President Elect Alice Wells and
Programme Director Reilly Dempsey visit our UN Reps in Vienna for International
Women’s Day!
From the 9th to the 13th
March, Alice and Reilly visited Roswitha Benesch, our UN European Liaison and
Dora Vrdlovec, UN Rep in Vienna.
Roswitha and Dora had set up quite the programme for Alice and Reilly,
capitalising on every second they had over their three day visit!
First, Alice, Reilly, Roswitha,
and Dora met with Sandra Kozeschnik from UN.GIFT, the UN’s cross agency
platform working to end human trafficking.
They discussed emerging issues and trends, such as the increase and invisibility
of domestic slavery and regional trends.
They also discussed the role of civil society, both as watchdogs and as
an important source for victim support services. UN.GIFT runs a small grant programme to help
NGOs rolling out victim support projects (http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/civil-society/small-grants-facility.html).
Sandra informed SI of some very interesting
work involving the private sector, both in terms of awareness raising and
encouraging employment opportunities for victim/survivors (after ‘phase 1’ when
the victim/survivors are stabilised.) We
discussed the critical importance of financial, housing, and immigration
stability for victim/survivors and the need for NGOs to continue to provide
these services. Many new ideas and
initiatives were then developed – watch this space for more information about
UN.GIFT and to learn more about how we can work together to end human
trafficking and support victim/survivors.
Our next meeting was with Mirella
Frahi Civil Affairs Officer, Advocacy Section, Division for Policy Analysis and
Public Affairs. She is colloquially
known as the ‘door’ for NGOs to interact and engage with UNODC. In this meeting, SI learned about the UNODC
Civil Society’s webpage with an extensive NGO database which can be searched
using categories such as country, region, and type of work. This is an excellent resource for clubs
wishing to find local partners for trafficking projects. The link will be posted on the UNODC page: http://www.unodc.org/ngo/list.jsp
SI then participated in an event
organised by the Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women – in cooperation
with UNIS – to commemorate 100 Years of International Women’s Day. You can visit the SoroptiTweet page to read
the minute by minute tweets during the panel.
Alice Wells gave a presentation on the importance of education and the
linkages between violence against women and girls and education. Some of the important themes emerging from
the panel discussion were:
– Is this a time for “celebration”? The panellists felt that, while we have much
to celebrate, we also still have much to do.
– There was a resounding call for a fifth world
conference on women.
– Areas which highlight the lack of progress of
women were primarily in employment and politics. The problem seems to lie between education
and employment. We are seeing much
progress in improving access to education for girls and young women, but that
is not yet translating into improvements in the employment sector. It was also noted that societal movements
to break down gender stereotypes of family care, such as increasing paternity
leave, were making excellent strides in achieving more gender balanced
employment statistics.
– Another resounding message concerned funding
issues (i.e. cutbacks or de-prioritising of gender issues), particularly in the
current financial climate.
– The overarching theme of the panel seemed to be
that women now have rights – we have come that far. But there is a blockage in implementing them.
The next day the SI team met with
Claudia Baroni, Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer, working on criminal
justice issues. We spoke at length about
the need for criminal justice reform and the effects on women. Claudia spoke about the new Bangkok Rules
and the work her team is undertaking to support governments as they try to move
forward with implementation. http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/docs/2010/res%202010-16.pdf This meeting was very stimulating and we
discussed the importance of addressing issues facing women in prison. Again, some exciting ideas and plans for
future work emerged during this meeting – so watch this space to see it
unfold! In the meantime, do visit the
website to learn more and to download resources: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/justice-and-prison-reform/index.html?ref=menuside
SI next met with Fatou Haidara,
the Director of the Policy Making Organ of UNIDO. Ms. Haidara, from Mali, was particularly interested in learning more
about SI’s work after hearing about an SI Austrian project in education
for girls in Mali. UNIDO is the specialized agency of the United
Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive
globalization and environmental sustainability, doing excellent work in green
economy initiatives. This is especially
important for SI as next year’s CSW focuses on rural women, agriculture, and
food security, and there are many linkages.
It was also shared that for the first time, UNIDO has established a
gender office to work on mainstreaming gender into their work.
The final meeting at the UN was
with Alun Jones, the Chief of the Advocacy Section at UNODC. SI learned more about the in country work
being done by the blue heart campaign (http://www.unodc.org/blueheart/), particularly hearing about the governments
who have ‘signed up’ to run the campaign and fully support the initiative. Alun also spoke about the recent launch of
the small grants facility for NGOs working in victim/survivor services (https://www.soroptimistinternational.org/who-we-are/news/post/58-launch-of-un-grants-facility-for-victims-of-trafficking).
We spoke at length about the three pillars of combating trafficking and how to
engage at all three levels (prevent, prosecute, protect). Alun was also very interested in shifting
more focus onto the issues of women in prison and in the criminal justice
system. As with our earlier meetings, SI
discussed possible partnerships and joint initiatives, particularly for SI
clubs working on human trafficking issues.
Again, watch this space for more information!
The team discussed all of the new
initiatives and reflected on the work they had accomplished over the course of
two days, eagerly awaiting the chance to put it all into practice!
The next day, Saturday, Alice and
Reilly were invited to the General Assembly of the SI Austrian Union. The keynote speaker was the former Austrian
Foreign Minister, Ursula Plassnik. She
spoke on several issues facing women and girls today and the importance of
female leadership. She shared a story
about working with Condoleeza Rice on initiatives to increase the number of
women in the UN, and about her working relationship with Ban Ki-moon and his
commitment to increase women’s representation in the UN. She also spoke about a recent fatwa,
initiated and signed by men, banning female genital mutilation/cutting. http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/mauritanian-muslim-imams-initiate-rare-ban-on-female-circumcision
As a fatwa written and issued by men, this represents a huge step forward and
Ms. Plassnik applauded these kinds of efforts as a beacon of hope for women all
over the world.
Next Alice spoke about
Soroptimists for Education and Leadership and inspired the Austrian
Soroptimists to continue with their amazing work!
The following morning, Alice and
Reilly were off to London, where they met with Project SIerra Liaison Alison
Sutherland to prepare for the Commonwealth Event at the Houses of Parliament,
which you can read about here: https://www.soroptimistinternational.org/who-we-are/news/post/55-celebrating-commonwealth-day—women-as-agents-of-change
Needless to say, between CSW,
Vienna, and Commonwealth Day, Alice and Reilly have had quite a busy few weeks
– but the real benefits will manifest themselves over the coming weeks and
months and SI rolls out new ideas, initiatives, and inspiration!