A very successful training of young African feminists both from Anglophone and Francophone Africa has just taken place in Accra , Ghana from the 17th to the 24th June 2006. This is the 2nd such training taking place within DAWN Africa. It is however historic in that it is the first time Anglophone and Francophone DAWN Africa have come together to organise a truly integrated event with full interpretation.
This training saw 22 participants out of the 24 anticipated from 11 African countries of Ghana , Senegal , Mali , Guinea-Conakry , Nigeria , Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa , Kenya , Burkina Faso , Togo and Benin republic.
One other participant was unable to travel out from Eritrea due to flight difficulties.
The training was coordinated by the Anglophone Regional Coordinator, Afua Hesse and the Francophone Regional Coordinator Fatou Sow who were also resource persons and facilitators ably assisted by Bene Madunagu, the current General Coordinator of DAWN, Viviene Taylor, Research Coordinator on PRST, who was assisted by Dzodzi Tsikata who has collaborated with DAWN on various researches, Shamillah Wilson, DAWN DTI liaison facilitator and Kafui Johnson, West Africa Regional coordinator of WILDAF and based in Togo.
Participants were trained by experienced African feminist advocates who helped them understand the changing terrain of the struggle for gender justice in Africa . They were exposed to the ideas and work of other activist scholars, all from the South and guided them to examine critical issues under each of DAWN’s theme in the context of current debates at the global level, and their inter-linkages with issues under other themes. The course involved lectures and discussions, case study presentations and analysis, organised debates, and practical skill-building exercises in research, analysis and advocacy and lasted for 7 days.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this training were the following
To reinforce the capacity of young African women already engaged in the women’s movement and or in women’s studies, to reinforce their capacity to analyse their experience in order to fully understand and improve on their advocac
To help participants make the links between young women and the women’s movement to enable them network and interlink the generations within DAWN Anglophone and Francophone Africa to assure continuity of generations of women feminists
The topics were considered with a regional bias and with the specific aim of first demystifying feminism within the Africa context and then building on the analysis.  
PROGRAMME
The training covered 7 days. The topics treated covered DAWN’s four major thematic areas. The specific topics were:
States, governance and democracy, which include issues of citizenship, representation and the election process, militarization of the States etc.
The history of the global women’s movement and the context of the African women’s movement including the processes
Exploring African feminist identities
The impact of social and cultural values on women and the role of the feminist within the institutions.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights debate including abortion and FGM
The political economy of globalisation
Gender and trade both at regional and international levels including the WTO
NEPAD and Regional groupings
The African women’s struggles around the African Protocol
A Research methodology workshop to equip the young women with skills and tools to conduct feminist research
The period also allowed one half day for participants to catch up with reading the material in their readers which were in 2 volumes both in English and French.
There was also one half day for town visits and shopping mid way through the training and this was very much appreciated by the participants who by that time needed a break from the intensity of the programme. There was a dinner and cultural evening out which showcased delicious local cuisine and a taste of West African cultural dancing and which saw participants very actively engaged.
 OUTCOMES
The training was adjudged very successful by both participants and resource persons.
The objectives set out for the training were all achieved according to their evaluation, some more than others  
Evaluation of training
The evaluation forms filled out by the participants looked at various aspects of the training.
The arrangements for travel were a little problematic for a few participants though the organisers have learnt valuable lessons through it.
Arrival arrangements, hotel reception and facilities were rated very high. One participant complained about having to share a room.. The conference room was very comfortable, the participants were very satisfied with the equipment provided and the fact of translation to and from both English and French.
The conference secretariat staff were all seen as willing to help, friendly, patient and responsive, extremely courteous, helpful, respectful and respected everyone’s differences. They were also seen as friendly and even though they did not understand French, they tried to send their message across in the best manner possible.
The Chef was rated excellent and the food quality, very good.
On rating for the training, most were happy with the conference and said it was an eye opener for them especially on the issues that were looked at. Some complained that they wished there had been more time allocated for each session.
The presentations were well prepared and the facilitators explored each participant’s mind. The discussions were also very helpful and gave them a clearer understanding of the issues. However, they felt there was not enough time for discussion. Also 1 participant wanted more facilitators from the Eastern region of Africa to enrich experiences by sharing work being done in that region.
 General Comments
 Generally, the participants were very pleased with the conference. They found it very challenging and it encouraged them as young feminists. This was a great opportunity to interact with other feminists and understand what goes on around Africa and encouraging them to persist on the struggle. It also challenged the Anglophone participants to learn French and vice versa in order to help break the barriers we have created between us as feminists. Most felt recharged, re-invigorated and re-energized while at the same time challenged to continue keeping abreast with what was happening locally, regionally and globally.
The presentations were enlightening. The methodology of interspersing the presentation with questions to engage the participants made it very active. If some of the presentations could be given before, then explanations can go on faster. All in all, it was an exciting experience especially connecting feminism and Christianity.
The RTI they saw as a wonderful experience, meeting new people, engaging in discussions that impact life as a woman, and reinforcing some principles that they hold, challenging others. The presentations were very participatory. Time constraints however prevented them from allowing for debates. Some however thought that debates on some of the issues were generally missing and people needed to be challenged more. 
Some saw this as a good opportunity to be able to encourage and raise more feminists in their respective countries to enable the work of the feminists go on in Africa so that as African’s we could be united.
They were very happy with the translation and interpretation since it made a big difference and enabled the smooth running of the conference.
 However, one person said that the session on NEPAD, regional groupings, etc was a bit of a misnomer because the emphasis was on the Protocol with very little discussion on NEPAD and regional groupings. She said that as regions collapse into blocs, we need to think local and act global in our advocacy.
Evaluation by resource persons.
One resource person comments thus:
“The organisation was great. I truly enjoy the week we spend in Accra , the debates with participants. The presentations were very well received by the group, and very pedagogical. I have to stress that to have a bilingual training made a whole difference.  All the participants were took an active part to the debates during the sessions.   They too were very interactive.”  
All participants and resource persons agreed that all objectives were met and a very successful training was had.
It is planned that networking among participants and the Regional Coordinators will continue.
On the whole, both participants and resource persons were very happy with the Institute and were pleased with the results and were all reenergized to continue their work and encouraging others.
 

