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English
Issue 10 (January)
Dear Friends,
The year 2005 will provide important opportunities for promoting women's rights. Representatives of governments and activists from around the world will gather in New York for the 49th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women to review progress made in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action ten years after its adoption. It is time to assess the victories we've won, to strengthen our solidarity within the women's movement, and to work together to develop effective strategies to achieve justice and equality. Among the critical areas of concern in the Beijing +10 review is protecting women from violence and ensuring full achievement of women's human rights.
Violence against women remains one of the primary obstacles to empowering women and achieving peace and security for all. In the last ten years, women’s rights activists in Muslim-majority countries have taken significant strides in initiating legislation that helps improve the status of women, protect women from violence, and punish perpetrators of violence. In 2004, WLP’s partner in Morocco, l’Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), led a coalition of women’s rights organizations that successfully amended the Moudawana (the Moroccan Family Law) supporting women’s equality and granting them new rights in marriage and divorce, among others. Last September in Turkey, after a three year-campaign to reform the Turkish Penal Code, thirty amendments were passed resulting in major steps towards advancing gender equality and safeguarding women’s sexual and bodily rights. And this month, President Pervez Musharraf signed a bill making honor killings a criminal act punishable by death in Pakistan. Policy-makers enlightened and influenced by women activists are bringing about changes that will lead to eradication of violence against women in all its forms.
WLP and our partners believe that the key to a successful effort to eliminate violence against women is women’s empowerment. In our partners meeting in the fall of 2004 in Beirut, the partners decided to focus on elimination of violence against women as one of our main areas of curriculum development and training. As part of the process initiated in Beirut, WLP will organize a one-day symposium, "Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence Against Women in Muslim Societies" on March 1st to coincide with the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women. The Symposium will provide a forum for women activists to discuss the cultural, traditional, economic, political, and legal factors that impact violence in the context of women’s empowerment. They will share experiences and lessons learned from their advocacy efforts. Event details can be found below.
In this issue of eNews you will also find a report of the Maghreb Regional Institute for Women’s Leadership organized by WLP and our Moroccan partner, ADFM, December 11-14, 2004, and the announcement for our upcoming Africa Regional Institute organized in cooperation with our Nigerian partner, BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, February 21-25, 2005.
We wish you the best in the new year,
Mahnaz Afkhami
President
Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace
In this Issue
- Articles
- Latest News
International Symposium - Leading to Change: Eliminating Violence Against Women in Muslim Societies
"Violence against women is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development, and peace. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The long-standing failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms in the case of violence against women is a matter of concern to all States and should be addressed...In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class, and culture." -Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women
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Issue 10 (January) )
Latest News
Africa Regional Institute for Women’s Leadership and Training of Trainers
WLP in cooperation with its partner in Nigeria, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, will convene the Africa Regional Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers from February 21-25, 2005 in Calabar, Nigeria. WLP Institutes are learning centers for empowering women to participate as leaders in the decision-making processes in all areas of social, political, and economic life. Institute participants will include 25 women's rights activists and leaders from nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among the participants will be WLP partners Community Education and Development Services (Cameroon) and the Women’s Self-Promotion Movement (Zimbabwe). Using the English edition of WLP’s leadership training manual, Leading to Choices, participants will engage in skills-building sessions on facilitation, communication, and advocacy as well as build a stronger network of grassroots women’s rights NGOs in the region to advance women’s leadership, promote sustainable development, and combat violence against women.
WLP Launches French Website
WLP is pleased to announce the launch of its French language website. WLP websites provide culture-, language-, and community-relevant content on women’s leadership, political participation, human rights, peace, and development. The site will expand access to culture-specific leadership training materials and multimedia resources on women's rights to WLP partners and women's networks in the Maghreb region and francophone Africa. WLP websites are also available in Arabic and English.
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Issue 10 (January) )
Maghreb Regional Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers
Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) convened the Maghreb Regional Learning Institute for Women’s Leadership and Training of Trainers from December 11-14, 2004 in Marrakech, Morocco. The goal of the Institute was to empower women in the Maghreb region to actively participate as effective leaders and advocates in the decision-making processes that affect their personal, family, community, and national condition, and to develop their facilitation skills in training grassroots women to be leaders working towards gender equity and human rights for all citizens. Twenty-six women’s rights activists and leaders of women’s groups from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia participated in the Institute. The Institute was one of the first training and networking forums that brought women activists and trainers together from across the region.
