Towards a Plan of Action on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society

June 30, 2006 – (EurofundingMag) The Preparatory Conference “Towards a Plan of Action on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society” which took place on 14-16 June in Rabat, Morocco, brought together 130 civil society organisations, governments, parliaments and donors' representatives of the Euromed partner countries. The objective of the conference was to review key aspects of women’s and gender issues under three major themes: women’s human rights as an essential component of democracy, women’s economic status and participation and social and cultural issues impacting upon women and gender relations in the region.

The aim was to contribute to the preparation of a Plan of Action (2007-2011) to be endorsed by the Euromed Ministerial Conference taking place in Istanbul in November. To this end, a number of conclusions were reached for each theme. To guarantee women's rights, countries have been urged to ratify the CEDAW Optional Protocol while remaining reservations need to be removed. The legal framework governing the life of women in the Mediterranean countries should be unified and aligned with international commitments to ensure equality between men and women.

As regards the link between democracy, development and equality, the need for reform and increased participation of women in political life was highlighted. To this end the role and networking capacities of civil society organisations across the region need to be improved. In the economic sector, better quantitative and qualitative indicators are needed on the participation of women, as well as gender-sensitive technical and vocational training to facilitate employment and entrepreneurship. Recommendations focused also on necessary reforms of social security systems and safety networks to make them more responsive to women's needs, costs of maternity, gender imbalances in pension systems, and EU integration policies with respect to migrant women.

Under the third theme, it was suggested that governments enact effective policies and legislate forcefully to eradicate violence against women. The role of the judicial system, women's access to justice, support to victims of violence and training of police officers were also discussed. The participants emphasised the influence of the school system, the mass media and culture on reproducing gender stereotypes. Recommendations were made to revise school curricula and teaching materials, train teachers and journalists and develop programmes to reinforce a culture of equality.

Finally, the important role and need for women's participation in peace building were put forward. The three general conclusions of the conference are: General need to improve data collection and develop sex-disaggregated statistics at regional, national and local levels; Gender equality issues should be more effectively mainstreamed throughout all policies, programmes and projects of the Euro-med partnership; A mechanism should be put in place to monitor the implementation of the Plan of Action to be adopted in the Istanbul Ministerial Conference.

From: http://www.welcomeurope.com/default.asp?id=1300&idnews=3112