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Report on DAWN Pacific/FWRM Feminist Advocacy Training,

Loloata Island, Papua New Guinea 16-21 July 2007

By Yvonne Underhil- Sem, DAWN Pacific Regional Coordinator
 

Beginning and ending
Twenty-eight young women from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Tuvalu, PNG and Fiji cautiously began this workshop. Cautious because many were brave enough to overcome their own as well as their organizations and families, fears of being in PNG (it has pretty biased regional press and is in the midst of elections with counting happening during the week we there). They were also brave enough to attend a ‘feminist’ workshop – at least 3 participants said they purposely did not tell their employers and/or their partners that this was a ‘feminist’ workshop for fear of a backlash!!

Twenty-eight young women completed this workshop and already we have a Pacific Islands Young Feminist Network blogspot ( www.pacificfeminists.blogspot.com). Yes from a very cautious beginning we ended as an enthusiastic, more knowledgeable group all with personal action plans and 8 collaborative action plans that integrates the Loloata experience into current work plans.
 

Participant’s contributions
Our aims was to introduce critical feminist analysis by focusing on two of DAWN’s research themes – SRHR and PRST – and introducing the other two – we well met. We spent the first two days on process issues – which at first I thought was too much but ended up being critical as everyone learnt about each others work (which included two women from a rural women peace group in a notorious tribal warfare area, a number of women involved in a Pacific violence against women network; two women from a rural literacy training group; a women from the Pacific women’s disability network; women from the major feminist NGO’s in Fiji as well as two from country YWCA’s.)

