advocacy

WIDE Annual Conference 2010 "Migration in the context of globalisation", will take place on June 4-5, 2010, in Bucharest, Romania.

WIDE AC 2010 is organized by our Romanian partner "AUR" ­ The National Association of Human Resources Specialists.

This year´s Conference marks also the 25th anniversary of WIDE. The UN Women´s world conference in Kenya 1985 marked the start for WIDE when feminists in Europe decided it was time to join hands and work together. In the past 25 years WIDE has become a strong network with 12 national and regional platforms in Europe, bringing together over 400 organisations and working with women from the South, form all continents. WIDE is the only European network focusing on trade, development and women´s rights, employing three kind of strategies to bring about change: through networking, capacity building and advocacy. This conference will build on WIDE´s long experience, activism and expertise.This Conference "Migration in the context of globalisation" will bring together and voice the experiences of migrant women from Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. And most importantly it will facilitate dialogue to come to common positions and actions for the coming years to take. Migration is an important process that is impacting people in Europe and worldwide.

By Lina Attalah

Sadr dedicates her Award to imprisoned women’s rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari

Your Excellency Mrs. Clinton, Respected Members of the Jury, Ladies and Gentlemen, (cont...)

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's Activist Institutes are two-week-long training spaces and are each attended by 20-25 LGBTI activists. IGLHRC has held five international LGBTI activist institutes since 2005.

The theme of each Institute is chosen by activists who have attended the trainings, focusing on particular groups or challenges and considering the needs of a community.

Below, find the Memoirs of the past three Institutes, detailing their programmes and methods. They also share activists' experiences and the information presented at each Institute, so that the Memoirs can be adapted or used by other activists and groups.

IGLHRC will soon make each of these reports available in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

Memoirs of Past Institutes:

Memoir of Training Institute for Trans and Intersex Activists
La Falda, Cordoba, Argentine – 2005
Spanish · English · Portuguese

Memoir of Training Institute for Lesbian and Bisexual Women from Central American and Caribbean

San Jose de Costa Rica – 2007
Spanish · English · Portuguese

Memoir of Training Institute "Strategies to Address Religious Fundamentalisms"

Guarulhos, Sao Paulo – 2008
Spanish · English · Portugese

This video contains images from IGLHRC's 2008 Latin American Advocacy Institute on combating religious fundamentalisms.

(h/t wikigender)

Organised jointly by the OECD Development Centre and UNESCO

Friday, 12 March 2010
Room (tbc), OECD Headquarters,
2 rue André Pascal,
75016, Paris (FRANCE)

The workshop will provide an excellent opportunity to improve our understanding of the linkages between gender, culture and progress in societies, as well as to take concrete next steps in this regard. It will be attended by high-level policy makers and government representatives from around the world as well as leading academics, gender equality experts and development practitioners. This should allow for a very rich exchange of experiences and viewpoints.

A preliminary programme is available at www.oecd.org/dev/gender/progress. Should you wish to attend, please register by filling in the registration form that you will find on the website and by returning it to Mrs. Pamela Marqueyrol (tel: 01 45 24 82 86, e-mail:pamela.marqueyrol@oecd.org).

As places are limited, we will confirm your registration as soon as possible.

• En Espanol
• На русском языке
• Українською мовою

The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) seeks to strengthen the participation of Disabled Persons’ Organizations (DPOs) in the advancement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at country level in the Global South and Eastern Europe/former Soviet Union.
The 2010 “Moving Rights Forward” grant cycle will consist of two grantmaking rounds:

1. The first grantmaking round (described below) is directed at DPOs in Indonesia, Mexico, Ukraine and eligible states and cities in India (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and the National Capital Territory of Delhi). The deadline for Small Grants applications for this round is Monday, 29 March 2010 at 24:00 (midnight) your time. The deadline for National Coalition Grants applications for this round is Monday, 12 April 2010 at 24:00 (midnight) your time.
2. The RFP for the second grantmaking round will be publicized in July 2010.

FIRST ROUND
Applicants can apply as:
a) single organizations or partnerships for Small Grants; and/or
b) national DPO-led coalitions for National Coalition Grants.

Single organizations or partnerships can apply for 12-month grants ranging from USD 5,000 to 20,000 to:

Increase DPO skill in addressing the CRPD by
(a) building more inclusive organizations or partnerships; and/or
(b) internal capacity building; and

Do rights-based advocacy and monitoring through:
(a) increasing DPO participation in decision-making processes regarding the CRPD at state or local levels; and/or
(b) directly addressing implementation of CRPD Articles.

