EU HR/VP Catherine ASHTON attends 'Women & Political Participation' - High Level UN event -  19/09/2011

Speaking at the UN's "Women in political participation" conference on 19 September Catherine Ashton said: "Too often we still see in our societies that it’s harder if you are a woman to be able to succeed. It’s more challenging, there are more criticisms, more hurdles we have to get over, and there are more chances that you have to take. But for the next generation, I hope there will be examples in this room that they can look up to and show that it is worth it".

 

Journée Internationale de la Femme : Édition spéciale du bulletin d’information de la mission EUPOL RD Congo [2 MB] - 08/03/2012

 

NISSA TV - promoting equality between men and women
 
To coincide with International Women's Day, the European External Action Service is pleased to promote a new initiative called Nissa TV.
 
Nissa TV is a groundbreaking project to create a Euro-Mediterranean TV channel for the promotion of equality between men and women and the strengthening of the role of women in the region.
 
At a time of major social and political change in the Mediterranean region, Nissa TV represents a unique and modern response to an evolving situation. The goal of Nissa TV is to break stereotypes of women in the area and to allow them to express their thoughts and opinions; despite the traditional roles they may be in.
 
The new channel is a collaboration between women on both sides of the Mediterranean; working together with the common goal to promote and value the position of women.

 

Mediterranean and Middle East Region

Tunisia

In Tunisia we deal specifically with promoting gender sensitive institutional and judicial reforms and active women’s participation in elections, as well as to fight against violation of human rights violations during the Arab Spring. This work is in cooperation with UN Women. The EEAS aims to support the activities of the “Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates” (AFTD) and the “Association des Femmes Tunisienne pour la Recherche sur le Développement”. The AFTD is an association which has the objective of defending the rights of women and promote equality in civil and political, social, economic and cultural affairs. There are further plans for the organisation of a regional conference gathering women of the Arab region.

Egypt

An initiative titled “Spirit of Tahir” has been launched under the banner of the ENPI Global Allocation to Cultural Cooperation. The “Spirit of Tahir” project will look to contribute to raising awareness about the recent political upheavals in the country and to stress their importance for Egypt’s future through arts or other cultural means.

Another ongoing project is the partnership with Democracy Reporting International. This initiative, in support of civil society organisations, will help to create and foster links between civil society and civic interest groups that formed during recent protests. It will also work with Egyptian actors to support them in providing the Egyptian public with analysis on the political reforms that will be undertaken in the moths to come. Both women as a group and gender aspects overall are a cross-cutting dimension of the entire action.

The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDR) has been actively supporting the role of women’s activists and gender civil society organisations in the European Neighbourhood Policy by funding a wide range of actions across a variety of areas.

Projects in Egypt that are currently being supported include: supporting the causes of marginalised women, supporting women leadership and participation in elections, and enhancing marginalised women’s enjoyment of economic rights.

Jordan

Women empowerment and social rights in Jordan is the focus of the strengthening the capacity of two “Village Business Incubators”, which promote rural women participation in the labour market.

In Jordan, the EIDHR has launched schemes focused on the prevention of any form of violence against women and girls, women’s political participation, non-discriminatory access to the labour market, and the establishment of a legal framework that would eliminate any form of discrimination against women.

Yemen

The EU has been making use of several of its financial instruments and programmes to support human rights, women’s rights organisations and promote gender equality. The empowerment of women as change agents in particular has been a core objective of the EU's cooperation with Yemen since 2005 onwards.

The EU has engaged in bilateral cooperation with Yemen to being together authorities and civil society for the strengthening and protection of human rights. The core groups targeted are women and children. In the framework of this program, the EU Delegation signed and implemented 10 projects in different areas of the Republic of Yemen, all to strengthen the position of marginalized groups of women and children. Project activities included raising awareness on child trafficking and also on women's rights in the traditional and tribal areas of Yemen.

As of 2010, the EU identified a follow up program to continue its excellent cooperation with the Yemeni authorities on furthering human rights and gender equality. In this program, the delegation intends to work also with the Women National Committee – a semi-government body established to engender Yemen's development plans and policies. The program aims to address gender equality and human rights mainstreaming in local governance and development.

Since 2003, special focus to empower women as voters and electoral officials has been given by the EU and UNDP in their joint electoral support programmes. Currently, the 3rd subsequent electoral support project (EC-UNDP Joint Electoral Assistance Project – JEAP) includes a specific component to work with female candidates and work also to ensure a more equitable inclusion of women as electoral staff, while continuing to work on raising awareness on women's participation to the political process in their capacity as voters.

Priorities on gender equality hold a prominent place amongst the objectives of the EU in Yemen. Examples include seeking supporting the efforts of local actors to lobby for legislation to be adopted to establish a safe marriage age and also to raise awareness at community level against the dangers of early marriage

Under the ’Investing in People’ initiative, the EU is implementing a regional project to strengthen awareness on sexual and reproductive rights among young people in different Arab countries, including Yemen. A new call for proposals on gender will be launched in the coming year and could include actions in the Republic of Yemen.