We also learnt about the very different backgrounds that ranged from recently graduated university students, including a number of young lawyers, to women who were subsistence gardeners and had to travel up to two hours on foot or un-powered canoe to get to road transport to attend this workshop. This in itself was a challenge for all participants as they learnt that a critical feminist analysis is not only something for urban educated elite women. In the end I think only two participants did not move their analysis – one was the only participant we accepted from a govt dept and the other was already problematically in a feminist organization.

These two days also provided the trust necessary for participants to say for instance that that they thought “feminists were lesbians” as well as to divulge that they were a child abuse survivor. This was not easy and reflects the excellent group processes developed by the facilitator team. We were also able to discuss at length what a feminist looked like – not unlike what the African RTI did.

There were many opportunities to learn from participants work and life experiences and to encourage a feminist critical analysis, such as for instance the story of the tragic hostel fire in Tuvalu where 28 young women lost their lives because they were locked in to protect them from liasing with the boys (I had written an article on this in 2001 but few participants knew of it so our Tuvalu participant retold the story and groups had to identify the SRHR issues in it – great exercise to help move participants away from the tragedy and into a deeper analysis of why it happened)
 

Substantive discussions
On the first day I attempted a presentation of Sonia’s ‘long duree’ powerpoint from Uruguay – as a way show the need to “understand historical continuities as well as the importance of various levels of critical feminist analysis – which is what DAWN does”. This was a key theme given the tensions in the region between local grassroots initiatives and more academic global analysis as well as the intergenerational issues. I also introduced the notion of DAWN’s inter-linkage work. The sessions on SRHR was introductory (thanks to Anna for breaking it down so clearly) explaining the move from reproductive health to rights and sexual rights. The PRST section really missed Claire’s input but again Anna did a great introduction. Viri did a great job on the notion of citizenship and Tara rearticulated DAWN’s notions of social contracts in a way that made me squirm thinking of that which we need to complete.

I introduced PEAS but more importantly introduced participants to the range of women’s livelihoods and environmental issues in the Pacific from working in tea plantations, to sago culture and small-scale urban marketing. I also introduced the notion of contradictions and trade-offs in the WSSD J’burg meeting from Ewa’s analysis – this might be useful for the Cape Town training. Roshni introduced participants to the notion of trade in the Pacific that again missed Claire’s input but was a very good primer. We also did a value chain analysis of a can of tuna thanks to Tara’s Barbie doll experience in Bangalore that was really instructive for participants.

On reflection I think most participants followed the discussions but few would be able to explain them. Many participants requested FWRM to extend their programme of training young women into their countries and locations and this was a real boost for FWRM’s plans to become more regional. It also reaffirmed for me the need to train members of NGO’s like FWRM to develop their critical feminist analysis based in DAWN’s work – this is where DAWN’s analysis will most effectively be spread.
 

Advocacy exercises
We developed some great advocacy exercises that really got participants working: a talk-back radio with current military commander of Fiji and the sole women MP in PNG; a formal submission to a national committee on water privatisation; a protest march against water privatisation (many participants had never been on one) and an exercise to convince other local community groups (young men’s environmental grp; ‘religious women’s health group and local landowners interested in ‘development’) to support their awareness plan on a new resource development (one group did fisheries, the other mining).
 

Facilitator Team
Once again working with FWRM was invaluable. In addition to taking care of all the logistics, they bought with them some great exercises and group process. Noeleen from WAC (Women’s Action for Change) also provided the critical framing of SRHR as well as excellent group processes. I provided the substantive background for all the themes and support to each facilitator as they undertook to learn about the DAWN themes enough to explain them to the participants – in effect this was their training as well. I encouraged them to relate their readings – which primarily came from DTI reading manuals – to Pacific experiences. This was done particularly well by Noeleen with reference to the analysis of some Pacific poetry that covered violence, single motherhood and lesbian love – something that really required the young lawyers to admit was new to them.
 

