Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

WNC/08/03/07

WNC Work Updates - October 2008

Outreach and Communications

Outreach activity

  • Harriet Harman Reception - 14 July 2008.

Harriet Harman held a Reception on 14 July to announce the project to encourage more women to apply for public appointments. Cabinet Office Minister, Ed Milliband, also attended and spoke about the role of the Cabinet Office. The Ministers announced new measures to increase the number of women, disabled people, and black, Asian and minority ethnic people appointed to the boards of public bodies. Joyce also spoke on the role of WNC and how we can distribute information to our 500+ partners, as well as our wider contacts.

  • WNC/Equality South West event in Taunton - 14 July 2008

We held an join event with Equality South West on 14 July. The event was intended as a general outreach event and covered a number of different issues. Speakers included Manjula Bray from OCPA who talked about Public Appointments, the role of OCPA and diversity; Holly Dustin covered the work of EVAW and the Gender Equality Duty; a guest speaker covered the position of Gypsy/Roma Women and Joyce spoke about WNC, its remit and our current work. This was a very successful event, with lots of passionate views being expressed by attendees, who were appreciative of WNC coming to the south west to hear the views of local women and representative organisations. Following on from this event, Joyce wrote to Transport Minister, Rosie Winterton, to highlight the issue of greatest concern to women attending the event, which was around rural transport. We havereceived a reply from the Minister, which has been forwarded to the Chair of Equality South West, Jackie Longworth, and is available in hard copy on the correspondence table today.

  • On 25 June, WNC attended the Ministerial Reception to announce the details of the new Equalities Bill. This was attended by Harriet Harman who briefly spoke. Trevor Phillips of EHRC also attended.
  • Mutanser met with WRC on 26 June to discuss ways in which our two organisations could work closer together; on 27 June, Mutanser met with representatives of Respond, Voice UK and the Ann Craft Trust all of whom support people with learning difficulties. Her discussions were aimed at encouraging them to become partners given this is a group which is under-represented amongst our partners. Also, on 30 June, Mutanser attended the Parliamentary launch of the European Campaign against Forced Marriage.
  • On 2 July Mutanser attended the launch of Disabled Women & Domestic Violence Research; on 24 July she attended a meeting with MENCAP on the forced marriage of people with learning disabilities and on 20 August she met with Judith Simpson of RADAR. On 21 August Mutanser also met with Maggie Berry of Women in Technology. Each of these meetings were targeted at organisations that represent under-represented groups, to encourage them to become partners.

Partners

We have signed up 28 Partners since June 2008 - 19 organisations and nine individual partners. The organisations include;

  • Women in Technology.co.uk
  • Ethnic Deaf
  • Just Media
  • Operation Black Vote
  • IMECE Turkish Speaking Women’s Group

Website

We are very pleased to confirm the launch at the end of August, of WNC’s new website. This was the end of a long exercise where commissioners chose the final design of the new website earlier this year. It has also meant a considerable deal of work from Directorate staff to ensure all the information had been correctly transferred and update on the new website.

The new design provides a much more modern look and is more flexible. We are keen to receive any feedback on the website, especially on any further improvements you might wish to suggest.

Newsletter

The autumn edition of the WNC Newsletter was completed and emailed out to partners and others on 15 September. Continuing with our improvements to the newsletter, this edition included features on the UK’s CEDAW examination in July, an update on our outreach event in Taunton, and details about the joint project with Cabinet Office to encourage more women to apply for public appointments. It also included a close-up article on Wales Women’s National Coalition (Women’s Voice), plus an article by ex-WNC staff member, Hannah Bond, celebrating 80 years of women’s full emancipation.

Women’s Directory

Once again, the WNC’s directory of Women’s Organisations 2008 (WORGS) has been amended with a number of updates since it was completed earlier this year. A revised version is now available on the website.

Future events

  • BAME Ministerial meeting – provisionally 22 October 2008.

We have worked with GEO to pull together a list of invitees for this meeting of black and minority ethnic women to meet with Maria Eagle. GEO decided which NGOs should be invited, and we encouraged representation from the devolved nations. GEO aims to hold further Ministerial meetings with BAME women, where this point will be taken into consideration. We have also been working to ensure all attendees at the meeting, become WNC Partners. This meeting follows the latest Ministerial meeting of the ‘Top 6’ group of NGOs. These are the six longest established women’s NGOs in the UK, and includes, Townswomen’s Guild, Soroptimist International, National Federation of Women’s Institutes, National Federation of Women Graduates, National Council of Women (of GB), and Business and Professional Women UK.

