WORKSHOP REPORTS: Women’s Rights

• Their lack of education and confidence;
• Illiteracy and poverty;
• Rivalry among women;
• Economic constraints;
• Misrepresentation of religion; and
• Other social and traditional constraints.

• Place women in winnable positions on party lists, and consider internal party measures to increase women’s participation at all levels of the party. This includes addressing gender equality in party manifestos.
• Support public financing of political parties in an effort to increase internal party democracy.
• Encourage women to work across party lines to advocate for political participation and create networks that will increase leadership opportunities.
• Create strategic plans to actively recruit, train, and support women candidates beginning well in advance of elections.
• Encourage NGOs to take responsibility for cooperating with political parties and for applying pressure, lobbying, training, and monitoring.
• Encourage women to participate in “transformative” leadership training that focuses on political change and builds their long-term capacity and strategy for change. Women should carry a message that will empower them to become strong political leaders rather than be viewed as new entrants to the political process who can easily become co-opted and exploited by parties as a result of their lack of experience.
• Encourage political will at the top levels of political parties.
• Conduct gender awareness training for men and women political party members; encourage political parties to become more inclusive organizations which take advantage of women’s participation to gain a competitive edge.
• Identify men within political parties who support women and reward them with increased media attention on the issue of partnership with women.
• Employ mechanisms to follow up on programs within parties or government that address gender equality.
• Encourage women to use social and private networks in more strategic ways to promote and support women’s participation in politics.
• Support women’s access to media.
• Address the issue of domestic violence as a deterrent to women’s participation in the public arena.
• Encourage successful women politicians to provide mentorship.
• Promote exchanges among male and female political leaders and activists from countries that share a common religion but have different political cultures, to demonstrate how women have overcome religious barriers to participation.
• Address the negative portrayal of women in the media by training media representatives in gender sensitization.

• The Network provides education in leadership, voluntarism, advocacy, and democracy building for those from disadvantaged communities, including refugees, rural communities, and ethnic minorities, who should come together to organize cooperation for protection of their rights.
• People are united regardless of their differences. Women from communities confronting each other (e.g., Armenians and Azeri) begin to communicate and work together through joint participation in educational seminars and through cross-border projects. For example, Georgian women played the role of mediators and assisted in creating an atmosphere of cooperation.
• The Network advocates for discussion of the most urgent challenges and experiences of post-communist societies, including democracy building and post-conflict reconciliation at the community level.
• The Network prepares multicultural teams of trainers working across borders, and involves of activists and trainers from different countries who introduce tolerance and share experiences to enrich the practical work of Network members.
• Over the years, the Network has published a bulletin, “Working Together in Caucasus” that reflects successful practices and lessons learned from different women’s groups and organizations.
• Together with the colleagues from Guinea, the Crimea, Ukraine and the USA, the Network created new forms of public dialogue and citizen forums at which the most challenging problems of participation for the community were identified and solved through discussion among NGOs, government, mass media, business, youth, etc.
• Citizen forums empower ordinary citizens, especially women, to organize direct dialogue with official powers and involve the population and marginalized groups in decision-making processes.

• How to promote women’s participation in the processes of development, conflict resolution, post-conflict rehabilitation, and politics?
• How to encourage women, who succeed in being elected, to pay attention to women’s needs and women’s issues?
• How to gain support for women’s movements and make them visible?
• How women should unite to achieve these goals?

• The promotion of women’s participation is possible through the use of special women’s quotas in parliament and municipalities, as well as during the preparatory stage for elections during which political parties should be encouraged to include women in their lists.
• Women are often “used” during elections by men, but after achieving success their needs and problems are usually forgotten. Peace, poverty eradication, development, and leadership training are key issues on which women’s participation is necessary. Women who are fighting for power thus need to know how to fight and how to maintain relations with the community and voters.
• Use all leverages that exist in international organizations to achieve women’s aims.
• Create, support, and expand programs on women’s leadership.
• Train both women and men.
• Prepare teams of women leaders to work together to achieve success.
• Promote self-esteem among disadvantaged women through their inclusion in social and civil actions, forums, education, and training.
• Study women’s participation in development processes.
• Develop programs for poverty reduction at the national and local levels.
• Address the “feminization” of poverty.
• Address violence against women.
• Through civic education teach women how to participate in elections and how to prepare themselves for political careers.
• Women should have the opportunity to be involved in political parties.

• Connections with mass-media are vital.·
• Create international groups to organize dialogues among women on difficult economic issues and dilemmas (e.g., how to establish prices on production on the basis of direct negotiations).
• Create virtual space for discussion of the most urgent problems for women and to share experiences. Where the Internet is not accessible, information should be disseminated through brochures, bulletins and publications.
• Collect and publish existing materials on women’s leadership.
• Exchange existing materials, information, and databases.
• Create of Web page on the World Movement Web site devoted to women’s issues.

• Exchange of experiences, sharing of best practices, and training in democracy work;
• Support for advocacy campaigns initiated by members at the local, national, and international levels;
• Building solidarity among, and support for, individuals and organizations engaged in democracy activism; and
• Interaction and communication among and between various transnational networks, including those working on women’s rights, human rights, peace, and environmental issues.

• Individuals and organizations committed to the network’s objectives.
• A secretariat housed at an existing network with a substantial trans-regional membership. Participants indicated that the Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) should serve as the secretariat.
• Regional focal points in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

• Create an Online Resource Center that presents information and knowledge on the priority areas of the network.
• Support and assist democracy workers in countries in which political systems are undergoing transitions to democracy.
• Develop strategies for democracy activism in closed societies drawing upon the experiences of network members who have participated in similar efforts (for example, in NIS countries or South Africa).
• Strengthen emerging democracies through exchanges of experiences and training.
• Support efforts in established democracies on behalf of under-privileged and under-represented groups, such as women and minorities.