Learning about PNG
All participants from outside PNG had their knowledge of the country greatly enhanced and hence their fears gently subsided. I had been very aware of the security concerns of PNG and especially as it was in the middle of elections. However, it proved to be great timing so much so that on our afternoon tour of Port Moresby, one bus managed to get inside the normally highly secure parliament grounds for a photo opportunity – see one of the pics attached. Our choice of Loloata island was also lucky as we mostly had the island to ourselves – aside from a few divers – and we had freedom to safely wander around the island during the day and at night.
 

Fun too
Yes we had many laughs as well – a brief snorkelling trip, a re- imagining culture night, and we had local prawns on the menu almost every night.
 

Follow-up
We will follow-up each participant’s personal action plan after three months as well as the group collaborative projects. Hopefully we can convince some funders to continue to support this. OXFAM NZ and Australia and playing an important role in the region sponsoring initiatives like small arms research, community based health and livelihood programmes and peace efforts in areas with tribal wars still raging. Hopefully these will all have a more explicit feminist analysis.

 

DAWN Pacific Region

Strengthening Pacific Women’s advocacy: linking gender, social and environmental justice

FWRM-DAWN Pacific Workshop (February 7-11 2005)  

As part of DAWN’s commitment to regiona l t raining institutes, DAWN Pacific worked in partnership with Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) to conduct and facilitate a five day training course for young women activists from the Pacific who were either already engaged, or had a strong interest, in global advocacy work for gender justice.

The objective of the five day trainings were as follows:  

·        Provide the participants with analysis and advocacy skills on gender aspects pertaining to issues on; Political Economy of Globalization, Sustainable Livelihoods, Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights and Political Restructuring & Social Transformation, relevant to a Pacific context,

• Ensure that the participants return to their respective countries, communities, and impart the skills acquired to thereby make sure that gender considerations are adequately addressed in development projects, within countries as well as across the region,

• Empower the participants to be vigilant and confident in representing Pacific women at international fora on the global level as well as strengthening their advocacy capacity and engagement of civil society, and

• Form a regional network of feminist activists that would enable participants to learn from each other’s experiences.  

Funds for the workshop came from DAWN, NZAID, ADB and UNDP.  FWRM and DAWN Pacific signed a MOU which gave FWRM in Fiji full responsibility for the logistics and financial disbursement of all monies raised. This was agreed to by NZAid who funded DAWN Pacific under their Global Good Governance Fund.  FWRM were also able to raise funds from UNDP, ADB and OXFAM New Zealand also supported the training. A small charge for co-ordinating and managing the activity was able to be paid to FWRM once other costs were acquitted.  

1.      Selection of Participants

An expression of interest was posted on the South Pacific Women’s Bureau’s list serve – PACWIN in late November 2004. It was re-advertised in December 2004.  FWRM and DAWN Pacific also circulated the advertisement across its networks around the region. The applications closed on the 14^th January 2005. The following criteria was used to select participants:  

• Pacific female activists aged over 25, who are already engaged, or have a strong interest, in global advocacy work for gender justice; and

• Completed at least 2 years of Tertiary Education and/or have work experience either in gender, social or economic justice.  

Based on the above criteria, 18 participants from Fiji , Cooks Islands , Samoa , Tonga , Vanuatu , Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea were selected. The backgrounds ranged from Government policy officers, researchers to community trainers.  The average age of the participants was 25.  

2. Training

The 5 day training provided participants with the tools to understand gender aspects pertaining to issues on; Political Economy of Globalization, Sustainable Livelihoods, Sexual Rights & Health Rights and Political Restructuring & Social Transformation, relevant to a Pacific context.

The training sessions were informal and participatory in approach. The facilitators drew on the information that the participants already knew by using group exercises, general discussions and brainstorming.  Role-plays and other forms of adult education methodologies were also used to stimulate discussion, debate and analysis. Advocacy and lobbying experiences of FWRM and DAWN were also drawn on.

