Feminists from across the World debate in Warsaw

Poland's feminist and women's organizations gathered for the 4th Annual Congress of Women held on 14th- 15th of September 2012 in Warsaw, Poland. The Congress, considered to be the biggest feminist event in Europe, was attended by just under 10 000 women, including guests from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Georgia and Ukraine.

This year event focused on economic issues and problems of women from smaller towns and villages. The range of discussed topics included motherhood, education, business, local government initiatives, violence against women and equal opportunities on the labor market. The representative of KARAT – Aleksandra Solik took part in the Central and Eastern European women’s NGOs round table titled “Women Citizens of Europe Unite!”.
The participants talked about the biggest challenges that women’s and feminist movements in their countries are currently faced with, and strategies and actions that should be undertaken to address these challenges and advance women’s rights in the countries. Aleksandra Solik stressed that Poland does not get involved enough in shaping the politics of EU and that the Polish government is reluctant to use UN’s mechanisms to protect women’s rights.
The Congress formulated 10 postulates including a ratification of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women, liberalization of the anti-abortion law, institutionalized care for pre-school children, introducing parities and the principle of gender alteration on electoral lists as well as gender quota in managements of public companies.

For more information please contact Aleksandra Solik at: aleksandra.solik@karat.org.pl

Source: KARAT News September 2012