BURNING ISSUE

UN CEDAW: At 37^th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women reports from 15 countries will be examined, 15 January – 2 February 2007  Governments from the following countries will report to the CEDAW Committee: Austria, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Greece, India, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Poland, Suriname, Vietnam, and Tajikistan. In case of Poland, the government will report for the first time since 1991. The Polish government’s official report, comprising fourth, fifth and sixth periodical reports, covers the period from 1990 until 2002. Simultaneously, a shadow report has been submitted by Polish women’s NGOs to the CEDAW Committee. Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning coordinated the process of preparing the NGO report, which discusses a wide variety of issues. Most burning problems of Polish women have been identified, including violations of sexual and reproductive rights (restrictive anti-abortion law, limited access to modern contraceptives), domestic violence, trafficking in women and discrimination on the labour market. An electronic version of this report will be available online soon.

NGO shadow/alternative reports submitted to CEDAW Committee for its 37^th session are available at:
http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/shadow_reports.htm

EU 2007: A year of equal opportunities for all. Year 2007 has been designated as the European year of equal opportunities for all. Among raising European citizens’ awareness on the issue of equality, there will also be a campaign promoting opportunities that stem from diversity. The Commission has proposed this theme for 2007 because it recognizes still present in Europe problem of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age, gender, sexual orientation or disability. All 27 member states, including Bulgaria and Romania that joined the union this month, will be engaged in activities scheduled for 2007 to promote equal opportunities. Year 2007 might be also a chance for women to raise their voices and address women’s problems. There will be an awareness raising campaign on the European anti-discriminatory policies and legislation. The official launching of the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities will take place at the conference in Berlin at the end of January, chaired by the German Presidency.         

UN: Breakthrough statement on sexual orientation and gender identity. The statement was pronounced by Norway on behalf of 54 states in the United Nations Human Rights Council. The critical objective was to draw attention to the somehow forgotten and neglected issue of discrimination based on gender identity as well as to reinforce the concern of marginalization based on sexual orientation.  This statement has been supported by almost half a thousand of NGOs from 69 countries. This event coincides with the historic recognition of LGBT organizations at the United Nations: one of ILGA’s (International Lesbian and Gay Association) regions and two of its members are granted consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).  

Links between high birth rates, poverty, maternal and infants’ health: UK parliamentary group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health examines the issue. According to the UK parliamentary group, population growth jeopardizes the realization of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – gender equality, reduced child mortality and improved maternal health, among others. In order to make the MDGs come true we need to improve access to family planning services, as well as access to education, particularly for women – because   both lead to curbing population growth. Thus there is a real need of the recognition of the linkages between those intertwined factors: population growth, poverty, access to family planning. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights globally appears to be of great importance, however not commonly acknowledged.              

Care services in the European Union: European Women’s Lobby (EWL) Petition. EWL recognizes that women around the world still face a challenge of reconciliation of family and professional lives. Household duties still appear to jeopardize women’s careers. Thus EWL acknowledges that the provision of care services is crucial for women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality. In its petition, the European Women’s Lobby urges the EU and national governments to adopt adequate measures in order to improve the accessibility of care services. Particularly, it calls for the achievement  of the childcare targets adopted during the Barcelona Council.

She changes the world: MamaCash has launched 88 days campaign. This is a follow up of the last year’s campaign and will last until 8^th March 2007 (International Women’s Day). There are three main objectives of the campaign: to raise money, to raise awareness and to raise women’s voices in order to make them heard all around the world.