The session on the Political Economy of Globalization set the scene for the week, as it was a chance for participants to bring the lives of the women in their communities into mainstream economic debates. The discussion on the World Trade Organisation and its impact on developing countries, made participants from Tonga realize that discussions and debates on the economy could not be holistic as long as minority groups such as women and the disabled were excluded. Participants from Fiji were shocked to hear that their State would soon be negotiating with the European Union in regards to the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement, which is expected to replace the current Cotonu Trade Agreement. Like the Tongan participants, the Fijians realized that women’s groups and non-government organization could not work in isolation, as this not only complicated the work of social and gender justice but also created a mentality of tunnel vision.  It was emphasized that in order for feminists and women’s rights advocates to be effective, they have to be analytical and critical – especially of themselves and their organisations.  As stated by one participant, “it’s about being smart and savvy.”

Another interesting session, which provoked a lot of discussion, was on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) of women.  This could have had something to do with the fact that the facilitator, Varia Williams (2003 DAWN Training Institute Graduate from Barbados ), opened her session with a piece from the Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues.” Varia’s performance set the scene for the session, which focused on the SRHR in the context of sexuality, sex education, HIV/AIDs, family, religion and culture. It was glaringly obvious from group presentations that SRHR is truly the final frontier.  Despite considering themselves “liberated” and “open-minded,” when it came to discussing sexuality, many of the young women felt embarrassed because of its association with lust and pleasure. One participant articulated this view by saying that she had been raised to consider lust and sexual pleasure as provocative and wrong.  Another participant explained the importance of being inclusive and how the views and experiences of sexual minorities needed to be included in all debates and discussions. Participants asked questions on abortion and the issues surrounding right to life and right to choice.  As always there was no consensus from participants on the pro-life and pro-choice debate. However it was reiterated that the discussion ought not focus on the issues of rights and wrongs of abortion, but rather having the information to be able to make informed and educated choices. Put plainly it is about women having control over their own bodies- the right to self-determination.

Experiences shared by FWRM’s Young Women’s Officer, Anna Padarath and Tongan United Nations Volunteer, Ofa-ki-Levuka Guttenbeil from their participation at the Feminist Dialogues (FD) in Porte Algre, Brazil inspired the participants to examine the possibility of having a regional FD.  Anna and Ofa discussed how they had been the only Pacific Islanders (other than Raijeli Drodrologi – former FWRM staff and current ISIS Executive Director) and as young women, they were honored to be there to share the Pacific experience as well as network and build their own capacities.

However the two stressed that, as a region the Pacific is often under- represented at the international level, and this results in the voices of Pacific women not being heard. As a challenge, participants agreed that was a need to organize feminist dialogues at any national, regional or international meetings. This would be an opportunity to ensure that issues raised would be discussed from a feminist perspective as well as from different viewpoints.

By the end of the week, the linkages between the political economy of globalization, sexual reproductive health rights, political restructuring and socia l t ransformation, and sustainable livelihoods became clear. Both the participants and facilitators found the training fulfilling and enlightening. Participants believed that the learning contract, which they designed and agreed upon with the facilitators, created a safe space that allowed them to express themselves without judgment. The facilitators in turn appreciated the frank and open discussions, and gained a better idea of the thoughts and experiences of young regional activists.

The daily evaluation sheets revealed that the participants had developed basic understanding on how Political Economy of Globalization, Sustainable Livelihoods, Sexual Rights & Health Rights and Political Restructuring & Social Transformation impact on gender. The results and impacts of this training is provided below:  

3.  Results and Impacts  

3.1 Increased Awareness on Feminism

Some of the participants had never attended a feminist advocacy and analysis training before therefore for many of them feminism was a new concept. The day-to-day evaluation revealed that the participants’ understanding of feminist principles and human rights standards had increased. The evalution revealed that the participants had fully understood the principles of feminism as well as human rights standard. One of the participants had stated . “ The part that I liked the most was on gender and feminism. It was an eye-opener. I have always used the words but never really knew what they meant. I now know what they are.” Anonymous evaluation form of one participant.  