Download the details of the DRF Small Grants Request for Proposals (RFP) and the Grant Application Form here.
(MS Word Format)

The Hunt for Parents & Siblings Begins Again!

Once again, we are looking for parents or siblings of queer folks willing to share.

Our next Queer As Films programme, which is a double-bill of films scheduled for next Sunday 7 March, 4pm and 6pm, is a public outreach one, hoping to help the non-queer population understand our cause and to build allies with them.  Queer As Films is a monthly film screening at The Annexe Gallery presented by PT Foundation and Seksualiti Merdeka, with the aim to empower the queer community.  For the first time, we are inviting members of the public to join us.

The 4pm film is The Naked Civil Servant, a charmingly funny made-for-TV film telling the story of Quentin Crisp, a British queer icon and writer, who was openly homosexual even in pre-WWII England and survived with nothing more than mascara, sharp wit and a sheer force of personality.  Film critic Benjamin McKay, who has met Quentin himself, and actor Edwin Sumun, our very own Quentin Crisp, will be on our panel to talk about gay icons and being out.

The 6pm film is Prayers For Bobby, a powerfully moving made-for-TV film telling the true story of Mary Griffith, a conservative Christian mom who has to come to terms with her gay son's suicide and her role in it.  Sigourney Weaver stars as the mom, who eventually becomes a gay-rights advocate.  For this film, we hope to have a panel of moms/dads/siblings willing to share about how they learn to accept their queer children/brothers/sisters.  So I am asking all of you who are out to your family, are your family members willing to share?  Or if you are a sibling or parent of a queer child who is out to you, are you willing to share?  Let us know and we can meet with you all personally first to talk.

Otherwise, if you can even persuade your family members to attend the film, it will be good enough.  Hope to see you guys there.

Thanks.

Pang Khee Teik, Arts Programme Director

pang@annexegallery.com

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Come out of your closet!  The world needs more love!

Please, sign the petition below by February 28, 2010, by sending an email message to info@stopdhunes.org that says:

I sign the Petition in Support of the Victims of Violence against Women and Women’s Rights Defenders in Albania.

Please, provide the following information in your message: first and last name, organization, country, and email address.  Thank you for your support!

TO:

Directors of public and private TV and radio stations in Albania

Editors-in-Chief of daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Albania

The Albanian National Commission on Radio and Television

Dear Madams/Sirs:

We would like to bring to your attention recent regrettable cases of incorrect and unfair media reporting on cases of violence against women and the work of the organizations that provide support and shelter to the victims of this violence in Albania. The most recent case was a report by the program “Fiks Fare” in Top Channel related to the case of a woman victim of extreme domestic violence that has included severe and repeated physical violence. Inexplicably, “Fiks Fare” sided with the perpetrator, who exploits the victim’s children to stop his wife from divorcing him after years of severe domestic violence. This perpetrator, other than repeatedly abusing his wife, has over the last four years threatened and intimidated several women’s rights defenders who provided assistance to her.

From: 19/03/2010 - 20/03/2010

Location: The Windsor Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

Contact: Pénélope Pontet

Summit objectives and outcomes:

•  The Africa Women’s Economic Summit will:
  • Identify the issues that limit women’s access to financial products and services
  • Explore the business opportunities and innovations to expand the reach and scale of financial services to women at all income levels.
  • Cultivate the leadership required to introduce new ways of thinking, and build an African financial system that is more inclusive of women.
  • Identify measures that will ensure women take their rightful place as decision makers within the governance and management structures of national, regional, continental and global financial institutions.

• Programme (520 kB)
• The Gender Policy (333 kB)
• Media registration

By Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Feb 1, 2010 (IPS) - No sooner does a visitor step into the facility than a surreal scene unfolds: The sound of laughter, the sight of ready smiles and vigorous, pumping handshakes mix with the acrid odor of an unwashed human body and the unbearable stench of neglect that in turn combines with the heavy smell of medicine.

A group of women gathers around the visitor, their eyes lighting up and faces breaking into a smile as they extend their hands to offer the latter a firm handshake, only to be shooed away by Waseem Fatema, a stocky nurse in her late 40s.

This is the Edhi Centre for the Mentally Ill Women in North Karachi – home to women suffering from various forms of mental or emotional disorder, some of which warrant long-term treatment, others do not, requiring at best compassion and understanding for otherwise fleeting states of mental or emotional impairment, brought about in part by these women’s inability to cope with what society expects of them.

Of the more than one thousand female wards confined at the centre, some are as young as five years old and others as old as 70, or even older. Children, who are either physically or mentally challenged, stay in an adjacent facility also run by Edhi. Some of them were brought to the centre by parents who invariably said they could no longer afford to look after them.