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Women in Leadership and Decision-Making Positions (2007)
A High-Level Women’s Agency For The United Nations (2007)
Religious Beliefs and Women's Health (2007)
Women in Decision-Making Positions in World Financial Institutions (2004)
Women
and Ageing (2004)
New
Choices During the Life Cycle (2004)
Education
Career Training of Women in Prison (2001)
The
Future of Women's Employment (2001)
Education
for Establishing a Society of Gender equality (2001)
Women's
and Gender Studies (2001)
Women's
Leadership (2001)
Consequences
of Global Mobility for Partners (1995)
Unpaid
Work (1995)
Fair
Co-management (1995)
Women
and Employment - Barriers to Equal Access (1992)
Girls'
Self-esteem (1992)
UN
Commission on the Status of Women/Forward Looking Strategies(1989)
Paid
Work, Voluntary Work and the Value of the Family (1986)
Unpaid
Work (1986)
Women
in the Media (1983)
Women
in Decision-Making Positions (1980)
SWCR/CEDAW
(1980)
SWCR/CEDAW
(1980)
NFAs
and CEDAW (1980)
Professional
Advancement and Family Responsibilities (1971)
Advancement
of Women (1971)
Women
and Society (1971)
UN
Declaration on Discrimination (1968)
Women
on National Delegations and in the UN (1966)
Women
and Scientific Employment (1965)
Part-time
Work (1965)
Women
and Science Teaching (1965)
Night
Work for Women (1962)
Discrimination
in Employment (1962)
Matrimonial
Property (1962)
Women
in Civil Service and UN (1961)
Women
in UN Delegations and Secretariats(1959)
Women
in New Professions (1959)
UN/CSW/Women
in Delegations (1956)
Women
and Public Appointments (1954)
Equal
Pay (1950)
Women
and Barriers to Employment (1934)
Nationality
of Married Women (1929)
Women
in Public Services (1928)
Women in Leadership and Decision-Making Positions
The 29th IFUW Conference resolves:
- that national federations and associations (NFAs) urge their governments to develop strategies to increase the participation of women in leadership and decision making positions in all sectors of society; and
- that IFUW advises NFAs to stress to their governments that applying gender budgeting, fiscal policies and targets are useful instruments within these strategies.
Plan of Action:
- NFAs to raise awareness of and promote the policy that men and women should join together as allies and create a political will to enhance the participation of women in decision-making and accommodate women's commitment to diversity, pluralism and democracy;
- NFAs to promote political training at all levels and education in good governance, and develop campaigns for voting for women in elections and in leadership positions;
- NFAs to promote support for women's organizations and women entrepreneurs in recognition that women are agents for change and development; and
NFAs to promote access to development in the area of information and communication technology to create business and employment opportunities and to facilitate networking.
A High-Level Women’s Agency For The United Nations
The 29th IFUW Conference resolves:
- that IFUW strongly urge the United Nations (U.N.) to establish and maintain a high-level agency for women headed by a woman Under-Secretary-General, with regular sustainable funding, and with the resources and mandate to initiate and operate programmes at the country level; and
- that the national federations and associations (NFAs) encourage their own governments to support this high-level agency for women.
Plan of Action:
- IFUW to monitor developments in and promote the establishment of a high-level women’s agency in the United Nations;
- NFAs to urge their governments to support a high-level women’s agency;
- NFAs to promote firm support of such an agency in their countries by raising public awareness of the need for such an agency and by joining women’s networks to strengthen the voices of women in achieving this goal; and
- NFAs to continue to stress the need for women to be included in decision-making roles.
Religious Beliefs And Women’s Health
The 29th IFUW Conference resolves:
that NFAs urge their governments to
- follow the principles of good health promotion when formulating and implementing health policies with reference to the Beijing Plan for Action; and,
- refrain from imposing any restrictions on good health practices that would adversely affect women's health whilst being respectful of the individual woman’s religious beliefs.