3.2 Increased Commitment to Gender Equality

There was a 100% commitment by participants for future women’s rights advocacy and awareness raising within their countries and communities. One participant, Easter Silipa from from the Policy Unit at the Ministry of Women in Samoa plans to use the Ministry newsletter, “ as a means of advocacy to let grassroot women know about the WTO and the impact it will have on them.” She also also plans to use the ministry’s slot on the local government radio station to create awareness about gender issues because everyone listens to it. Another participant, Brenda Mauli from Solomon Islands says,” advocate to women who are resource owners in the communities that they have a right of say on their resources.”  

3.3 Strengthening partnerships

The training provided FWRM and DAWN Pacific with the opportunity to collaborate with other partners such as the Pacific Network Against Globalisation and the Fiji Human Rights Commission. This training has also made it possible for both FWRM and DAWN Pacific to extend their networks around the region.  

3.4   Work plans

At the end of the training, all participants presented their action plans, which incorporated the skills and knowledge that they have gained. Individual presentations allowed other participants as well facilitators to get a bird’s eye view of the issues in other Pacific Island countries. Some of the action plans were organizational in nature  while others were personal.

Participants were all provided with postcards on which they are to summarise their 6-month plans. These were posted to the participants after their departure.  

3.5   Establishing a network of young feminists

“ I look around this room and I see the future of Pacific feminism.” - A comment made by one of the participants at the training. The training was the first opportunity that young women activists and feminists were able to exchange experiences and skills. As a result of the training, the young women are considering organizing a Pacific Feminist Dialogues, which will be held a few months before the International Feminist Dialogues in 2007. A list serve has been set up whereby the participants are sharing ideas and knowledge online. Participants are also using established list serve such as the South Pacific Community’s PACWIN to ensure that the voice of young feminists and the girl child are incorporated into the mainstream women’s debate.  

4.0 Lessons Learnt  

4.1 Time Constraint

FWRM and DAWN Pacific have learnt that in future awareness of the trainings needs to be advertised at least 6 months in advance. This would allow for a wider cross-section of participants from around the region.

More time would also been needed to cover topics in depth. Some of the participants believed that although there was a lot of resource material provided in terms of readings etc, they would have preferred if more time were given for in depth discussions. This may have meant that the training would have taken longer than five days.  

5.0 Conclusion

The training evaluations revealed that the objectives of the training were met. However FWRM and DAWN Pacific will get in touch with participants in six months to fully ascertain and validate the outcomes of this training. This report can be made available on request. On behalf of FWRM and DAWN Pacific, the Movement would like to extend its gratitude and appreciation to the Asian Development Bank, Oxfam New Zealand , NZAID and UNDP Gold for  its support.

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DAWN South-East Asia
Young Women’s Leadership and Advocacy Institute (YWLI), 13th-18th June, Bangkok.

The Young Women's Leadership and Advocacy Institute (YWLI) was held in Bangkok as a collaborative effort. AWID, CREA (from India) and Shirkat Gah (from Pakistan) were partners of DAWN in this collaboration. AWID raised all the funds for the training institute. The process of collaboration included coming up with a training module, dividing responsibilities as facilitators and being a part of the selection process while disseminating the information to our networks and partners in the region. 
Altogether 30 participants from South Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India) and South East Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China (Hong Kong) Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos) were selected representing a wide array of organizations. A number of applications were received from the disabled community out of which. 2 were chosen. The age group was 22-30 years with the oldest 28 years and the youngest 21, all with young fresh energy and faces.

Process - The highlight for DAWN was the initiative taken by DAWN Training Institute graduates of 2003 in this process who were in the forefront at every step. The 6-day training was divided into several ‘modules’ guided by an explorative process with the participants. The training agenda was not ‘pre-set’ in that sense, but worked out using broad thematic areas as a sounding board to frame the sessions. The substantive areas of gender, economic and human rights were designed as ‘skill-building’ sessions. The first day after introductions, participants in sub-regional groups mapped out themes they wished to be addressed and this became the basis for finalizing the training agenda.  There was a big demand for conceptual clarity on the basics what is gender, what/who is a feminist, how do we understand economic frameworks, what are reproductive and sexual rights, the WTO and so on. Along with this “Movement Building” and “Feminist Advocacy as a Strategy for Change” were two dedicated sessions. Both participants and facilitators used creative pedagogy and reading groups were initiated for one compulsory reading every night.  DTIs – Tashia Peterson and Jo Villenueva took charge of this session every morning before the sessions began. The other two, Anasuya and Shamillah guided the advocacy and movement building sessions, while the substantive skill-building ones was divided among Joanna of AWID  (for Economic frameworks), Pramada Menon of CREA (Human Rights) and Vanita Mukherjee of DAWN with Anasuya (for Gender Frameworks).
Three volunteers from among the participants gave a feedback to the facilitators on a day-to-day basis after monitoring the sessions and participants inputs. This helped to plan the training very effectively for the next day. The participants lead most of the energizers. The presence of disabled young women forced us all to be sensitive to their needs, especially for energizers.

Outcomes - The Gender Frameworks session after dealing with concepts that moved away from a purely hetero-normative approach, examined the ‘political’ and ‘technical’ use of gender and went into a social history of Feminism including the different schools as they emerged. There was as lot of confusion (and discomfort) about what is feminism among the participants. It was a fascinating session as these are very young women in post-feminist days reaping the ‘benefits’ of some of struggles waged by our generation of women, like accessing well-established women’s studies departments in their university, getting funding for women’s rights’ work and so on. Most of them were in their early teens when the slogan  ‘women rights are human rights’ gained currency, yet there is a chasm in their sense of history of where it all came from and what it is all about. There is a sense of taking things for granted or feeling confused about what is feminism today. One of the questions that emerged on the mapping issues day was, ‘ Is Feminism and Gender Equality the same’?
The Human Rights session was kicked off by the very powerful and moving documentary, ‘The Vienna Tribunal’ filmed live in Vienna in 1993. It fleshed out graphically the issue of ‘women’s rights are human rights’ quite eloquently. An exercise focusing on a true-life case study from India of sterilizing physically/ mentally challenged women (as there are no care-takers to handle menstruation) was extremely challenging, but the manifold issues that emerge out of this case around reproductive (and sexual) rights could not be discussed at length that day.  Pramada of CREA did a whole session on sexual rights with another very interesting exercise the next day. Some of questions that were raised on the first day by the participants while mapping issues were, “What is the history of HRs”?, How do we deal with human rights when one group gain precedence over the other? i.e.Community Rights vs Individual Rights”, “How to integrate Women’s Rights and movement into other social movements? How do they work?” and “Is there a need to look at human rights and women’s rights separately”? In the Advocacy sessions, the focus was local, national and regional. This was done in sub-regional groups around issues the group prioritized. The idea was to discuss advocacy strategies after every case study, the strengths and weaknesses and it was extremely lively and engaging.  Along with this approach (that was meaningful for a regional group), I felt a short presentation on the experiences of women’s movement’s advocacy at the international level (the UN for instance) for historical information would have rounded up the session well, and connected some of SRHR issues emerging from Cairo and Beijing. The Movement Building session was designed around issues identified by the participants.

The workshop can be summed up this way: “The participants think we brought together extraordinary experiences and insights that helped to shape a process that delivered the kind of results it did.    My inbox is inundated with thank yous from the participants and until I left on Sunday - many of them dropped off notes at my room to share how much this meeting has meant to them - how it has helped them to see things differently and how they will continue to build on the process we initiated at Bangkok.” Shamillah Wilson

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