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NCW
has an international dimension through our active
membership of the International Council of Women (ICW), to
which we affiliated in 1897. ICW has over 70 member
countries worldwide, listed below, ranging from the developed
countries of the west to some of the least developed societies
in the world. It has long-standing consultative status with
the United Nations. NCW in Britain was accorded UN
special consultative status in 2000, and participates in
annual meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in
New York. Indira Patel OBE is the NCW representative on
this committee.
The
ICW agenda has grown from basic humanitarian issues to include
some of the most serious contemporary issues of concern -
climate change; the need to involve women in peacekeeping and
mediation in countries riven by civil wars; the need for
action against acute poverty that deprives women and girls of
even the most basic health care and education; the need for
recognition of human rights, and for protection against the
many forms of exploitation from trafficking to child labour.
The current theme for 2006-2009 is the Challenge of Gender
Equality. This includes the removal of discrimination from all
aspects of women’s lives, such as parity, women in
decision-making, health, education, violence, and trafficking.
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Membership
of the ICWGB Committee is open to all NCW members who
wish to follow international activities, including the
International Council of Women, the United Nations, and
Europe.
NCWGB delegation to the ICW Triennial Conference in
Kiev with Anamah Tan, ICW President
The
ICW Triennial Conference took place in Kiev
from 5 to 10 September 2006 with the theme of Challenging
Gender Equality. Two resolutions were proposed by the
ICWGB Committee. One on the effects of natural disasters is
based on the NCWGB (2005) resolution. The other, based on the
ICWGB (2004) resolution on the role of men and boys in work
towards gender equality, was presented by the ICW Standing
Committee on the Status of Women.
[MORE]
Executive Conferences take place between the triennial
meetings. The Conference in April 2008 was held in
Jakarta. [MORE]
The
European Centre of the International Council of Women (ECICW)
has members from twenty countries, both within and
beyond the European Union, who meet twice yearly to discuss
problems of common interest.
[MORE]
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The
ICWGB Committee, which usually meets three times a year in
London, works within NCWGB to coordinate links with ICW, and
to
direct NCW international policy within the international
agenda for improvements in women's lives through the United
Nations
and the European Centre of the International Council of Women
(ECICW). |
The
recent meetings of the ICWGB
Committee have covered
a wide agenda of ICW matters of current concern.
Speakers have included Alison Harvey, Chair of ECPAT, on
trafficking in children; Valerie Evans CBE on the World Summit
on the Information Society (Tunis meeting), and the EU
Conference on women and development in jobs held in
Birmingham; Indira Patel OBE on the UN Commission on the
Status of Women; and Afua Twum-Danso from Akina Mama wa Afrika,
which is Swahili for 'solidarity among African women'. |