EU engagement with local actors has included a project to address water, sanitation and health conditions of women in mountainous tribal areas as well as a project to raise awareness on nutrition and breastfeeding best practices among women in the extremely poor Tihama region.

African, Caribbean and Pacific Region

Timor-Leste

The EU Delegation in Timor-Leste has launched a project called “Raising women's voices: advocating for women's rights” in partnership with the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR-Progressio) and its local partner, Rede Feto, the women umbrella NGO. The overall goal is to promote and protect women's rights and gender equality in the development process of Timor-Leste. The objectives are to strengthen the capacity of Rede Feto and its member organisations for effective advocacy and lobbying by the NGO and its membership for legislation to protect women and to empower women socio-economically.

The EU also has initiated the project “Empowering women and establishing Grassroots Protection Network” in conjunction with the NGO Ba Futura. The project seeks to improve grassroots protection for vulnerable populations through the empowerment of women by linking state and non-state actor sat the local level for the prevention and violence against women and children and will ensure women’s meaningful participation in peace building and post-conflict governance. Specific objectives include reducing violence against and abuse of vulnerable populations, the empowerment of local female leaders as key agents for protection and to improve the government’s awareness of grassroots protection needs and introduce strategies to address these needs.

Western Balkans Region

Croatia

In Croatia, the EU supports the activities of the Centre for Education and Counselling and Research – CESI. CESI, in the past 10 years, has educated 220,000 young people and 420 educators in the Republic of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Macedonia. These people were equipped with knowledge and skills for conducting programs on raising awareness on gender and sexuality issues, prevention of teen dating violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The support comes as part of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and the Country Based Support Scheme.

The overall objective is to encourage inclusion and empowerment of visually impaired women for participation in social processes and to raise awareness of the issues affecting disabled women. The specific objective of the EU support is to increase leadership capacities and gender awareness of visually impaired women and girls, to change societal attitudes and prejudices and advocate for equal opportunities for visually impaired women in social life.

The results of the EU’s assistance have included greater involvement by visually impaired women in local actions and training, educational programs dealing with Gender Awareness, Sexuality, and Prevention of teen dating violence, and the development of gender sensitive policies and programs addressing people with disabilities.

Public awareness has also been greatly increased, with 150,000 people having received basic knowledge and information on equal opportunities and discrimination of women with visual impairment. Alongside this has been the setting up of a web portal LIBELA, which contained information on gender and democracy.

Asian region

Nepal

The European Union actively supports women empowerment in Nepal and gender equality is a key component of its cooperation with development partners in the country.

The EU is involved, through technical and financial assistance, in promoting the role of women in bringing stability and peace building to Nepal. CARE UK, for instance, with EU funding, supports the capacity building of civil society "peace networks" that engage poor, vulnerable and socially excluded groups of women and youth in the process of influencing a democratic constitution in the country, which in turn, contributes towards sustainable peace and the achievement of individual and community aspirations.

In the field of human rights the EU systematically involves women’s rights networks and organisations in consultations on the launch of local call for proposals. The EU supports the work of organisations such as Women for Human Rights (WHR), which lobbies for the rights of single women (i.e. widows), and the Dalit Mahinga Sangh Association that provides access to basic health services for disadvantaged Dalit women.

In the field of labour market and migration, the EU contributes to the protection of migrant women's rights, especially from exploitation and human trafficking. Recent work by organizations such as UN Women and CARE Austria have focused on strengthening the capacity of government and non-government service providers and media to promote safe migration and improve the access of migrant workers to relevant information and services.

In addition, the EU promotes women’s active role in the labour market through the creation and development of micro and small enterprises. More specifically, in cooperation with AIDOS, the EU is helping the Federation of Business and Professional Women Nepal (FBPWN) to strengthen their capacity in implementing programmes for women’s entrepreneurship development. A specific example is the establishment of a Business Services Centre (BSC) that gives Nepali women a chance to move their families out of poverty by helping them set up a business or improve the management of their existing enterprises.

In order to enhance gender equality and women's empowerment in the aid effectiveness agenda, a global EU/UN partnership has been launched. In Nepal, the EU supports the UN Women programme "Gender Responsive Budgeting" (GBR) which seeks to improve the country's capacity to institutionalise GBR and to support the emergence of concrete actions by donor countries for mainstreaming gender into sector-wide approaches and programmes.

More recently, Nepal has been chosen to participate in the EU-funded UN Women / International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC-ILO) programme "Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality." This initiative, which is expected to start in April 2012, will build on the results achieved under previous and current programmes in this area with the aim of increasing the volume and effective use of aid and domestic resources to implement national commitments to gender equality and women's empowerment.

 

India

The EU supports the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) – a flagship program by the Government of India that provides quality education to all children between 6 and 14 years. A key component of SSA are Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBVs) which are free residential schools set up for girls from marginalised communities to provide them with at least 8 years of education.

As a result of the SSA, India has achieved gender parity in primary education; as of 2009 there are 94 girls for every 100 boys in elementary school compared to 91 in 2005.

