100th Celebrations of International Women's Day: Launch of the 'Alert 2011' campaign
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
The Hague, 8th March 2011
100th Celebrations of International Women's Day: Launch of the ‘Alert 2011’ Campaign
From Kabul to Cairo - Women aspire for effective political participation
Gender budgeting of the EU-Aid to North Africa: How much money ends up with women?
Any EU delegation to the countries must meet with women's rights activists.
To mark the centenary celebration of International Women’s Day, Gender Concerns International organized an Experts Interaction on Women for Transformation at its The Hague office this morning by the launching of its new “Alert 2011- Women for Transformation” campaign as a response to women’s concerns from Egypt, Tunisia and the wider region. In her welcoming remarks, Director Sabra Bano referred to the statements she has received yesterday by women’s organizations from Kabul and Cairo and highlighted the synergy in demanding political participation of at least 30 percent by these organizations in Afghanistan and Egypt. Hoping for the success of Alert 2011 Campaign, Bano mentioned the effective outcome of her “Flowers for Peace” campaign that internationally promoted the participation of Afghan women in Peace Jirga talks with Taliban and contributed greatly to 20% participation of Afghan women in peace talks.
As chairwoman to the event, Her Excellency Mrs. Lydia Morton Ambassador of Australia to the Netherlands pointed out the need of increased female participation in decision making processes. Ambassador Morton explained about women’s struggle and achievements in Australia and discussed the importance of cooperation and solidarity of civil society organizations on the issue of women’s political participation. She also stressed the need for allocation of resources for women organizations and their initiatives.
The speaker from Cairo, Dr. Amal Abdel Hadi of the Coalition of Women’s NGOs in Egypt called for promoting women’s political participation in future governance structures and constitutional reforms. Furthermore, she emphasized the need to have solidarity and support from International and European women’s organizations to advocate their own governments not to deal with dictatorial regimes in Arab countries and take a stand for political and civil rights of women.
Tunisian-Dutch gender expert Dr. Neila Akrimi of VNG raised the issue of women’s privileged position in Tunisia and the contrast when it comes to their political participation in holding of key positions. Accordingly, the current transitional government contains only one female minister out of twenty-two in total. Dr. Akrimi considers the launch of the initiative Alert 2011 as a timely and demand-driven response to the women’s need in the Middle East and wider region.
Dr. Soukeina Bouraoui, Executive Director of the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research, mentioned the fact that Tunisia already has 30 percent women in the Parliament. “We wish to go for parity but demanding for parliamentary gender equality seems a challenging task for women’s organizations in Tunisia since there is no gender equality among parliamentarians anywhere in the world yet. Our demand now is to achieve women’s appointment on key ministerial positions in new governing structures.”
In her recorded video message from Strasbourg, MEP Dr. Franziska Brantner endorsed her full support for Alert 2011 Campaign and stated her appreciation for Gender Concerns International’s efforts to follow up on the ‘Women for Transformation’ hearing held at the European Parliament on February 16th, 2011. In identifying support mechanisms for women’s political participation, Dr. Brantner informed the meeting that European Parliamentarians have inquired Ms. Catherine Ashton on number of issues including resource allocation to women’s organizations. Referring to Gender budgeting of the EU-Aid to North Africa, MEPs have raised the issue as to how much money actually ends up with women and to what extent does EU finance training for women. Further, several MEPs insisted that any EU delegation to these countries must meet with women's rights activists.
While concluding, Sabra Bano reiterated that on the turn of the century of women’s struggle, women in many parts of the world are unanimously demanding for their effective participation in governance. This is a right that needs sustainable effort until the aim is achieved. The ‘Alert 2011 – Women for Transformation’ campaign is a commitment on International Women’s Day to keep supporting women internationally for their leadership role and participation in constitutional reforms. Fair share in governance is a basic human right and a key to achieve Millennium Development Goals.
For further information please contact:
Philipp Schulz
Gender Concerns International
Phone: 00 31 (070) 4445082 Mobile: 0653965784
Laan van Meerdervoort 70 2517 AN, The Hague
Email: philipp@genderconcerns.org Site: http://www.genderconcerns.org