Forum Programme

The Forum is now over, but we encourage you to check the "Latest News" section of this site for selected session writeups, transcripts, and other post-forum information. Updates will be posted throughout December and January.

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A tentative Forum Programme schedule can be found below. Click on the links below for full session descriptions, or download a Word version of the full programme.

Wednesday, October 26

10:00-20:00 Registration

Thursday, October 27

8:30-10:30 Opening Plenary: What have we changed and how?
11:00-12:30 Remembering and Reclaiming Change: Feminist Timelines for Better Futures
12:30-14:00 Lunch (with caucuses)
14:00-16:30 Breakout Sessions
17:00-18:30 Breakout Sessions
19:00-21:00 Receptions and Book Launches
20:00-22:00 Mini Women's Rights Film Festival

Friday, October 28

8:30-10:30 Plenary Session: What is the change around us?
11:00-12:30 Breakout Sessions
12:30-14:00 Lunch (with caucuses)
14:00-16:30 Breakout Sessions
17:00-18:30 Breakout Sessions
19:30-21:30 Plenary Session: Where is the Money for Women's Rights: A Funders Forum
21:00-24:00 AWID Party: Movers and Shakers, Divas and Changemakers

Saturday, October 29

8:30-10:30 Plenary Session: How should we change?
11:00-12:30 Breakout Sessions
12:30-14:00 Lunch (with caucuses)
14:00-16:30 Breakout Sessions
17:00-18:30 Breakout Sessions
18:30-23:00 Celebration Dinner (offsite)

Sunday, October 30

9:30-11:00 Breakout Sessions
11:30-13:15 Final Plenary: How does change happen? A Wrap-up

Thursday 14:00-16:30 805
Governing Digital Spaces: The Political Economy of the Information Society and Violence Against Women
Room: Ayuthaya 2
The proliferation of new technologies over the world has built upon and perpetuated neo-liberal market ideologies. In the dominant discourse of the information society, markets are seen as the obvious instrument for the diffusion of new technologies, over-riding the private-public-community balance. Of course, this rides on capitalist globalisation that exacerbates global inequality. Further, this impacts the production and exchange of information in serving the global public interest. This interactive session will examine the ways in which the internet defies controls of legal/public institutions as understood through violence against women in/via digital spaces, and then articulates the need for alternative paradigms.
Jacklyn Kee, Association of Progressive Communications- Women's Networking Support Programme (APC - WNSP), Malaysia
Karen Banks, APC WNSP, UK
Raijeli Nicole, ISIS, Philippines
Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago, USA

Thursday 14:00-16:30 20
Models of Resistance: Victims as Leaders
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, FR, RU
Extremist religious political forces and the increased violence against women they perpetuate can have impacts beyond victimisation. Drawing on their experiences of violence and extremisms, women from around the world talk about the 'moment of opportunity' created by violence, how they harnessed this moment, and how it inspired them to demand that women cast off the role of narrators of sufferings and assume the mantle of leadership. This interactive session explores the various and alternative ways women have mobilised and transformed themselves from otherwise horrific experiences.
Faizunissa Zackariya, WLUML, Sri Lanka
Farida Shaheed, WLUML, Pakistan
Frans Remy De Keyzer, Translator, Rwanda
Madhavi Kuckreja, Vanangana, India
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM, Sri Lanka
Terry McGovern, Women's Health and Human Rights Advocacy Initiative, Law and Policy Project, USA

Thursday 14:00-16:30 901
How can we influence, use and benefit from the UN: A Strategy Session for the next 5 years
Room: Ballroom 2 | Translation: SP, FR, RU
During the last three decades, the UN has been an important space to advance the women's rights and development agenda. In key UN venues, women were able to position key issues, have multilateral agreement and see progress for women's rights at the international level, sometimes reflected in local, national and regional change. In the last five years, geopolitical powers are shifting, fundamentalist forces are rising and the international law order is weakening. The current reform process may alter civil society groups' access, and may change the dynamics in key UN bodies. Given the World Summit, how can we assure that women's rights stay on the agenda? This session will analyse the results of the World Summit, its current implications for women's organisations and the next steps for future UN engagement.
Alejandra Scampini, Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres (REPEM), Uruguay
Bene Madunagu, Girls Power Initiative/DAWN, Nigeria
Brigid Inder, Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, Netherlands
Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), USA
Devaki Jain, India
Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana, Ghana
June Zeitlin, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), USA
Zonny Woods, International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), Canada