Plan of Action:
NFAs to contact and urge appropriate government levels to:
- practice good health promotion in all health issues;
- reinforce health promotion campaigns to deter pandemic disease, especially with regard to HIV/AIDS and venereal diseases;
- grant free access to analysis for detecting HIV/AIDS infection;
- promote access to medication for sick persons;
- educate the population as to how infection is passed to lessen discrimination of people infected with HIV/AIDS and venereal diseases; and,
- fund campaigns on the use of condoms to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and venereal diseases.
Women
in Decision-Making in World Financial Institutions
The
28th IFUW Conference resolves that:
1.NFAs urge
their respective governments to encourage financial institutions, national
and international, to include women in economic decision-making positions;
2.NFAs urge their respective
governments to encourage governments at all levels to include women in
economic decision-making positions; and,
3.IFUW utilize its
standing committees, its consultative status with ECOSOC at the United
Nations, and its website and listservs to implement this resolution.
Plan of Action
1. Members of NFAs urge their respective governments to implement practices
that would identify and appoint women to decision-making positions in
financial bodies.
2. Members of NFAs urge their respective financial institutions to seek
and employ women to decision-making positions.
3. IFUW leaders utilize committees and information technology to suggest
ways for NFAs to implement this resolution.
4. IFUW representatives to the United Nations present this resolution
at appropriate meetings with relevant commissions.
5. IFUW seek consultative status with ECOSOC.
Women
and Ageing
The 28th Conference
resolves to urge NFAs to:
1. promote increased
awareness among their members and governments of the fact that the majority
of older people are female and, therefore, the concerns of older women
need attention;
2. promote research
on all relevant aspects regarding the situation of older women in order
to confront the myth of "older and ageing women" being “fragile,
helpless and dependent”;
3. urge their
governments to compile official statistics disaggregated according to
age and gender;
4. promote increased
awareness among their members and governments of the importance of gender
sensitive measures for elderly people covering issues of finance, housing,
health, supportive services and mental stimulation;
5. ensure that
the mainstreaming approach explicitly includes the perspective of older
women as a specific target group in government reports and other government
publications, in order to be able to outline policy and legal measures
aimed at improving their situation; and,
6. promote involvement
of older women in local, regional, and national social policy development
and initiatives.
Plan of Action
NFAs to urge their respective governments to implement the recommendations
made by the UN Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid 2002.
New
Choices During the Life Cyle
The 28th Conference
resolves to encourage NFAs to:
- recognize the
evolving changes in life choices and the specific needs of women in
their various phases of life;
- promote adequate
adaptations in social institutions to address these needs, assisting
citizens to combine more and different activities during any particular
phase of life; and,
- acknowledge that
lifelong learning, advanced technology, women in the labour market and
an ageing society all contribute to these changes.
Plan of Action
1. NFAs to investigate the flexibility and variety of services offered
in their countries to assist women at various stages of their life and
over the longer period in an ageing society. Areas to be especially
researched are school systems (adapted to life-long learning); housing
(adapted to life-long living not merely family life); healthcare and
other “shift” style working days; maternal and paternal
leave; and pension fund restrictions and formalities.
2. NFAs also to investigate what services are available to ensure mental
stimulation.
Education
and Career Training of Women in Prison
The
27th Conference of IFUW resolves that national federations and associations
(NFAs):
1. inquire into the opportunities available in their respective countries
for women in prison to begin or continue their education and career training,
including education in civil rights;
2. inquire
particularly into the comparative opportunities and facilities available
to male prisoners and identify any practices which discriminate against
women prisoners;
3. lobby their
respective governments to formulate policies and implement and monitor
programmes to facilitate such educational opportunities; work
with other NGOs to offer extra-curricular programmes for women prisoners
provided that these do not relieve their governments of their duties to
women under equal opportunity principles. (1995
No. 3)
The
Future of Women's Employment
The 27th Conference
resolves that national federations and associations (NFAs):
1. encourage girls to consider careers at various levels in science and
technology;
2. help to
eradicate sexist stereotyping which prevents women from reaching top positions
of responsibility;
3. work to ensure that the campaign for equal opportunities and equal
treatment in professional life be taken forward by women and men together;
4. urge visibility of gender perspective in the labour market through
disaggregated data by sex, age and ethnicity;
5. recommend that any international trade agreements into which their
countries enter require equal treatment of women and men in the workforce
and equal opportunities for job advancement through training, education
and promotions. (2001 No. 2)
Education
for Establishing a Society of Gender equality
The 27th IFUW Conference
resolves:
1. that national federations and associations (NFAs) urge their respective
Ministries of Education and other concerned Ministries to include gender
equal perspective in the curriculum for training courses at all levels
of the teaching profession;
2. that NFAs work to develop awareness of people, especially men, of gender
equality, to ensue that the traditional gender biased attitudes and practices
are eliminated in bringing up children at home and in the community;
3. that each member of an NFA exert efforts to develop media literacy
that would promote the principle of gender equality from the human rights
perspective enunciated in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights.
