Announcement of WHRD IC member events during CSW (NY, Feb/March) and AWID forum (Turkey, April)

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Announcement of WHRD IC member events during CSW (NY, Feb/March) and AWID forum (Turkey, April)

These are some of the events coming up at CSW and AWID Forum organised by WHRD IC members, please get involved!

Thursday, February 2, 2012, from 1:15 to 2:30 PM - Ambassador Kamara (Liberia), Chair , Bureau of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will convene a briefing for NGOs in preparation for CSW 56. This briefing will be held in Conference Room 7 in the North Lawn Building. ALL NGOS AND CoNGO COMMITTEES WELCOME. Please forward questions you wish to ask the Chair to Christina Brautigam <Christine.Brautigam at unwomen.org>

Open Forum on the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign
Sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL)
Monday, 27 February 2012, 12:30-2:00PM, United Nations Church Center Hardin Room (11th Floor)
The Center for Women’s Global Leadership invites you to share your thoughts as we discuss the 2011 16 Days Campaign. We will dialogue on the theme of violence against women and militarism, discuss your Campaign activities, and share strategies regarding activism to end violence against women. More Information: Julie Salthouse [jsalthou@rci.rutgers.edu]

Facilitating Human Rights from a Feminist Perspective
Sponsored by CWGL, Tuesday, 28 February 2012, 10:30AM-12:00PM, United Nations Church Center Hardin Room (11th Floor)
A panel discussion with high-level experts in the areas of feminist economics and economic and social rights. Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive Director of CWGL, will lead the discussion of the links between feminist economic policy and the realization of economic and social rights. Other panelists will focus on key issues of relevance, such as the right to food, the right to water and sanitation and extreme poverty and the challenges and opportunities for the realization of these rights in rural communities. Strategies for the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights in rural will be discussed. This panel will build on the Center’s partnership with the United Nations Special Rapporteurs. More Information: Julie Salthouse [jsalthou@rci.rutgers.edu]

1. 10:30am the situation of WHRDs in Iran (WHRD IC Urgent Responses working group) see attached flyer
Main Auditorium, Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, 221 East 52nd St, New York, NY 10022
A representative from UN Women, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the prominent global women’s rights activists will discuss how to guarantee the security of women who participate in the CSW. In a multi media presentation, Shirin Ebadi, prominent Iranian human rights and women’s rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, will highlight the role of international organizations to support global participation of women in the CSW and provide suggestions on how women’s right to participate in international conferences can be guaranteed. Well-known Iranian women’s rights activists will share their experiences of both concerns for and values of participating in the CSW.
ADDITIONALLY, we will make sure to bring copies of the "Urgent Responses for WHRDs" mapping pub and the very-soon-to-be-released "Ten Insights to Strengthen Responses". (This is the pub I'm talking about: http://awid.org/Library/Urgent-Responses-for-Women-Human-Rights-Defenders-at-Risk-Mapping-and-Preliminary-Assessment )
More information: Analia Penchaszadeh [analia@awid.org] or whrd-urwg@googlegroups.com

2. 12:30pm WHRD IC statement on launch of the Global Report.
The Hardin Room, 11th Floor room at the CCUN building from 12:30pm to 2:00pm
The Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD IC) Global Report on the Situation of WHRDs 2006-2010 draws on individual and collective analysis of Coalition members during the life of the Coalition, as well as case studies developed where possible with the relevant WHRDs. Case studies surface connections between context, identities of WHRDs and violations experienced. The launch of the report at the CSW and small group / panel sessions on the findings of the report, will offer an opportunity for a discussion of a range of questions related to promotion of work of WHRDs and their protection.
More information: whrd-global-report-wg@googlegroups.com (more information in launch announcement email to go out soon)

3. Intersections of Violence Against Women and Militarism
Sponsored by CWGL and MADRE, Wednesday, 29 February 2012, 12:30-2:00PM, United Nations Church Center 2nd Floor Room
Join the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and MADRE as we discuss the ways in which militarism impacts the security and safety of women, men, communities, and nations worldwide. Panelists include: Radhika Balakrishnan, CWGL Faustina Boakye, World Vision Yee Htun, Nobel Women’s Initiative Julie Ann Salthouse, CWGL (moderator) Yifat Susskind, MADRE
More Information: Julie Salthouse [jsalthou@rci.rutgers.edu]