Thursday 14:00-16:30 908
Faith, feminism and the power of love
Room: Ballroom 3 | Translation: SP, RU, TH
In a world where essentialist political and religio-political forces are undoubtedly threatening women's human rights, feminists have an increasingly complex and often contradictory relationship with religion and faith. Given the power and control concentrated within religious groups, what kind of strategy is needed to effect change? Is religion standing in the way of strengthening feminist movements globally? How have women redefined faith in order to make change happen? Taking the personal to the political, the aim of this talk show-style session is to create a meaningful dialogue, understanding and collaboration between activists each with their own perspective on the role of religion, faith and feminism.
Carol Barton, WICEJ, USA
Katherine Acey, Astrea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, USA
Marsha Darling, Adelphi University, USA
Marta Alanis, Catholics for Free Choice, Argentina
Norhayati Kaprawi, Sisters in Islam, Malaysia
Pregs Govender, Former MP, South Africa
Shareen Gokal, AWID, Canada
Ven. Dhammananda Samaneri, Thailand
Yanar Mohammed, Organization of Women's Freedom, Iraq

Thursday 14:00-16:30 134
Gender mainstreaming and its discontents: New directions for institutional change (Or the problem with gender mainstreaming)
Room: Brunei
The promise of gender mainstreaming to confront the changing global climate and challenge the formal and informal institutions that continue the legacy of inequality is still unfulfilled. Instead, gender mainstreaming has become a technical exercise devoid of political will or context. The unequal power relations inherent in institutions are not addressed although organisations imagine themselves as 'committed' to women's rights. This interactive session will illustrate the promising directions for change that are challenging power and changing gender relations at fundamental levels. Presenters will examine the forces, structures, tools and processes that are leading to change now and into the future.
Aruna Rao, Gender at Work, USA
David Kelleher, Gender at Work, Canada
Mahnaz Afkhami, Women's Learning Partnership, USA

Thursday 14:00-16:30 633
The Wall: Women Transforming Today's Economy
Room: Chiangmai 1 | Translation: SP
What tools and methods create change in political and economic agendas? Today, faced with neo-liberal globalization, it is critical that women identify strategies to create a more just economy. For many women, macroeconomics seems to be far removed from our reality. For that reason, this skill-building session will explain the Wall method. The Wall creates a space for women to visualize the power of transnational companies as well as the power each one of us has to build alliances and movement towards change.
Martha Juarez, Puntos de Encuentro, Nicaragua
Montserrat Fernandez, Independent, Nicaragua
Suzanne Doerge, Independent, Canada

Thursday 14:00-16:30 73
Targeting the Courts: An Activists Guide to Using International Human Rights Standards to advance women's rights
Room: Chiangmai 2 | Translation: SP
How are we using international and national law to secure women's rights and what are the next steps in implementing a rights-based agenda for women? This skills-building session explores the use of international and comparative jurisprudence in advancing women's rights, focusing on the lessons learned from litigation in Spain, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, Australia and in particular the challenge to Colombia's restrictive abortion law. It also examines the importance of a coordinated media strategy around these issues. This practical information session will provide clear actions to further women's human rights through the judiciary.
Barbara Becker, Equalshot Communications, USA
Monica Roa, Women's Link Worldwide, Colombia
Viviana Waisman, Women's Link Worldwide, Spain

Thursday 14:00-16:30 350
Indigenous Women's Visions of an Inclusive Feminism
Room: Indonesia | Translation: SP
Indigenous women are articulating their multifaceted feminisms, formulating and sustaining their work for gender justice to galvanize, coordinate, and strengthen activism for indigenous women's rights in international arena. Working with non-indigenous sisters is essential; the integrity and political potential of the women's movements depends on them being relevant, open, and accountable to all women. In this interactive session, indigenous and feminist thinkers will address and articulate indigenous women's multiple understandings of feminism, the participation of indigenous women in the global women's movements, and how the movements can be more responsive to indigenous women's politics and perspectives.
Lucy Mulenkei, Indigenous Information Network (IIN), Kenya
Mirna Cunningham, Indigenous Initiative for Peace, Nicaragua
Monica Aleman, MADRE, USA
Tarcila Rivera, Centro de Culturas Indigenas de Peru (CHIRAPAQ), Peru
Victoria Tauli Corpuz, Tebtebba Foundation, Philippines

