OSI's Network Women's Program supported over fifty women's rights activists to participate in the Association for Women's Rights in Development s (AWID) 10th international forum, which took place in Bangkok in October. The annual AWID forum is the largest event for the global women's rights movement outside of the UN system, enabling activists to reflect on its achievements and challenges, and devise strategies for the future.
The diverse group of participants, among them representatives from Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East and North Africa, reflected the reach of the OSI network and its commitment to supporting women's rights around the world.
Summary
OSI’s Network Women’s Program (NWP) supported over fifty women’s rights activists to participate in the Association for Women's Rights in Development’s 10th international forum, which took place in Bangkok in October. The annual AWID forum is the largest event for the global women’s rights movement outside of the UN system, enabling activists to reflect on its achievements and challenges, and devise strategies for the future.
The diverse group of participants, among them representatives from Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East and North Africa, reflected the reach of the OSI network and its commitment to supporting women’s rights around the world.
NWP convened a daily regional caucus, which focused on alarming new trends appearing in Central and Southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, such as the rise in political conservatism and religious fundamentalisms and the backlash against women’s rights. The caucus also addressed the European Union accession process, engagement with the EU as a strategic policymaking venue and funding source, and the recent revolutions in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck, NWP Director, moderated a key panel examining the global women’s movement’s involvement with the Millennium Development Goals. Panelists included Marina Tabukashvili (Open Society Georgia Foundation); Zuhra Halimova (OSI Assistance Foundation–Tajikistan); Yassine Fall, Director of the African Women’s Millennium Initiative in Senegal; Ing Kantha Phavi, Minister of Women’s Affairs in Cambodia; Jean D’Cunha from UNIFEM; and Magaly Pineda from the Dominican Republic.
NWP’s presence at the forum was particularly strong in the discussions on violence against women. Eva Foldvari, NWP Senior Program Manager, participated in the panel on the 2006 UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Women, and gave a presentation on common trends and problems in Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe and Central Asia. Charlotte Bunch, a member of NWP’s sub-board, repeatedly stressed that despite advances in the field, violence against women has remained a global phenomenon. Eva Foldvari moderated another panel dedicated to new tools used in the fight against violence against women. The panel introduced the STOPVAW website and featured panelists Cheryl Thomas (from NWP’s partner, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights), and Yulya Gureyeva (Azerbaijan) and Vanja Mikulic (Montenegro).
NWP and V-Day Karama held a transregional violence against women strategy meeting, connecting approximately 30 women activists from 15 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe working to end violence against women. The meeting was aimed at fostering a wider discussion among activists from different regions working to stop violence against women.
As a collaborative effort between NWP and OSI’s Middle East and North Africa Initiatives, a grant was made to V-Day Karama to allow seven Middle Eastern women to attend the AWID Forum. The travel grants were made to Nafesa Lehresh (Women in Communications Association and Ounotha Magazine, Algeria), Jumna Merai (Democratic Forum for Women, Lebanon), Maia Alrahbi (Syria), Rania al-Baz (Saudi Arabia, broadcast journalist and author of “The Disfigured”), Said Fethai (Listening Center and Tunisian Women’s Association for Research and Development, Tunisia), Akram Khatam (Iran) and Zahra Tashakor (Iran).
The participation of Enisa Eminova, consultant to NWP’s Roma Women’s Initiative, was historic, as she was the first Roma woman plenary speaker at a major global women’s movement event. In addition, Eminova moderated the panel “A Battle on Two Fronts: Romani Women Challenging Racism and Sexism” with Andrea Buckova and Beata Olahova from Slovakia and Silviya Filipova from Bulgaria. Eminova also developed and moderated a panel, “Women Punished for/through Sexuality: Would it be Different if God was a Woman?” The panel sparked discussion of how young women of color from all over the world can tackle harmful traditional practices such as honor killings and female genital mutilation.
NWP partners from the CEE/CIS region also facilitated many panels covering different thematic areas. The panel “New Revolutions, Old Sexisms” examined the roles that women have played in the democratic revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. The panelists included Elmira Shishkaraeva (Kyrgyzstan), Galina Petriashvili (Georgia), Gulnara Ibraeva (Kyrgyzstan), Marina Tabukashvili (Georgia), Natalia Karbowska (Ukraine) and Olena Suslova (Ukraine). Other panels explored the role of women’s funds in the region in sustaining the women’s movement, the impact of EU enlargement in Europe, and the lessons that the global community can learn from feminist activism in this region.