Women's
and Gender Studies
The 27th Conference resolves that national federations
and associations (NFAs) urge their respective government commissions on
higher education to:
1. take immediate effective action to build Women and Gender Studies into
the curriculum of higher education, presenting a global situation of women
and gender inequality in different regions of the world; and
2. heighten society's awareness of the need for both women and men to
form a dynamic partnership for social transformation.
Women's
Leadership
The 27th Conference
resolves:
1. that national federations and associations (NFAs) urge their respective
governments to:
a. collaborate with academia, government organizations, non-governmental
organizations, religious and spiritual organizations, and civil society
including the private sector, to organize programmes for women's leadership
training and to prepare women for their present and future roles as development
managers;
b. guarantee through legislation and policies women's access to positions
of governance;
2. that NFAs share with other NFAs ongoing proactive policies and best
practices in order to learn from their experiences.
Consequences
of Global Mobility for Partners
NFAs should
1. take action to increase awareness of the negative consequences for
partners of uprooting in general and to support those affected by;
(a) making employers aware of the situation of the partners of their employees,
(b) providing information about training and advice for entry into the
workforce of their place of temporary residence;
(c) encourage governments to negotiate the removal of restrictions which
prevent partners of employed non-nationals from seeking paid work in their
temporary country of residence, and
2. support existing organisations which have programmes designed to counteract
the negative effects of global mobility and encourage the further development
of such programmes. (1995 No. 5)
Unpaid
Work
that NFAs lobby their governments to take prompt and effective measures
to quantify the value to their economies of women's unpaid work, and to
take account of this contribution to economic productivity in policy decisions.
(1995 No. 3)
Fair
Co-management
that NFAs constantly reaffirm the right to fair co-management between
men and women in all areas, whether social, professional, economic, cultural
or political, and that they actively defend this right. (1995
No. 2)
Women
and Employment - Barriers to Equal Access
that NFAs, in preparation for the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women,
draw attention to the situation regarding women in the professions and
decision-making positions within their own countries and urge their governments,
professional bodies and concerned NGOs, to undertake, utilise and implement
national and comparative studies as to barriers which prevent women achieving
equal access to all levels of employment and public life and initiate
the necessary measures to eliminate these barriers. (1992
No. 16)
Girls'
Self-esteem
that IFUW and NFAs initiate or support programmes aimed at increasing
girls' self esteem. Such programmes would address the societal attitude
which results in a preference for sons rather than daughters, wherein
girls are either covertly or subtly treated as second class citizens.
Also to be considered are the demonstrated discriminatory practices in
education which lessen educational opportunities for girls, as well as
to excel. (1992 No. 4)
UN
Commission on the Status of Women/Forward Looking Strategies
That NFAs be urged where appropriate to encourage their governments to
support the work of the UN Commission on the Status of Women by:
1. including in the government delegation representation of NGOs concerned
with the status and issues of women;
2. duly responding to requests for national data on implementation of
the Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women
3. organising regional meetings to involve NGOs in monitoring implementation
of the strategies. (1989 No. 3)
Paid
Work, Voluntary Work and the Value of the Family
to recommend to NFAs to study and report on how women can achieve the
aim of advancing their status through paid work, voluntary work and any
other forms of social activities in such a way that the condition of family
life may be enriched, adding to the value of the family as a unit of human
society. (1986 No. 8)
Unpaid
Work
to recommend to NFAs to support the implementation of Para.120 from the
Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women:
1. by educating people to the extent of such unpaid work as a contribution
to the economy of their nation;
2. by using the means in their respective countries that will measure
the monetary value of the unpaid work in their countries;
3. by publicising such results;
4. by taking such measures as are necessary to incorporate such results
into their GNP. (1986 No. 7)
Women
in the Media
that more NFAs should set up women's talent banks and make a special effort
to ensure adequate representation on boards and commissions connected
with media. (1983 No. 10)
Women
in Decision-Making Positions
to recommend to NFAs that they encourage and assist capable women to reach
planning and decision-making positions. (1980
No. 11)
NB: the 12th Council meeting in Madrid
1928 and the 14th Council meeting in Geneva 1929 agreed that in countries
where there are women jurists experienced in the practice of international
law their inclusion in government delegations should be urged (for the
Hague Conference on the Codification of International Law, nationality
of married women). See 1.30
SWCR/CEDAW
that the IFUW representatives to intergovernmental organisations keep
the Status of Women and Cultural Relations Committee informed of the ratification
of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against
Women as well of the steps taken to implement both the Convention and
the Programme of action adopted at Copenhagen so that NFAs may be assisted
in selecting appropriate topics for IFUW programmes of action.(1980
No. 10)
SWCR/CEDAW
to request the Status of Women and Cultural Relations Committee to study
the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against
Women and the Programme of Action for the second half of the Decade for
Women, and to serve as a liaison and information exchange to assist NFAs
in developing strategies for ratification of the Convention and implementation
of the Programme. (1980 No. 9)
NFAs
and CEDAW
that NFAs in implementing the 1980-3 Study and Action programme give priority
to
a. studying the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 1979.
b. working where possible in co-operation with other non-governmental
organisations to achieve early ratification and implementation of the
Convention within their own countries. (1980
No. 8)
Professional
Advancement and Family Responsibilities
recognising that one of the most important factors in women's advancement
is their professional advancement and economic independence; realising
that the break in professional activity caused by family responsibilities
is one of the reasons that greatly hampers real advancement;
stresses the need for an intensive study of all possible means enabling
married women and particularly mothers of children, through this period
of their lives, to maintain their professional interests and abilities,
without being overloaded by a double burden or neglecting their family
needs. (1971 No. 10)
Advancement
of Women
request NFAs to give special attention to the status of women and to use
every possible means ( e.g. education, information from school books,
influence by mass media) to overcome this hindrance of women's real advancement
following the principles laid down in the Declaration of Elimination of
Discrimination against Women. (1971 No. 5)
Women
and Society
urge NFAs to further by every means women's interest and full responsibility
in building up the future society by promoting their legal and economic
status and by collaborating in a common effort with men for our economic
and social development. (1971 No. 4)
UN
Declaration on Discrimination (1968)
The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, adopted unanimously by the General Assembly on 7th November 1967,
calls on Non-Governmental Organisations to do all in their power to implement
it. To support this request, the Conference resolves:
(1) to publicise the Declaration among National Federations and Associations:
(2) to recommend that they translate the Declaration into their own languages;
(3) to take measures to make the general public aware of the important
principles embodied in the Declaration by use of the Press and all other
means of information;
(4) to recommend to NFAs that they make special efforts towards securing
the elimination of those forms of discrimination still in existence in
certain areas within their own countries;
(5) to recommend to NFAs that they should constantly watch all social,
economic and psychological changes likely to affect the status of women
in their own countries, and should inform the IFUW of these changes, so
that it may take them into consideration when working out its programmes,
and, if appropriate, may inform international organisations (intergovernmental
and non-governmental). (1968 No. 10)
Women
on National Delegations and in the UN
(a) to ask NFAs to request their governments to appoint qualified women
on national delegations to international governmental bodies and to nominate
qualified women for UN Fellowships;
(b) to request NFAs to ask their governments to urge the Secretary General
of the UN and the Directors General of Specialised Agencies to appoint
qualified women to high ranking positions;
(c) to ask NFAs to urge their governments to take advantage of the various
means available on request through the UN for the advancement of women.
(1966 No. 10)
Women
and Scientific Employment
noting the present shortage in many countries of certain categories of
university graduates, and, in nearly every country, a shortage, to a greater
or lesser degree, of secondary school teachers (especially in mathematics,
science and languages), and of engineers and often of doctors, mathematicians,
economists and scientific research workers:
observing that a need is frequently indicated for university graduates
who are highly qualified and specialised in certain scientific disciplines
and professional categories;
recommends to NFAs:
to keep themselves as up to date as possible with the needs and employment
possibilities for graduates in their country,
to bring this information to public notice, drawing particular attention
to the great shortage of graduates in scientific and technical fields,
and the need to do away with prejudices against the employment of women
in certain professions requiring university training,
and further to do all in their power to encourage young women to pursue
their studies to a high degree of competence and specialisation. (1965
No. 15)
Re-entry
to Work
considering recent changes in family patterns and in employment possibilities
for women graduates, being aware that the combination and alteration of
professional work and family duties today make up the pattern of life
for more and more women, and help to make this life more complete, balanced
and harmonious, urges NFAs:
to keep themselves informed of opportunities in their country for graduate
women who wish to return to professional work;
to bring frequently to public notice the fact that mature women are competent
and responsible workers;
to make members wishing to resume professional work aware of the opportunities
to do so, and to encourage them to retrain and fulfil all their potentialities,
the more so when their services are needed by their national community;
to make when necessary, representations to their governments to extend
the upper age limit for entry or re-entry of women into all forms of public
service, including teaching;
and to encourage governments, universities and educational authorities
to take adequate measures for the retraining and employment of older women.
(1965 No. 14)
Part-Time
Work
that, in view of the grave danger of discrimination it presents, IFUW
repudiates the systematic association of part-time work solely with the
work of women, of married women or of women with young children, that,
recognising that, in spite of its disadvantages, part-time work does in
fact offer certain advantages to some persons, giving women in particular
the opportunity to maintain contact with their professions with a view
to taking up or resuming full-time work when possible, IFUW urges that
part-time workers should be given the same guarantees of security as full-time
workers, together with proportional social and financial benefits. (1965
No. 13)
Women
and Science Teaching
that, in view of the present need for scientists and technologists of
a high level and of the small number of women qualifying in scientific
subjects, the NFAs should do all in their power:
(a) to encourage the teaching of science to girls from an early age, with
the provision of adequate laboratory facilities;
(b) to make available to girls vocational guidance about scientific work;
(c) to induce industry and scientific organisations to consider women
for appointment and promotion, on equal terms with men:
(d) to encourage professional associations and universities to sponsor
refresher courses to enable married women to return to scientific work
in later life. (1965 No. 10)
Night
Work for Women
that the Conference reaffirms previous resolutions concerning the study
of international conventions by NFAs and urges them to study closely,
with reference to their national legislation, the conventions of the UN
and the International Labour Organisation concerning the political and
economic rights of women, in particular the Convention on the Political
Rights of Women, Conventions Nos. 100 & 111 of the ILO and Conventions
Nos. 4, 41 & 89 of the ILO on night work for women.
The Conference also suggests that NFAs study the repercussions (whether
favourable or unfavourable) of protective legislation on the employment
of women graduates in their country, particularly with regard to legislation
prohibiting night work for women. (1962 No. 9)
Discrimination
in Employment
the Conference urges NFAs
to make every effort to bring about the abolition of any discrimination
that may exist in their country, in law or in fact, against married women
engaged in professional employment:
to support the adoption of social and educational measures to help married
women to take up or continue in a professional career, or return to it
after any interruption:
to make married women who are qualified for professional employment aware
of the importance of their contribution to economic and social life. (1962
No. 8)
Matrimonial
Property
the Conference recommends NFAs
to continue to give consideration to the question of matrimonial property
laws;
to endeavour to obtain equality-both in law and in fact- for each of the
spouses, especially as concerns the management and disposition of goods
whether separately or jointly owned;
to oppose any legislation that might diminish the full civil capacity
of the wife;
to seek to ensure an equitable division of goods on the dissolution of
the marriage and in this connection to draw attention to the position
of women who have no paid employment outside the home. (1962
No. 7)
Women
in Civil Service and UN
that the Council strongly recommends NFAs to watch for vacancies in the
administrative services of their countries, especially in those concerned
with education and culture, also for posts vacant at higher level in private
undertakings; to find out whether these posts are open to women; to encourage
and promote the application of competent women graduates for them.
the council also urges NFAs to bring to the attention of their governments
the recommendations of the UN and the Specialised Agencies, and to press
for the inclusion of a greater number of competent women both in the delegations
which represent their countries at international meetings, and among the
chief representatives of international organisations in their own countries.
(1961 No. 25)
Women
in UN Delegations and Secretariats
that the Conference urge NFAs to work for the inclusion
of specially qualified university women at planning and operational level
in UN delegations and secretariats, national, regional and international.
(1959 No. 23)
Women
in New Professions
that NFAs be urged:
a) to keep themselves continually informed of the possibilities of openings
in new professions and occupations;
b) to draw the attention of young women to these new openings;
c) do their utmost to ensure that, in these new professions and occupations,
women are admitted from the beginning on an equal footing with men. (1959
No. 15)
NFAs
and the Committee on the Legal and Economic Status of Women
the Council requests NFAs to co-operate with the Committee on the Legal
and Economic Status of Women in its forthcoming studies of certain specific
discriminations against women, namely: (i) civil rights of married women,(ii)
laws of inheritance, (iii) employment and promotion in public service.
(1957 No. 16)
UN/CSW/Women
in Delegations
(a) IFUW recognises the importance to women everywhere
of the fact that the various organs of the United Nations have emphasised
the promotion of the human dignity of the women of the economically less
developed areas of the world, especially in personal status and access
to opportunities for education.
(b) IFUW recognises the ten year record of the United Nations Commission
of the Status of Women as one of substantial practical accomplishment,
and calls on NFAs to support the activities of that Commission and to
work in their own countries to remove the remaining discriminations on
grounds of sex.
(c) IFUW again urges NFAs to press their governments to include qualified
women both in national delegations and in permanent United Nations Delegations.
IFUW also trusts that women in increasing numbers will be appointed to
senior and policy-making positions in the United Nations Secretariat.
(1956 No. 5)
Women
and Public Appointments
That the Council recommend to NFAs the importance of urging qualified
women to come forward for public appointments, and the importance of taking
steps to bring to the notice of their governments and other authorities
responsible for making appointments the names of women qualified for such
positions, including membership of UN Committees and delegations. (1954
No. 21)
Equal
Pay
the Conference, considering that the principle of equal pay for equal
work is a matter of justice and is recognised in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights; that the principle is already accepted in some countries
and that its application should be extended to all countries, recommends
that NFAs should take all effective steps to secure the implementation
of this principle, and should in particular request their governments
to support the drafting of an international Convention on the question.
(1950 No. 15)
Women
and Barriers to Employment
IFUW strongly deprecates the tendency increasingly evident in the majority
of countries by new regulations to bar women from careers for which they
are well qualified, whether on grounds of sex or marriage. It considers
that such regulations are inimical to the family which is itself the foundation
of society; and desires to affirm its profound conviction that it is only
by permitting and encouraging women to play a full and responsible part
in the intellectual life of their country that the civilisation and prosperity
of future generations may be developed on a sound basis of general understanding
and enlightenment. (1934 No. 1)
Nationality
of Married Women
this Conference of IFUW declares that a woman, whether married or unmarried,
should have the same right as a man to retain or to change her nationality.
declares it to be in the public interest and especially for the protection
of the weak that the sessions of the Committee on Nationality of the First
Codification Conference of the League of Nations be held in public, and
urges that the rules of the Codification Conference be so amended. (1929
No. 6) This resolution was reaffirmed in 1932 No. 6.
Women
in Public Services
IFUW is strongly in favour of the principle that university women, whether
married or unmarried, should be admitted in the same way and on the same
terms as men to the public service and to any position therein. The Council
however leaves it to each NFA to decide what use they make of this resolution.
(1928 No. 9)
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