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Time flies, but we have not been sitting still! A short resume of what happened this year so far.
As you may remember we submitted a resolution at the last LI Congress in Rotterdam in April 2014 on this subject which was unanimously adopted. Liberal International and INLW as you see have now joined forces in a joint campaign to achieve this eventual globalization of the Istanbul Convention.
Our main plans for autumn 2015 are:
Taking part at the 60th Liberal International Congress in Mexico City from Thursday 29th October till 1st of November with an INLW delegation. We plan to pick up the second phase of the joint campaign together with LI on the ratification and globalization of the Istanbul Convention.
Call to all members to pay their 2015 subsciption to INLW
Please do so as we need your support to continue our work. See hereunder on how to pay. N.B. Those members who will be in Mexico we urge to pay their yearly subscription as only members who have paid their 2015 subscription have voting rights.
Individual Membership fee is €15 ; Group Membership fee €150
Payable by International Money transfer to INLW account in Wassenaar, NL:
Name: Stichting INLW; Account number: BIC: ABNANL2A; IBAN: NL19ABNA0537746102.
As prescribed in our Constitution we are to hold our next General Meeting of INLW during the LI Congress in Mexico City, which is held from 29th of October till November 1st. This will be rather inconvenient for our members to come in big numbers, as we do not have a great number of members at the moment in Latin or Middle America. At this General meeting there will have to be some changes to the Board due to terms of office expiring and members being re-elected for their next term of office. Exact time and place will be communicated when the LI program is definite.
We also plan to continue our campaign there and hold a fringe meeting on the subject of stopping violence against women and girls and domestic violence. Also INLW tabled 3 resolutions to the LI Congress in Mexico: Deterioration instead of improvement of Women’s rights in Russia; INLW launch Istanbul Convention Campaign and Insecurity and Climate Change two vast Challenges for Women in Africa.
In de nieuwsbrief kunt u lezen over de activiteiten van INLW in het afgelopen jaar. U kunt de nieuwsbrief hier lezen.
INLW members met up with other Liberal politicians and guests from five regions of the world in the House of Lords in the UK parliament on January 29th to honour the 2014 Liberal International Prize for Freedom laureate, Ms Waris Dirie, who has brought global attention to the suffering inflicted by female genital mutilation (FGM).
Waris Dirie holding the Liberal Internaional Freedom Prize and standing between UK Minister of State Lynne Featherstone and Juli Minoves, President of Liberal International.
Members of LI speaking to the Press in between the people of the Umbrella Movement.
INLW took part with a members and Board members at the Liberal International 193rd Executive Committee which was held in Hong Kong from 7-10 November 2014. Liberal International’s only individual member Mr Martin Lee and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) invited LI to convene in Hong Kong. Mr Martin Key, who received the Liberal International Freedom award in 1996 in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, was now also the inspirational speaker explaining to us all about the “UMBRELLA MOVEMENT” which he fully supported.
President of the International Network of Liberal Women (INLW), Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk, has delivered a joint LI-INLW statement to the 27th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on September 15th 2014. She stated that the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Eliminating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence should be adopted in a Global Framework. Her text which was shortened when spoken is to be found under the link to the actual video of her oral statement.
The original non shortened message of the campaign which INLW and LI want the international community to hear is:
Liberal International (LI) has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to adopt a ground-breaking international legal framework on womens’ rights, which incorporates the Istanbul Convention on the on Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women.
The existing Convention is currently the most far-reaching, legally binding international instrument addressing violence against women but is limited to only a handful of states in Europe. In a written statement submitted to the 27thSession of the UNHRC, LI has urged for the extension of the Istanbul Convention beyond the borders of Europe. The statement builds on the resolution adopted by LI’s 59th Congress in Rotterdam and calls on the international community to adopt new international law which incorporates all provisions included in the Istanbul Convention.