The purpose of the seminars is to deepen our global understanding of the situation of women and girls by increasing our knowledge of their local circumstances and thereby to enhance our power to nurture what should be further nurtured and/or changed.

Those selected will have 20 minutes to present their information on a panel of women with other perspectives on the same subject.

For information and application forms, go to the following sites.

1. Call for Interdisciplinary Seminar Papers

2. Form for Proposal of an ID Seminar Paper

3. Writing an Abstract

The application should be sent to IFUW by 31 August 2012.

The current discussion is “women and violence” and will be conducted for the next two weeks. Already there are many responses from several countries.

To join the e-mail discussion group, please send us an email with the subject “Subscribe”.

When the last United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting concluded in March without any Agreed Conclusions, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet called for the General Assembly to declare the 5th World Conference on Women for 2015. Since the first such conference in 1975 in Mexico City, to the most recent one in Beijing in 1995, there has been much progress on human rights for women.

However, new issues deeply concerning women have arisen since 1995: the rise of terrorism, climate change, food scarcity, lack of safe water, economic recession and its effect on women and girls. It is pointed out that much progress based on the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, are being opposed by fundamentalist religious leaders.

The benefits of a conference: inspiring a new generation of women leaders, energize the global women’s movement, reach people worldwide through technology to raise awareness of problems to women, new and available solutions.

More information and a petition of support can be found here.

WG-USA Board urges you to contact your own US Senators and Representative to suggest they sponsor and/or support a USA call for the the current UN General Assembly to vote to declare such a conference.

The theme is “Politics, Civil Society, and Peacebuilding Worldwide.

The past 12 months have witnessed women stepping more forcefully into the public arena to assert and protect their rights, whether it was to protect pensions or demand democracy on the streets of Sri Lanka and Yemen, hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable in the courts in the Balkans, or to include their voices in hearings on Capitol Hill.

Go to the site for detailed information.

The competition for this special one-time award is open to women human rights activists, scholars, journalists, writers, and social scientists with a demonstrated commitment to the advancement of women and girls and the attainment of their human rights. Both IFUW members and non-members may apply.

Proposals must relate to the use of human rights instruments and agreements for the advancement of women and girls. This may be a major research project at a university or institution of higher learning in any country; an internship or project to be carried out with an appropriate international or national human rights organization; or study for an appropriate academic qualification (e.g. Masters or PhD) for those with substantial experience of national or international human rights activity but no higher degree.

The award of CHF 20’000 will cover 8 to 12 months full-time or up to 24 months of part-time work/study during the period 1 September 2012 to 31 December 2014. The winner will also be invited to present her work to IFUW’s International Conference in Istanbul in August 2013, with paid travel and accommodation.

Applicants will apply direct to IFUW. No pre-screening by NFAs will be required. A special selection panel appointed by the IFUW Board will review the applications and select the winner. Results of the competition will be posted by the end of August 2012.

The deadline for applications is 30 June 2012.
Click here for application forms and instruction.