  • We are now looking at the logistics for holding events in the West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland and in Scotland, by the end of the operational year.

International Activity

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

On 10 July 2008 the UK Government’s 5th and 6th periodic report to the committee of the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was examined. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Barbara Follett MP, led the UK Delegation at the UN in New York. The Minister was supported by a team of officials both in New York, and in London via video-link, led by Janice Shersby, Director ofthe Government Equalities Office. This was the first time that a video-link had been used for a CEDAW examination.

A number of NGOs attended to observe the examination, both at the UN and in London. NGOs in New York included representatives form the Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform, Rape Crisis, Southall Black Sisters and South Essex Rape and Sheila Coates representing WNC, along with WNC Commissioner, Professor Liz Kelly. Also represented were the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

In May of this year, the WNC submitted the UK’s Shadow Report to the CEDAW Committee. Further Shadow Reports were also submitted by, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (NI), Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform (NIWEP), Women’s Resource Centre and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland; the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Campaign. Information contained in all these reports informed the CEDAW Committee’s thinking and questions and give a more comprehensive picture of gender equality in the UK, including where further work is needed.

A comprehensive report of the UK’s CEDAW examination and WNC’s involvement can be found on the WNC’s website. Highlights of the UK’s examination were circulated and can be re-circulated if required. Concluding observations (advanced unedited version) of the CEDAW Committee has also been circulated, but can be re-sent for the benefit of the new Commissioners.

We now look forward to the publication of the CEDAW Committee’s final Concluding Remarks, which the Government will be expected to progress between now and the next UK report, which is due in 2011. The Government Equalities Office is currently drafting a cross government action plan on implementing the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations. This would be circulated once it becomes available. There are also proposed regional events in collaboration with NGOs to take forward work on the action plan. Shelly will provide Commissioners with a further update once more information becomes available.

Commission on the Status of Women 53rd Session 2009

The 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will take place at the United Nations (UN) in New York from Monday 2 March to Friday 13 March 2009. The Commission on the Status of Women is held annually at the UN’s headquarters in New York. The main object of the Commission is to promote implementation of the principle that men and women shall have equal rights.

CSW was the preparatory body for the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing – the outcome of which was the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (PfA). The UN General Assembly mandated the Commission to play a central role in monitoring implementation of the PfA and since 1996, the main focus of work for CSW has been this. Generally, a priority theme is selected each year for the Commission to focus on. Further, the agreed conclusions developed from the priority theme of a preceding year’s CSW are reviewed.

We are hoping to look at ways we and our partners can engage more effectively in the CSW process. In 2009, the priority theme to be examined will be:

(i) The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context ofHIV/AIDS

The review theme will be:

(ii) Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels.

We are currently working on an information pack to send out to partners and Commissioners once more details of CSW53 become available via the UN’s website. It is expected that Joyce with support from Barbara would represent the WNC as part of the UK Government’s official delegation to CSW.

Women in Public Life

Cabinet Office and Women’s National Commission Public Appointments Project

As mentioned at the last Commissioners meeting, the WNC and Cabinet Office began working together on a joint project to try increase the number of women participating in public life. This involves current public appointment opportunities being displayed on the WNCs website and also circulated on the first Monday of every month to partners. The first set of adverts went out in June and since then there has been a steady increase in the number of hits to the Women in Public Life Page of the WNC’s website. The Cabinet Office has also reported a steady increase to there public appointment vacancies website (www.publicappts-vacs.gov.uk) since the project began. In the coming months we are hoping to collate anecdotal feedback from our partners about the effectiveness of this mode of advertising vacancies. October vacancies are currently displayed on the WNC’s website.

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors’ Taskforce

At the last Commissioners meeting I also mentioned the Government’s newly established Taskforce set up to address the under representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors. The Taskforce is chaired by Baroness Pola Uddin. Since the last Commissioner’s meeting, the Taskforce held in London, the first of several regional outreach events to encourage more BAME women to become local councillors. The event proved to be a huge success. The next event will be held in Birmingham on 17 October. Followed by another London event in Harrow on 21 November. Future events are planned for Wales, Scotland Gloucester, Windsor and Maidenhead, Newcastle and London.