The KGBVs also empower girls though various activities including self-defence and knowledge of personal hygiene and sanitation. These schools are an important initiative for reaching out to underprivileged girls who otherwise would not have had the benefit of an education.

In other areas, the European Union supports the National Rural Health Mission and the Reproductive and Child Health Programs. One of the key points of focus of the support is continued and strengthened community engagement in gender budgeting and mainstreaming in relation to castes and tribes.

The central aspects of EU support in the health sector related to women are: developing business plans and strengthening the capacities for training in gender planning and the development of a convergence framework with HIV/AIDS especially with a focus on state level consultations with key stakeholders and operational research at district level.

 

Sri Lanka

Video: Women in the line of fire (2'18")

The Swiss Foundation for demining funded by the European Union humanitarian aid department has enabled civilian women to demine vast tracts of land in Sri Lanka.

Laos

The European Union in Laos works with the landmine clearance NGO Mines Advisory Group International (MAG). MAG takes its commitment to gender rights and equality seriously. Continual efforts are made, both internally and within project activities, to ensure that females have equal access to opportunities, are provided appropriate space for participation and have a meaningful part in decision making.

Internal to MAG Laos, there are two all-female clearance teams, one of which is in Khammouane Province where an EU grant is currently funding activities. MAG has purposefully established these teams so as to provide an opportunity for local women to work in a mutually supportive group. The team undertakes exactly the same type of activities as other teams and achieves equally impressive clearance rates.

The women members greatly enjoy the fact that they work in an all-female environment and feel a sense of liberation and freedom in their roles. In wider Laos society, women predominantly have a subservient role in which they defer to males on almost every issue. Within the all-female teams this is never an issue and the women enjoy the autonomy that working in such an environment presents. This independence helps foster a great sense of pride amongst the women in their work and this in-turn ensures that they continually deliver excellent clearance rates.

Latin America Region

Colombia

The EU has been making use of several of its financial instruments and programmes to support human rights and women’s rights organisations and promote gender equality in Colombia.

Through local cooperation, EU projects such as ‘Peace Laboratories’ work to strengthen the peace building process in Colombia and encourage a stable living environment for all. The Peace Laboratories have succeeded in helping to develop approaches to creating the conditions for development and sustainable peace at local and regional level.

The Peace Laboratories constitute a unique opportunity for empowering women, as a subject of human rights. These initiatives have been executed in areas particularly affected by illegal armed groups, which constitute a serious threat to women's integrity and freedom.

The Peace Laboratories initiative has resulted in empowering women through social and political processes, increased political involvement leading to greater recognition, greater economic autonomy through women having their own income and playing a greater role in decision making regarding family activities, and increased social participation through networks which led to a positive change in terms of social perception about women's participation.

Honduras

The EU in Honduras has been carrying out several projects oriented to supporting human rights, women’s rights organisations and promoting gender equality.

The DEBORAH programme supports citizen's participation and advocacy for women's rights

DEBORAH’s overall objective is to contribute to justice and equality and to improve the capacity of civil society to prevent and respond to women's rights violations. Twenty-seven civil society organizations have been working hand in hand with the NGO "Proyecto Aldea Global" in the implementation of activities to benefit women victims of abuse and violation of their rights.

DEBORAH supports around 3,000 people in dependent families affected by the violation of human rights.

Another scheme that the EU aids is the "Strengthening the Women's Movement for Human Rights Advocacy and Policy Implications in Consolidating Democracy and the Rule of Law in Honduras"

The project's general objective is to contribute to the consolidation of democracy in Honduras, with an enhanced gender perspective and respect for human rights, social justice and citizen's participation from the women's movement. As a specific objective, the project aims to contribute to organizational strengthening of three local women's networks of one municipality of the province of Choluteca and three in the province of Francisco Morazán for the promotion, defence and protection of human rights of women in Honduras.

The European Union also actively supports microenterprise developments and commercialisation of products.

This action aims to contribute to economic and social integration of women in situation of marginality in the Atlantic region of Honduras, specifically 110 women who will improve the quality of family life and economic.

Under these objectives, women in marginal regions who are excluded from economic activity will benefit from the strengthening of organizational, commercial and entrepreneurism skills for the creation of productive initiatives and capacity development in business management.

Argentina

The EU supports a project, led by "Catholics for the Right to Decide" (CDD-Córdoba) which aims at both helping the progress towards the recognition of women’s human rights. The scheme also seeks to improve services for Argentinean women facing gender-based violence or questioning themselves about their sexual and reproductive rights.
Based on the identified objectives, effective actions have been undertaken. Along with the European Union, the project has produced informative and specialised material aimed at spreading information to different groups, from illiterate women to women's rights jurists. Training courses on sexual and reproductive rights have also been provided to 70 students selected by the project with the support of the national and provincial Programs for Sexual Health.
Public debates and workshops on the topic have gathered hundreds of participants. In total, some 700 health and justice professionals as well as decision makers in charge of the formulation and the implementation of the law are connected to the project.