4. 15:00 "Rethinking development framework" APWLD event
15:00-16:30 at the UN Room, UN building.
The UN Declaration on the Right to Development recognises development as a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process that through which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realised. In reality, the dominant development framework has been primarily focused on ‘economic growth’. UN and civil society recognises that economic growth is not synonymous with human development. Economic growth alone has not guaranteed substantive equality or a stronger space to claim and enjoy women’s rights.
This event will consider what a feminist, rights-based approach to development looks like. It will consider possible rights-based development goals and invite participants to imagine and articulate alternative, rights-based goals that could be advocated for in all development frameworks, including beyond the Millennium Development Goals. The side event envisages a space where women challenge the status quo and shift to a feminist development framework, where human rights principles of equality, non-discrimination, participation and representation, transparency and accountability, international cooperation and solidarity determine people’s development.
More information: misun@apwld.org or apwld@apwld.org

5. International Women’s Day Dance Party
Sponsored by CWGL, Wednesday, 29 February 2012, 8:00-11:00PM, Vermilion: 480 Lexington Ave @ 46th Street
Join CWGL for an evening of food, drink and feminism! Appetizers served from 8:00-9:00PM, and discounted cash bar. We look forward to seeing you there!
More Information: Julie Salthouse [jsalthou@rci.rutgers.edu]

Other:
There will be two events related to sexual orientation and gender identity - one on Feb 27 and one on Feb 28 in week one. Week 2 is important for resolution negotiation - there will be an HIV resolution this year.

March 1st 12:30-2pm - MADRE is planning an event with representatives from their partners in Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua and South Africa during the CSW session - at the Church Center. More information: Natalia Caruso [ncaruso@madre.org]

Join us at the 2012 AWID International Forum where 2,000 women's rights leaders and activists from around the world will come together to strategize, network, celebrate, and learn in a highly charged atmosphere that fosters deep discussions and sustained personal and professional growth
Dates and times will be available closer to the event.

1. WHRD IC assembly meeting (23-25th April) More information: AnnJanette Rosga [arosga@transpositions.org]

2. The Violence is not out Culture Campaign/ WLUML will be having two events:

6. AWID organised events:
Regarding the AWID Forum, we have a couple of activities that will be of interest to WHRD IC, and it would be great to know if any of you are planning to be there and are interested in participating: ,

Permanent wellness and self-care area, where we will hold conversational sessions about approaches and experiences to self-care and security, and where we will have "practice" sessions with yoga, drumming, and other activities for participants to take care of themselves during the Forum. We are also hoping to have space for one-on-one consultations with self-care and security practitioners, for participants to have a chat about whatever they can be supported in. We are starting to build a list of practitioners both for group sessions (yoga, guided meditation, etc) as well as one-on-one consultations, and we thought if there are coalition members who are willing to do some one-on-one's on security strategies or other issues, that would be pretty awesome. Let me know if you are planning to attend the Forum and are interested in sharing your expertise.

Session on "Exploring the contexts that enable violence against Women Human Rights Defenders", where we hope to draw from the Global Report as well as the brief that Sunila wrote on "Re-contextualizing WHRDs: 2005-2011". We would like to bring in some experiences /testimonials from WHRDs and coalition members and help engage participants in linking experiences of violence against WHRDs with the context analysis that we are developing as a coalition. We've invited Sunila to speak on this panel, Danna has been helping to frame it, and we still have space if there are others who want to help coordinate this session.

Session on “Strengthening the collective capacity of WHRDs to respond to violence on the ground: Lessons from the Meso-American WHRD Initiative”, where we hope to engage in a dialogue across regions using the meso-american example and exploring lessons that can be adapted in other countries and regions. In addition to the representatives from the Meso-American initiative, we've invited Renu to reflect on the similarities with the experience building the WHRD network in Nepal. We would love others of you who have experience with local/national/regional WHRD networks to attend the session and help us engage participants in a reflection on how these processes look like on the ground.

Strategizing session on militarism, violence and conflict, where we will want to bring in perspectives of how these contexts affect WHRDs.
Campaigns corner, where there will be space for organizations to display information. We will make sure coalition members get info about these opportunities so that we can make visible the work of the coalition and each of your organizations