In response to our annual survey results, the Global Legal Empowerment Network team is planning a webinar series on women’s rights! If you are working on women’s rights issues or replied to the survey that women’s rights are important to you, we would appreciate your feedback.
Please post below any webinar topic suggestions or areas of support you would like the network to focus on within women’s rights. @michaelotto @exchange_2015bangladesh
Hi Maya! Thanks for posting this request - I really look forward to seeing what the community comes up with in terms of topic suggestions about women’s rights and legal empowerment. As we brainstorm topics, it will be good to also think about presenters and panelists - who would you like to hear speak about women’s rights? Who do you know who could bring together a group of people or organizations for a particularly valuable panel discussion?
We seem to be talking alot about #tanzania in the forum these days, but once again I’d love to hear updates from organizations we visited during the @exchange_2016tanzania learning exchange, as well as from the exchange participants who have now had a year to implement their work plans after the exchange. 
Our organisation Rising Fountains Development Program has been implementing Womens Rights and Legal empowerment programs in Eastern Province of Zambia and I will be glad to be part and parcel of the panelist to contribute to the topics of discussion in the Womens rights and Legal empowerment. Looking forward for more information on how to submit the topics on the same thematic area.
Hi, I’m working with a GBV case management group which consists primarily of CSOs and local NGOs in Mon state Myanmar who undertake a range of legal empowerment activities. There have been some really interesting discussions about monitoring justice actors (police, judiciary, village administrators, religious leaders etc…). It would be great to have a webinar about coordination ideas/strategies for social accountability activities to help local LE actors better support and advocate for survivors.
Thanks
John PS: it would be great if the webinars could have regular pauses and subtitles to allow for translation (difficult logistically I know!).
Thank you @MayaReddy , for this update and for the thought of having a webinar series on women rights issues. I think there are a myriad of women rights issues to discuss. But mentioning afew. I think the webinar should look at;
Women rights and economic empowerment,
Women, peace and security/ disasters
Women rights with regards to leadership either politically,socially and economically.
In the African context, i believe most African communities impede the rights of women with reference to cultural or religious values. What strategies to employ to tackle women rights issues across all thematic areas.Female Genital Mutilation, Access to education, health, seeking or inclusion into decision making roles and responsibilities among other. Look into collaboration, networking and partnering with the custodian of cultural values.
Looking forward to this webinar series.
The Global Network for Legal Empowerment carries a humanitarian message with distinction and follows its activities with great interest. It is a network that is fleeting and not exclusive to anyone because of color, gender, language, nationality or religion. It is the right of any human being to contribute to the achievement of its goals. Let me suggest that within the network, a translation into Arabic should be important so that the Arab peoples can recognize this ancient network. And to provide simultaneous interpretation of the Webinar series on women’s rights with leading network members as a new system. Dr. Ali Mahdi Barhamah
I would love to see the citizenship aspect covered in the webinar as over 70% of our partners clients were escorted by their female next of kins.
Hello Maya,
What we have waited for is now here, see http://drawdown.org
Have a look at their solutions on climate. Many of the top solutions stress the importance of women and girls, and indigenous lands. It is a game changer. The book came out last month. This is something to truly engage with.
Yours, etc., Ian Manning, PhD. Toronto
Hi Maya,
Thanks for the request. I would propose,* ‘Are constitutions adequate in protecting women and promoting their rights? What have been the experiences of women’s rights organisations across the globe?’*
Regards
Chinga
Greetings @MayaReddy
Well, I do not have much information about the rights of women at the global level but in relation to my country Mozambique, I can give some examples of women’s rights.
As legislation, the constitution of our country clearly establishes a gender equality in all areas of society be it legislative, political, economic and social, including the prohibition of any discrimination in all areas.
It also establishes a total equality of gender in the law of marriage, divorce, custody of the children as well as in the division of property, the husband are no longer considered heads of household with total authority but have a marital authority, that is, authority Parental (both they make a decision).
Women has equally right in the priority of estate and land, which gives a direct impact today on access to and ownership of land.
We have the law against domestic violence against women, without counting on associations that are made today by natural women who fight against domestic violence of women. As for pre-term marriages against minors, which is more fluent in rural areas since girls are often withdrawn from school very early for marriage, even today, despite a smaller percentage, we have marriages with girls aged 15 to 19 years. It is currently reducing the percentage, due to the fact that the Ministry of Women and Social Action is struggling to minimize the situation. In short, Mozambique believes in gender equality. We believe that women, in the near future, will gain control over their life and body, equal access to the same social, economic, political and cultural opportunities as men.
We are against domestic violence against women and girls and other cultural practices and beliefs that harm women.
Today, women and girls struggle to have greater control over their lives and bodies. All this involves greater attention to the creation of an environment free of violence and sexual abuse, where the woman and the girl can exercise their rights and safety.
It is a difficult task, but community institutions, human rights organizations and judicial institutions, among others, are involved in enhancing the protection and safety of women in settings such as home, schools, communities, and workplaces.
But we still have a challenge that has to do with cultural practices, beliefs, initiation rites of women and premarital marriages with the consent of relatives.
I hope to be helpful.
Best Isaque
Hi Mustafa, this is similar to what we are seeing in the land rights work in Myanmar-- even when it is a man whose name ends up on the legal title, it is women doing most of the hustling and interaction with government!
Perhaps one topic could be about women as change agents-- some of the specific strengths they have as “legal empowerers” and also some of the challenges (security, etc)
Hello Maya,
Thank you for your email and creative initiation for women right. This network could have discussion on ensuring women right on land through land entitlement. This entitlement could be joint (both husband and wife) or single (women).
Regards,
Sailendra
– Sailendra Rai Co-ordinator Abhiyan Nepal sailendrarais@gmail.com +977-984151754
Thank you Maya! And I am glad to see lots of insightful comments here! For me, I have two major concerns for now. The first is attitude and awareness for both women and men. For women, we used work with rural women leaders who represent the interests of their fellow female villagers. We found that when it comes to forced family planning even forced abortion, some women leaders may defend the regulation on women’s reproductive freedom since they believe it is good for the society. For men, we have men working actively together with us on various human rights issues, but when it comes to gender equality, some male activists fail to stick to the very human rights value they uphold in other fields. The second concern is intersectionality. We have been working on disability rights for a few years and we found that women affected by disabilities are in need of attention. However, in China when we talk about disability rights we to a large extent take little consideration of the situation of women with disabilities.
Hey everybody, I would love to hear @deniseddora @luanapereiradc @liviazr thoughts about possible topics for the webinar series on women’s rights and legal empowerment!
Thanks!
Thanks Maya, This is interesting. I can see good response from members with their ideas. My replies will always be based on my experience unlike most members who are scholars or high ranking legal authorities in themselves and are active in advocacy.
Need some time to ponder over as there is no dearth of topics in this category but for now i can think of one right away and that is - “How to eliminate Gender Bias”. Fight for “Women’s Rights” in any field means presence of an inherent Gender Bias/discrimination.
Barely strengthening laws to empower women; to me, is meaningless till it is not coordinated with equal efforts to eliminate bias. India has witnessed many such changes but condition and treatment to women has only worsened.
Thank you for the message. My apologies I was on an assessment mission to Balochistan province of Pakistan where we are planning to launch a rule of law project.
The topic you shared is immensely important to me. Is it possible that we may include a comparative analysis of the best legislative practices, preventive in nature, addressing violence against women around different jurisdictions in the world.
Hi everyone! Thanks so much for contributing to this discussion to identify possible topics and presenters for a webinar series on women’s rights. In case you missed it, @MayaReddy has now posted a poll based on your suggestions - please come and add your vote!