Thursday 14:00-16:30 905
Building Strong Organizations
Room: Malaysia
Last year, AWID called for essays and case studies on building feminist movements and organisations. The response to this call was overwhelming. The 150+ contributions from 55 countries we received addressed diverse issues and answered questions such as: 'What processes make a strong women's organisation?' and 'How can we move beyond our fragmented feminist and women's movements?' The authors and activists selected by AWID share their insights and experiences on building stronger organisations, and their lessons and successes in working in coalitions and campaigns.
Adriana Medina Espino, Independent Researcher, Mexico
Amanda Gigler, Semillas, Mexico/USA
Ann Crews, Presbyterian Church, USA
Elena Gvozdeva, Leadership Development Institute, Russia
Jinock Lee, University of Warwick, UK/Korea
Kelsey Rice, Presbyterian Church, USA
Leona M. English, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada
Marina Tyasto, Leadership Development Institute, Russia
Mary O. Tandon, Zimbabwe Women's Writers, Zimbabwe
Nancy Guberman, Relais-femmes, Canada
Nicholas Piálek, University of Oxford, UK
Pramada Menon, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), India
Raquel Aviles Caminero, Amnesty for Women, Germany/Spain
Salma Maoulidi, Sahiba Sisters Foundation, Tanzania
Shahnaz Iqbal, Shirkat Gah - Women's Resource Centre, Pakistan
Sol Viviana Rojas, Amnesty for Women, Germany/Colombia
Trees Zbidat-Kosterman, Al Zahraa Arab women's Organization, Israel

Thursday 14:00-16:30 612
Realization of Obligations Index: An Instrument for Defining, Monitoring and Supporting Social Change for Women's Rights
Room: Myanmar 1 | Translation: SP
The Realization of Obligations Index (ICC) is a technical-political instrument, a system of indicators of political will measuring to what degree the state has met its national and international obligations to advance gender equity. This skill-building workshop will explain ICC methodology and will be followed with a critical examination of the ICC's use as a citizen controlled instrument to define, monitor and support social change for women's rights based on the Latin American experience.
Ana María Muñoz, FLASCO-Chile, Chile
Carmen Julia Gomez Carrasco, Centro de Estudios Sociales y Demográficos (CESDEM), Colombia
Magaly Pineda, Centro de Investigación para la Acción Femenina, Dominican Republic

Thursday 14:00-16:30 923
Economic Change, Changing Economics: An Overview of economic justice, economic rights, development frameworks and what new lessons we can learn.
Room: Myanmar 2 | Translation: RU, TH
How can economic policies change so that they improve the rights of women? Can we change (or have we changed) the discipline of economics itself? What are the differences between economic rights, economic justice and the new development frameworks? Why haven't anti-poverty strategies delivered for most poor women? In this session, both academics and activists will tackle these tough questions of our day and in particular share their insights on what new solutions feminist economic theory and practice has to offer in order to make change happen.
Caren Grown, Levy Economics Institute, USA
Gita Sen, DAWN and Indian Institute of Management, India
Patricia Alexander, UNIFEM, Thailand
Ruth Pearson, University of Leeds, UK
Zo Randriamaro, African Economic Justice Researcher and Activist, Madagascar
Wendy Harcourt, Society for International Development, Italy

Thursday 14:00-16:30 329
That Is Not What We Meant At All!: Managing Divergent Discourse and the Consequences of Successful Change
Room: Myanmar 3
The recognition of 'honour' crimes, trafficking and female genital mutilation (FGM) as serious violations of women's rights has been one of the success stories of women's human rights movements globally in the last decade. However, the translation of action into policy and legislation at both the international and national levels has created a host of problems for feminists and human rights activists. The feminist and human rights movements need to engage seriously with how their demands may feed political actions of states that do not support their goals, fuel the war on terror and mirror rather than challenge fundamentalist discourses. When do statements of normative values in international documents promote or endanger human rights? This debate will look critically at the unintended consequences of successful change. Through two major discourses of feminism - anti-violence and sexual rights, participants will examine how these affect the naming of harm, the creation of victims and the claiming of rights.
Barbara Limanowska, SEE RIGHTS Project, Poland
Gita Sahgal, Amnesty International, UK
Sara Hossain, Lawyer, Bangladesh

Thursday 14:00-16:30 902
Revisiting Identity Politics: Achieving Social Change for and Amongst Multiple Identities
Room: Philippines | Translation: SP
Recent developments in identity politics, and the re-visiting of sex/gender frameworks, has changed the way we 'do' activism. The successes and challenges of identity politics have informed our new practices, as well as our ways of thinking as women's organisations. How did this change happen? In this interactive session, academics and activists from a range of sectors share their theoretical and political analysis of these new developments and how they are challenging previous frameworks and strategies. We map and analyse the implications of sex/gender identity developments and put forward new proposals to advance the human rights agenda. