won through allocated seats, 2 through general seats and 2 appointed, out of the 10 presidential appointees.<br /><b>– Third stage 1986 – 2005</b>Even though the quota was dissolved in 1986, women’s representation in Parliament remained relatively high. Women’s representation in 1987 House of Representative was 3.9% as it reached 18 female MP out of a total of 456 MP. This is attributed to the electoral party lists as some lists included women. Yet, with the individual system, women’s representation declined in the successive Parliaments during this period. In 2005 Parliament, there were only 8 female MPs, with a percentage of 1.8% out of the total number of MPs.<br /><b>– Four stage 2009 – 2010</b>During this stage, the law no. 149/2009 was issued increasing the number of Parliamentary constituencies and allocating 64 seats for women in Parliament as well as women can run for general seats.<br />In 2010, the total number of female candidates is 456, out of which there is 380 women quota out of which 380 women on women’s seats, 249 independent seats in addition to 76 female candidates on general seats. 64 women won and one presidential appointee reaching a total of number 65 women in Parliament.<br /><b>– Fifth stage: After 25 January 2011 till 2013</b>The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a law amendment cancelling women’s quota. Instead, it stipulated that there should be at least one woman on the electoral lists without determiningher position on the list. Hence, in the light of this law, the 2011- 2012 Parliamentary elections was held with only 11 women winning in the House of Representatives; 9 elected and 2 presidential appointees. Meanwhile, in the Shura Council, the upper house at the time, only 4 women won. All were on the electoral lists except for one was on individual seat s.<br /><b>– Sixth stage: 2014</b>After the June 30 revolution in 2013, the Shura Council was dissolved and the 2014 Constitution was issued. This Constitution is considered one of the best Constitutions with regards to women’s rights. It included gains for women in the different thresholds of political, civil, economic and social rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">There are 3 legal frameworks regulating the electoral process of the House of Representatives, which are:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />– 2014 Constitution<br />– Law No. 46/2014 of the House of Representatives<br />– Law No. 202/2014 Concerning Electoral Districting for the Elections of the House of Representatives<br />– Law No. 45/2014 on the Regulation of the Exercise of Political Rights<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">According to those laws, the Parliamentary elections should have been held during March and April 2015. However, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled at the end of February 2015 that division of the electoral constituencies is invalid after all candidates already submitted their paper to the High Elections Committee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">This led to:<br />– Delay of the electoral process till the law of electoral constituencies is amended<br />– Reopening the door for candidacy again<br />– Redo the medical check on all candidates even those who already did it<br />– Withdrawal of Egypt Awakens bloc, and Social justice bloc from the election in objection on the redoing of the medical checks<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi ratified the amendments of Law No. 202/2014 Concerning Electoral Districting for the Elections of the House of Representatives on 9 July, 2015 thus paving the way for the long-delayed polls to be held.It divides Egypt into 205 individual electoral constituencies and four geographical constituencies for closed party lists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The House of Representatives will be composed of 596 MPs. Out of the total, 448 will be elected as independents, 120 as party-based deputies, and 28 will be appointed by the president. Thus, the elections system is a mixed system of individual candidacy system and winner-take-all party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The individual candidacy system focuses on independents. According to it, the country is divided to several electoral constituencies with each electoral district selecting one or two MPs to represent it.This system privileged with the MP’s increased commitment to his/her small constituency. It also gives the opportunity for the candidacy of both; independent or party affiliated.<br />As for winner-take-all party, it depends on selecting one of the lists competing on the four geographical constituencies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The 2014 Constitution has set the representation of some groups as the following:<br />Article (11)<br />The State shall ensure the achievement of equality between women and men in all civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.<br />The State shall take the necessary measures to ensure the appropriate representation of women in the houses of representatives, as specified by Law.<br />Articles 243 and 244 in Transitional Provisions Section in the 2014 Constitution<br />Article (243)<br />The State shall endeavor that workers and farmers be appropriately represented in the first House of Representatives to be elected after this Constitution is approved, as regulated by law.<br />Article (244)<br />The State shall endeavor that youth, Christians, persons with disability and Egyptians living abroad be appropriately represented in the first House of Representatives to be elected after this Constitution is approved, as regulated by law.<br />According to the previous articles, it is highlighted that the Constitution ensured the minimum representation for some groups. Article (11) stipulates an “appropriate” representation of women in elected councils. This article is a central one in Basic Components of the Society Part in the Constitution. Consequently, this applies on the Parliament and other councils. As the representation of other groups as workers, Christians, people with disabilities and Egyptians living abroad in the Transitional Provisions Part and thereby, it implies a temporary representation only applicable on the upcoming Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The following diagram shows the number of members of the House of Representatives according to the law:<br /><img alt="chart 1" border="0" height="307" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D168C3.9CC654D0" width="330" /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />According to the election law, 20% of the seats are dedicated to party-lists system, and 80% are for individual seats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><img alt="chart 2" border="0" height="193" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D168C3.9CC654D0" width="331" /><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><b>Second: The legislative enviroment and women’s representation in 2015 Parliament<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The law no. 46/2014 of the House of Representatives allocated 56 seats for women on party lists, in addition to half of the presidential appointees, which counts for around 13 or 14 women. Thus, this guarenteed 70 seats for women in the Parliament, beside individual seats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">This law was as a result of the lobbying efforts of women’s rights civil society organizations and the National Council for Women (NCW) to attain the best representation of women in the Parliament. As there is no exact constitutional article that attains a fair representation of women in Parliament. In Article (5) of the law no. 46/2014 of the House of Representatives states that in the first elections of the House of Representatives following the entry into force of this law, each list for which 15 seats are allocated must at least include the following numbers and designations:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Three candidates who are Christian.<br />Two candidates who are workers or farmers.<br />Two candidates who are youths.<br />A candidate who is a person with a disability.<br />A candidate who is an Egyptian residing abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><img alt="chart 3" border="0" height="152" id="Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D168C2.067351A0" width="300" /><br />Each list for which 45 seats are allocated must at least include the following numbers and designations:<br />– Nine candidates who are Christian.<br />– Nine candidates who are workers or farmers.<br />– Six candidates who are youths.<br />– Three candidates who are persons with disabilities.<br />– Three candidates who are Egyptians residing abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 20.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><img alt="chart 4" border="0" height="136" id="Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D168C2.067351A0" width="300" /><br /><b>Article (27) of the law also stated:</b><br />“The President of the Republic may appoint to the House a number of members not exceeding 5% of the number of elected members, half of whom at least shall be Women,..”<br />Hence, there are at least around 70 seats for women on party lists, thus the representation of women rises from 2% in 2011 Parliament to around 12.5% in 2015 Parliament.<br /><br />From the previous presentation, the following results are drawn:<br />– Christians quota: 24 MPs<br />– Workers and peasants quota: 16 MPs<br />– Youth quota: 16 MPs<br />– People with disabilities quota: 8 MPs<br />– Egyptians living abroad: 8 MPs<br />– Women’s quota: 56 MPs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 20.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It is worth mentioning that ECWR submitted a proposal to support women running for individual seats to the legal committee to amend the Law on the Regulation of the Exercise of Political Rights in May 2014. This proposal aimed to further women’s participation on individual seats level. The draft law proposed that there would be one seat for women for each individual electoral constituency; there will be two male MPs and 1 female MP. In addition, the electoral constituencies would have to be re-divided to be relatively larger than the current single-member constituencies in a manner that ensure consistency in the geographical border and the electoral environment, yet it would be bounded by administrative division of each governorate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">This proposal aimed at overcoming the great expenditure problem that female candidates faced and still face in the 2015 Parliamentary elections. The high financial cost constituted a great obstacle for female candidates especially after the administrative court verdict to conduct again the medical checkup. This decision reinforced capital as the driving force this election as it led many individual female candidates to withdraw.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Third: The Nomination Phase for 2015 Parliamentary elections, from a gender perspective</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">2011 elections progress on the level of electoral process, 2015 elections progress based on results:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In a quick comparison between 2011 elections of The People’s Assembly, the lower house at the time when the Egyptian system was bicameral, and 2015 elections of The House of Representatives; we find that there has been progress in 2011 electoral process yet without achieving results, as for the first the time since 1956 the number of female candidates rose to 984 from a total of 8415 candidates, out of which 351 female candidates on individual seats out of a total of 4847 candidates and 633 female candidates on party lists from a total of 3566 candidates.<br />Elections 2011 witnessed also progress of the governorates of the “conservative” south and “tribal” border governorates in support of women, reaching the highest nomination of women on the party lists in the governorates of North Sinai and Aswan with the ratio of women on party lists by 28.8%, 28%, followed by the New Valley border governorate by 27%, which is characterized by tribal nature. Luxor came by 25% as well as the governorates of Red Sea, Suez and Ismailia by 25%. It is worth noting that the only elected woman in the Shura Council was from New Valley governorate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Meanwhile, the Greater Cairo, which includes Cairo, Giza, Qaliubiya, has reached nominations women on the party lists 13% in Cairo governorate and 13% in Giza, and 17.7% in Qaliubiya.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 20.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The highest level of women’s nomination in on individual seats was in the following governorates; Port Said and Red Sea governorate by 11%, and South Sinai governorate by 10%, then New Valley governorate by 7% and Giza by 5.6%. The lowest for women’s nomination on the individual seats was Kafr El-Sheikh at 1.5%. While, no woman in Luxor governorate ran for individual seats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Despite the political circumstances and security issues, it was the highest number of women’s candidacy. In the Parliamentary election of 2010, which was referred to in the media as the “golden opportunity” for women with women’s quota of 64 seats, the number of female candidates has reached 456. In 2005 Parliamentary elections, while there was no women’s quota, there were 133 female candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nonetheless, despite the high number of women candidates – 984 as mentioned above-, only 9 women secured seats in the Parliament. Out of those 9 women, there were 4 on the Freedom and Justice party list, 3 on Wafd party list, one woman of the Egyptian bloc and women from the Nasserist party resulting in 1.8%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 20.25pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #565656; font-family: "source sans pro"; font-size: 10.5pt;">On the other hand, 2015 Parliamentary elections witnessed progress on the results level in spite of a decline in the number of candidates. This was a result of the women’s quota on party lists as the law of the House of Representatives entailed. This led to an increase in number of women candidates on party lists. The total of female candidates is 652 candidates out of which 276 women are running for individual seats from a total of 5420 candidates representing 5.9%. Meanwhile, 376 women were running on main and back up party-lists, out of 780 candidates representing 58.2%.Thereby, the total number of female candidates is 652 women from a total of 6200 candidate, which is the total number of candidates from both sexes for individual and party seats. Henceforth, women’s participation rate as candidates was 10.03%.</span></div>
Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-22557097411326330282015-11-11T09:19:00.000+00:002015-11-11T09:19:41.369+00:00Remembrance Day Sierra Leone<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In 2000, shortly after the rebel RUF fled the
Sierra Leonean capital I was invited by the British Council to fly to Freetown.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> I wrote the following article for the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/dec/04/sierraleone.comment"><span style="color: #420178;">Guardian</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Remembrance Day Sierra Leone - November 2000<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">'To our collective shame it
is often forgotten that over 500,000 West African troops took part in World
Wars 1 and 2. In my role as a Member of the Governing Board of the
British Council I attended the Remembrance Day service at the Freetown military
cemetery by the sea About 250 of us stood among the haphazardly laid out
gravestones in front of the memorial. British and Sierra Leone military
stood to attention in the front-rows. We civilians stood behind them. Muslim
veterans dressed in white and gold robes sat or stood beside the memorial to
comrades in arms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">British Military snipers
guarded us from the top of nearby giant storage tanks. British soldiers in
camouflage gear with guns at the ready surveyed the sea. A Sierra Leone
military band seated beneath the only shade-tree played Remembrance Day
hymns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Freetown is in the same
time zone as the UK, at that very moment at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and in
churches and at war memorials across the United Kingdom people were choking
back tears to just the same music. The helicopter-carrier HMS Ocean, anchored
out in the bay, fired a gun to mark the two minutes' silence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">When a handful of young
kids paddled up in their canoes the soldiers became extra alert. They had
reason to be cautious. The Revolutionary United Front rebels controlled
thousands of cocaine-addicted, scrambled-brained child soldiers. For
seven years, the RUF tactic has been to raid a village and round up boys and
girls aged 10 and upwards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The children were
immediately injected in the temple with crack cocaine or skin scraped from leg
or chest and the drug rubbed straight into the bloodstream. Soon after the
kidnapping, drug-confused youngsters were forced to chop off a limb from one of
their relatives before being taken away to be trained to fight and kill. But
these local youngsters who sat quietly in their gently rocking canoes were no
threat. They had simply come to listen to the singing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The next day, 500 troops in
amphibian craft accompanied by helicopter gunship air - cover landed on the
beaches of Aberdeen peninsula for a royal tournament display. I was conducting
a workshop for Sierra Leone women Leaders in the British Council Hall on the
top of Tower Hill. We ducked in unison as a low-flying helicopter roared
over the seminar room. Thousands of Sierra Leoneans on the beach below cheered
and shouted: "God bless our mother country, God bless Britain." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">A couple of days later
in my role of Board Member of the British Council I attended a special
session of the SL parliament. I sat behind the UK high commissioner, Alan
Jones, and the commander of the British forces in Sierra Leone, Brigadier David
Richards. The praise for Britain was so warm and effusive it was embarrassing.
But at the same time it was deeply touching. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">A Muslim MP said: "The
British are a special people ready to live and to die for what they believe in,
rather than for short-term gain." He mentioned the British belief in fair
play and justice and the spirit of King Arthur. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">At the end, and in keeping
with the Nineteenth Century character to life in this beautiful country,
even perhaps recalling his own Colonial period education, an MP stood up and
said, "I could see the great spectacle on the beach from my window.
When I saw the British forces landing - nothing could be more reassuring.
If I may quote Wellington, "I don't know what they do to the enemy,
but by God they put the fear of God in ME." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Members of parliament from
all the political parties offered paeans of praise to Britain. They thanked
Tony Blair. They thanked Robin Cook. They thanked Britain's UN ambassador,
Jeremy Greenstock. They thanked the Department for International Development.
They even praised the deputy prime minister, John Prescott. It must be one of
the few rave reviews our minister for transport and wet and every other
controversial thing had that year. '<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-81422098258686626552015-10-20T13:37:00.000+01:002015-10-20T13:37:43.085+01:00Looking forward to speaking at the <a href="http://www.feminisminlondon.co.uk/" target="_blank">Feminist Conference </a><br />
24 October 2015 in the Women in Politics session.Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-65862225894287112472015-05-08T04:18:00.002+01:002015-05-08T04:18:24.385+01:00Election updateScottish Nationalist Party sweeps Labour MPs out of Scotland. Youngest MP elected to the UK Parliament 20 year Scots Nats woman knocks out Labour Shadow Cabinet Minister Douglas Alexander. <br />
Liberal Democrat support dives from 57 - forecast to lose 47 seats. Very sad to lose Minister Jo Swinson. Her husband Duncan Brack, Government Minister - Energy Sec Ed Davey, Menzies Campbell, Lynne Featherstone and Simon Hughes also lost their seats.<br />
<br />
Exit polls suggest Tories will win 316 seats - just short of a majority<br />
Labour predicted to win 239 seats - down 19Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-69962016128080686932015-04-20T09:15:00.002+01:002015-04-20T09:15:43.872+01:00Migrants fleeing Libya - Europe must act<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Europe can't stay silent in front of the tragedy of desperate people who seek to flee war, ISIS, or prolonged extreme poverty. We all have a human obligation to help. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">UK were in the vanguard of stopping the ghastly Slave Trade to the W.Indies - UK should take the lead in the EU in this week's talks and demand: 1) Immediate action - provide rescue services to prevent people fleeing to Europe from drowning.2) Go after the crooks exploiting desperate people who are fleeing to Europe.3)Helping to improve life for people in their countries of origin.</span>Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-11444592109294121392015-03-08T08:11:00.001+00:002015-03-08T08:11:48.654+00:00Lesley's World: Celebrate successes for Women in Parliament global...<a href="http://abdela.blogspot.com/2015/03/celebrate-successes-for-women-in.html?spref=bl">Lesley's World: Celebrate successes for Women in Parliament global...</a>: It’s International Women’s Day. Let’s celebrate successes . In the past two decades women MPs have gained ground in nearly 90% of 174 cou...Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15007829.post-14489477503101435462015-03-07T19:58:00.000+00:002015-03-08T08:07:01.607+00:00Celebrate successes for Women in Parliament globally on International Women's Day.<b>It’s International Women’s Day. Let’s celebrate successes</b>.
In the past two decades women MPs have gained ground in nearly 90% of 174 countries. Electoral quotas in more than 120 countries have underpinned this success.<br />
<br />
Since 1995 the number of parliaments where women occupy more than 30% of the seats has increased from five to forty two.
Thirteen Parliaments have more than 40% women MPs (Twenty years ago there was just one parliament with over 40% women.)
Four parliamentary chambers have more than 50% women MPs
and Rwanda, has more than 60 % women MPs.<br />
<br />
Since 1995, when the UN Beijing Platform for Action on women’s empowerment was adopted, the global average of women in parliament has increased from 11.3 per cent to 22.1 per cent.<br />
<br />
<b>The Americas have made the greatest progress. </b>The Americas now have the highest regional average of women MPs in the world.
The percentage of women MPs climbed from 12.7 per cent in 1995 to 26.4 per cent in 2015.
Nine countries in the Americas region have more than 30% women MPs. In 1995, there were no legislatures with 30%. In addition, three countries have more than 40 per cent women MPs and one country – Bolivia – has 53.1 per cent women MPs.<br />
<br />
The three countries from the Americas in the top ten of IPU’s world rankings in 2015 are: Bolivia, Cuba and Ecuador.
Ecuador has made the largest gains in the region in the past twenty years, increasing women’s representation by 37.1 percentage points to reach 41.6% women MPs in 2015.<br />
<br />
There was a more modest increase in the USA, which saw the percentage of women in the US legislature rise from 10.9 per cent in 1995 to 19.3 per cent in 2015.<br />
<br />
<b> Europe ranks second in regional averages for women in parliame</b>nt.
In 20 years, the average percentage of women MPs in Europe has increased from 13.2 % in 1995 to 25% in 2015.<br />
<br />
Seventeen European countries now have more than 30% women MPs. In 1995, there were just five countries with more than 30 per cent women MPs.
Andorra has achieved total gender parity in parliament at 50/50. Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Spain have more than 40% women MPs.<br />
<br />
Sweden has elected more than 40 % women MPs to every parliament since 1994.<br />
Other notable successes have been Spain, France, Portugal and Italy, with rises of between 15.9 and 25.1 percentage points in the number of women MPs. Legislative quotas are behind the progress.
<br />
<br />
Eastern Europe has a lower average than Western Europe mainly due to the unpopularity of quotas as a relic of former regimes. Balkan States have proved to be an exception. Slovenia, Serbia, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia all have more than 30% women MPs through the adoption of quotas.<br />
<br />
The only country in Europe with fewer women MPs in 2015 than in 1995 is Hungary.<br />
<br />
<b> Sub-Sahara Africa has achieved some of the most dramatic breakthroughs. </b> Africa currently has the third highest regional average for women MPs. In the past 20 years, often in post-conflict situations, the percentage of women MPs increased from 9.8% cent to 22.3%.<br />
<br />
Twelve African countries have over 30% women MPs compared to none twenty years ago. Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles and South Africa have more than 40% women MPs. Rwanda has achieved 63.8 % women representatives in parliament.<br />
<br />
<b> Asia has the fourth highest average at 18.5 per cent of women MP</b>s. In 1995, Asia too had no parliament with more than 30 per cent women MPs. Today Timor Leste has 38.5% women MPs. However, both Nepal and Afghanistan are close at 29.5 and 27.7 per cent respectively. Singapore, meanwhile, has seen one of the biggest jumps in women’s representation over 20 years with an increase of 21.6 percentage points.<br />
Mongolia and Bhutan have also seen notable spikes in figures.
In the past two decades there were minor increases to both houses of parliament in India, though the overall percentage remains low.<br />
<br />
<b> The Arab region.</b> In 1995, there was no Arab State with 30% women MPs. Now Algeria has 31.6% women MPs and Tunisia has 31.3 per cent.
In the past two decades women gained suffrage in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. So far these gains have not been reflected in political representation.<br />
<br />
The Arab region has the second lowest regional average for women MPs, nevertheless, the number of women MPs in the Arab region rose by 11.8 percentage points to 16.1 per cent between1995-2015.
<br />
<br />
<b>The Pacific remains the region with the lowest average for women in parliament</b>. Since 1995, it has seen an increase of 9.4 percentage points to 15.7 per cent today. The progress is largely due to gains in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand, has 31.4% women in its lower house.<br />
<br />
In 1995, there were no countries in the region with 30% women MPs. Australia’s lower house has seen the largest increase in women MPs from 8.8 per cent in 1995 to 26.7 per cent in 2015.<br />
<br />
Among the Pacific Island States, Fiji has the highest proportion of women MPs at 16%.<br />
Although Micronesia and Palau both appear on the lists of countries with no women MPs in 1995 and 2015, Palau has had women during the 20-year period and still does in its upper house. Micronesia, however, has never had a woman MP. In 2015, the Tongan and Vanuatu Parliaments again become all-male institutions.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>IPU</b><br />
I have based the statistics in my blog on The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) annual analysis of statistics and trends on women in parliament released ahead of International Women’s Day on 8th March. The IPU Review this year provides an overview on progress and setbacks since the Beijing Platform.
In 1995 at the UN Fourth United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing the target was for at least 30% women in parliaments. The IPU’s Women in Parliament: 20 years in review has identified a rising trend in efforts to make 50% the new target for women’s participation in parliament.<br />
<br />
IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong. Says, “<i>Political action and will must remain a constant if we are to successfully tackle the gender deficit in politics. There is no room for complacency.”
---</i>Lesley Abdelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898261235838397191noreply@blogger.com2