European and International

Elections to the European Parliament take place in June and Engender have written to the Scottish parties asking if they have taken any action to ensure a gender balance in their candidate lists.  
We also asked if they are planning to take any action in the future to ensure equal representation for women or to encourage the participation of women.  Scotland sends 7 MEP’s to Brussels and the current make up is 5 men and 2 women.  We’ll let you know if and when we hear from any of the parties.  
We’ve also written to the European parties as part of the EWL 50/50 campaign urging them to introduce measures to ensure women’s equal presence on their candidate lists by using a zip system (1woman/1 man) and to prioritize equality issues in their programmes.  
The European Women’s Lobby is running a campaign to create a   European Women’s Envoy, who could make sure that women’s rights were taken into account when policy decisions are made. See the website and sign the petition
More News From Europe…..  from Kath Davies, Convener, Engender Europe & International Group  


Don’t forget!
The European Women’s Lobby 50/50 campaign aims to improve women's representation in all European decision making bodies.


 
Sign the petition at www.womenlobby.org

2010 – Beijing + 15

Planning now: NGO Forum 2010 - A New World for All: The Global World Through Women's Eyes: It’s time to join women’s groups and movements all over the world as we prepare for the 15-year follow-up to the 1995 Beijing World Conference and the global Platform for Action. The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) will prepare an alternative report assessing the performance of the EU in achieving the objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action, and will be calling on policy-makers to use the follow-up process as an opportunity to define a new and ambitious agenda for gender equality at EU level.
We look forward to work in solidarity with policy-makers, partners, and allies to make 2009 a thriving year for gender equality in Europe and beyond.
Look out for news on
www.engender.org     www.womenlobby.org
www.equalities.gov.uk
     
New European equality legislation
2009 is an important year for gender equality in the European Union. Member States and the European institutions are currently negotiating three proposals for EU legislation (Directives):

• significant improvements in the right to maternity leave throughout the EU
• improvements to  the situation of self-employed workers and assisting spouses/life partners
• an EU-wide ban on discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in media, education, social protection, and in access to goods and services.

Negotiations between social partners aim at revising existing European legislation on parental leave. The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) is committed to following these legislative processes to make sure their outcome will have a significant, positive impact on the lives of women throughout Europe, in particular, giving real opportunities to reconcile work and private life for both women and men.
 

New initiatives

The EWL will input into the activities and initiatives of the Czech EU presidency during this first part of 2009, and the Swedish EU presidency following it. EWL will raise the core issues of our member organisations in areas such as women’s employment and economic independence, violence against women, women’s sexual and reproductive rights, women and media, and women and migration.
 

Iceland EU?

After her appointment as head of the Icelandic government, the new Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdsrdottir, declared on 4 February that Iceland's membership of the European Union and then of the euro zone seemed to her to be ‘the best option’ to get her country out of crisis. ‘In my opinion, the best option is to join the European Union and adopt the euro’, she said at a press conference.
www.womenlobby.org  

Russia

Commenting on the end of the trial of some suspects on 19 February in Moscow Andrew McIntosh (UK), Chairman of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly's Sub-Committee on the Media and Rapporteur on media freedom, expressed his deep frustration at the lack of progress in investigating the murder of Anna Politkovskaya on 7 October 2006 and the inability of the Russian authorities to find her killers.\

Lily’s Law
President Obama has signed his first bill into law. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a victory for labour and women's rights backers, reversing a 2007 US Supreme Court decision that had made it harder to sue for pay discrimination. Ledbetter is an Alabama woman who discovered after 19 years at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co that she was the lowest-paid supervisor at her plant, despite having more experience than several male co-workers. She took her case to the highest courts, without redress. The President said: "Signing this bill today is to send a clear message: that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody, that there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces".
Guardian/BBC

CEDAW and CSW working for women in Scotland?

What does the UN process mean for us?
Good news. The UK government is now making efforts to involve more women’s groups in the United Nations’ consultative process for women. It’s important to remember that, having signed up to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the UK is legally bound not only to work towards women’s equality but also to encourage and promote awareness of the UN process so that the voluntary sector can contribute. Engender took part in a meeting in Glasgow recently, arranged by the Government Equalities Office (GEO) and the Women’s National Commission (WNC). It was one of five events taking place around the UK (London, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North of England). We worked with Ann Henderson, new WNC Commissioner in Scotland, on the programme for the day.

Making our voices heard

The Glasgow event aimed to raise awareness about how NGOs can have their say in the UN process. Speakers outlined the UK government’s international obligations under CEDAW, and explained the UN’s monitoring programme carried out by the UN CEDAW Committee and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). CEDAW requires individual governments to report on progress towards equality for women every four years (last UK report 2008), while CSW considers progress overall by theme, taking different topics each year. Kate McCulloch from Northern Ireland made the whole process come alive with a vivid and very funny personal account of attending these meetings and how to lobby there effectively. A full report of the event will follow.
NGOs can send their own ‘Shadow’ reports on UK government progress to the UN, and these are considered alongside the official government reports. They can also attend the UN meetings if they have ECOSOC consultative status and resources to get there. (ECOSOC is the Economic and Social Council, the department of the UN that deals with some equality matters). Engender has contributed to Shadow progress reports via the WNC for some time. We took a wonderful wall chart (thanks to Niki) to the Glasgow meeting to illustrate women’s activities here in Scotland over the past 30 years.
Action
With partner groups, including Engender, The WNC aims to develop annual programmes on international women’s rights issues across the UK:
to increase women’s capacity to engage in the UN process;

• to enhance the UK’s negotiating position on gender equality through the EU and at the UN
• to respond to the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee in advance of the next UK examination (2011).

At the same time, Engender Europe & international Group will be working on UN consultations with other groups in Scotland – but with a difference. We now have consultative status with ECOSOC and we’re determined to be at the UN for CSW/CEDAW events, from 2010. Our immediate piece of UN work involves coordinating an equalities report to ECOSOC by early April (see elsewhere in this newsletter), and in the longer term there will be a Shadow report to the UN next year on progress on the Beijing Platform (Beijing + 15). And then there is the next CEDAW Shadow report in 2011…
This is a real opportunity to have our say about our priority areas – Engender’s priorities for change are Poverty, Participation and Violence against Women. We’re inviting interested people to join us in this work.   Let us know what your priority areas are.  Please get in touch if you want to know more about this work and/or would like to be part of our working group.

Engender report to ECOSOC:  looking for your input
Deadline:  20 March 2009

The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the overarching mechanism for addressing women’s inequality at international level. One of its committees, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is meeting in May 2009 and will review progress made by the UK on its obligations for implementing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Articles 1-15. This Covenant addresses inequality. It involves a slightly different from the CEDAW/CSW process outlined above, but it’s another opportunity to influence the UN process and let our own UK government know what our priorities are.
Engender intends to submit a Shadow report to the ECOSOC Committee in April 2009. The report will express our concerns in key areas and suggest questions that would be appropriate for the ECOSOC Committee to ask the UK government. For a list of the Articles and questions relating to the UK, see here or contact Carol at Engender (below). The Convention itself can be read at  http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/  
We do not need to respond to all the Convention Articles; Articles 3 and 9 will be high priorities for Close the Gap and Engender (and we assume a few other organisations!).
We would like to know what you and/or your organisation would like to see submitted under any or all of these issues.  Please feed back to us with comments on the Convention or by contacting our Policy Lead, Carol Flack for more info:  carol.flack@engender.org.uk