Monthly Archives: July 2010

Migration and Integration – Building Inclusive Societies

We would like to invite you to participate to an online debate, from July 15 to 22 2010, on the occasion of IOM’s International Dialogue on Migration workshop, Societies and Identities: The Multifaceted Impact of Migration. IBIS will host a virtual edition of the dialogue, allowing participants unable to attend in person to engage in the discussion from across the globe. Interested participants are invited to register online for the discussion forum and contribute to the debate, on issues such as the cooperation with the media to deconstruct stereotypes about migrants, or the role of civic inclusion in enhancing migrants’ contributions to society. The main conclusions will be summarized after the closure of the forum, and selected good practices may also feed into the IDM workshop itself as well as its final report. Why not join the debate today?   Online discussion  July 15-22, 2010.   You still have time!  Link to online discussion  http://www.unaoc.org/communities/migrationintegration/discuss/

Join this unique community  to learn about innovative ideas on integration, new practices and ground-breaking initiatives. The Online Community showcases inspiring projects from around the world that successfully help integrate migrants. It connects grassroots initiatives with policy-makers, civil society groups with potential funders. As a global meeting place for all those involved in improving migration policy and integration practices around the world, IBIS helps spread the word about successful initiatives and encourages the replication of good practices. 
 
If your goal is to improve relations between migrants and their host communities, we want to hear from you. If your organization uses innovative education methods to teach newcomers and introduce them to their new home, if you are involved in promoting the rights of migrant workers, or if you are involved in any other way in cooperative efforts on building inclusive societies, share with us information on your integration practice by following this link and we will feature it on IBIS.   http://www.unaoc.org/communities/migrationintegration/newsletters/july2010/
 
Please spread the word and share IBIS with your network. Don’t hesitate to link IBIS to your website – we will do the same! Encourage your partners also to send us information about their programs and their organizations. The success of this initiative depends on you.
 
For additional information, please contact Ms Florence Laufer (migration@unaoc.org)

General Assemby Debate on Global Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons

If you would like to follow the debate of the General Assembly o

Human Trafficking       On 21 December 2009, the President of the General Assembly appointed Her Excellency Mr. Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, Permanent Representative of Portugal, and His. Excellency Mr. Pedro Monteiro Lima, Permanent Representative of Cape Verde to the United Nations, as Co-Facilitators to lead the consultations among Member States on the issue of trafficking in persons.  You may follow the debate at http://www.un.org/ga/president/64/issues/humantrafficking.shtml

Have you taken part in the online discussion for CSW 55?

July 14, 2010

Yesterday Anne Manning from Australia added to the discussion.  “I am involved with a fair trade company in Australia that has strong links to a number of small producer groups, many of them supported by Catholic religious groups. In an attempt to help one group of women in north east Thailand move towards independence in their business, they were linked with a garment making company. However, the rates paid by this company for the making of their product (jeans) was so very low that the women were unable to continue with this arrangement. Problems include: a market that allows companies to take their work to those who can/will accept the lowest wages; the fact that not all women in these situations have the skills to negotiate better deals for themselves; the lack of specific business development skills and business development support programs top enable the women to successfully develop their businesses towards greater independence.”   If you have some response to this why not go on line and contribute to the discussion?  http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw55/onlinediscussion3.html

Letter from Gender Equality Architecture Reform

July 13, 2010

Greetings GEAR friends,

It has been invigorating to read the messages of support and congratulatory notes over the last two weeks.  Finally, we can move forward and make the entity a reality.  In the coming weeks, the GEAR Campaign Working Group will share some ideas for next steps and hope that the strong network of GEAR supporters will continue to ensure that the new entity works for all women. We appreciate the variety of messages that have been communicated over gearlist@googlegroups and ask that you now reach out to the focal points in your region for the next stage of mobilization.

Please feel free to email gearcampaign@gmail.com if you need contact information for focal points.  Attached is the most recent Working Group list. 

 Furthermore, please visit, http://www.unwomen.org/2010/07/un-creates-new-structure-for-empowerment-of-women/, for the UN Press Release about UN Women in English, French, and Spanish. 

 We will be in touch shortly with more resources and we thank you for your patience.Best,

GEAR Campaign
http://www.gearcampaign.org

CSW 55 Online Discussion – Response to Question 3

I lived in Ethiopia for 16 years – what we are talking about here is irrelevant for girls and young women who live in the countryside.  Undoubtedly, what I am going to say is true not just for Ethiopia but many African Countries.  We are not merely talking of restricted access to education for girls or poor quality education but of survival.  How talk of education when there is no food, minimal shelter and no health care.  How deal with gender stereotypes and gender violence in such situations?  The cycle of poverty is vicious.  We need resources at national level and we need those resources to be equitably distributed to all the citizens particularly those who live in extreme poverty and don’t have access to basic needs.  I am aware of many UN documents addressing this situation – 2nd Decade for Poverty Eradication, Resolution on the Right to Food, Resolution on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the Millennium Development Goals to name but a few.  A strategy with adequate resource allocation for the implementation of basic human rights – food, shelter, health, education with GIRLS, BOYS, WOMEN AND MEN’S PARTICIPATION from inception through planning and execution is critical for bringing about change in discriminatory practices, gender inequality and poverty eradication.  I agree with MareeAnn that change is incremental and ‘generational’.  I have seen this in Ethiopia where girls and women, who were illiterate and unskilled, initially became skilled, then literate but their children completed secondary education and their children in turn today are aiming for tertiary education.   This was achieved through NGO school sponsorship from KG to University but girls and women in the countryside are left behind, ignored, are non-persons.

Commission on the Status of Women CSW 55

Preparations are already beginning for the Commission on the Status of Women, 55th Session scheduled for March 2011.  The Division for the Advancement of Women has launched an online discussion to commence thinking about the theme.    The 2011 priority theme of the Commission on the Status of Women is “Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work”.   The Commission will also evaluate progress in the implementation of the agreed conclusions from its fifty-first session on “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child”.  If you wish to take part in the discussion visit the website and sign up http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw55/onlinediscussion3.html   The on-line discussion began on the 7th July and continues until the 20th July.  The discussion is focusing on the linkages between women’s and girls’ access to and participation in formal and non-formal education and training, and their equal access to full employment and decent work.   I am sure that you have many experience of how girls and women are discriminated against and that education and training does not automatically ensure access to employment and decent work.  If you have experience or ideas you wish to share why not go online?

Follow up to Traficking in Persons Report

The July edition of ‘Stop Trafficking’  has just been published and is very informative.  This month’s editions reviews the TIP Report.  The link to the nesletter is  http://www.stopenslavement.org     The TIP key statistics can be found on page 2 and  the need for Sponsorship Reforms on page 4.  There are TIP heros and TIP rankings?  How is your country ranked?  The last section outlines core principles for Shelters.  What do you think?  Would you like to comment.