A strategic partners group was set up to work closely with the Taskforce of which WNC is a member. This group is a virtual group which meets quarterly to ensure that the Taskforce is making links with the right organisations and sharing good practice. The group last met on 30 September.

Migration and Asylum Working Group Update

The last meeting of the Migration & Asylum Sub Group was held on 11 September 2008. As part of the Group’s recent review of its membership, there was representation from a number of new organisations, namely: UNISON, Asylum Support Appeals Project and Unite the Union.

Final amendments were made to the Group’s work plan. Other items on the agenda were as follows:

  • An update from Barbara Collins (formerly head of EU and International engagement at GEO) on the CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations and the Government’s plans for implementation of the recommendations.
  • Also discussed was the set up of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Balanced Migration which is chaired by Frank Fields and Sir Nicholas Soames. Group expressed concern about this group and the report published by Migration Watch entitled: Balanced Migration: a new approach to controlling immigration. All agreed that more information about this APPG is needed.
  • Group was given an update on the Public Sector Equality Duty- Informal Consultation from GEO on extending the requirement to give due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity to religion or belief. The Group was given the opportunity to send in comments.
  • The Group re-visited the issue of the lack of asylum, refugee and migration issues highlighted in the MfW priorities and agreed that Joyce could write to Harriet Harman on behalf of the Group highlighting the priority concerns.
  • Business and Special Visitors Immigration Route - Equality Impact Assessment Home Office policy document was highlighted.
  • The Home Affairs Select Committee Enquiry into the points based system and the Citizenship and Immigration Bill – probationary citizenship/associated access to welfare were also briefly highlighted and would be discussed in more detail at the next meeting.

The Group will convene again on Thursday 4 December 2008.

Violence Against Women Update

VAW Working Group meetings

The Violence Against Women Working Group and its sub groups – the Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-Group and Domestic Violence Action Sub-Group - met on 16 July 2008. The next meeting of the Group is scheduled for 5 November 2008.

The Domestic Violence Sub-Group discussed the Home Affairs Select Committee Report on domestic violence; the crisis facing domestic violence services (generic and BME services) due to lack of funding, a move towards local commissioning arrangements and loss of Supporting People ring-fence from 2009; and the ongoing problem caused by the ‘no recourse to public funds’ rules. At their next meeting the focus will be on supporting survivors of sexual violence from current/former partners or family members, and inviting Department for Children Families and Schools (DCSF) to discuss prevention education in schools.

The Sexual Violence Sub Group was consulted by the Home Office on the proposed model for a co-ordinated local response to sexual violence being piloted in the South West. The Group also heard from Relate about their national counselling service for survivors of sexual violence; and discussed supporting adult survivors of child sexual abuse, and how to use CEDAW in future lobbying processes. The Group also wants to write to the Olympics Committee about minimising trafficking associated with large sporting events. The group plans to invite Department of Health to the next meeting to discuss adult survivors of child sexual abuse.

The Violence Against Women Working Group had updates from the subgroups; from the End Violence Against Women Coalition; from the CEDAW delegation, and from the Government Equalities Office. The focus of the meeting was the commissioning of women’s services, given the recent CLG statutory guidance to Local Strategic Partnerships. Phil Worsfold from DCLG attended to discuss the Local Area Agreement framework and how this informs commissioning, and Heather Barclay from EHRC spoke about the gender duty and procurement. The Group discussed faith, community cohesion and violence against women, which will be revisited in more detail at the next meeting, together with the national VAW Strategy being developed by the Home Office.

At the meeting in July, partners raised concern about the apparent lack of understanding across Whitehall about gender and the gender equality duty, and the need for training of officials (which was also reinforced by the EVAW cross-departmental roundtable on violence against women in July). As a result of this meeting, WNC, EVAW and EHRC have arranged to meet with GEO to explore what can be done specifically about the Gender Equality Duty and VAW across government departments.

A weekly/fortnightly E-News Update has been circulated to the Violence Against Women Group attending members and E-list network, which includes violence against women-related news provided for circulation by partners and other agencies, including legislation and policy updates; consultations; training and events; jobs, research and tenders.

Work on the National Standards on Domestic and Sexual Violence

Women’s Aid produced a final draft in July of the National Core Service Standards for all domestic violence and sexual violence services, and will be circulated by WNC once they are published. Different service areas have been advised to develop their own service-specific standards where these need to be expanded. Women’s Aid is doing this for domestic violence services and is also writing accompanying commissioning guidance for local use.

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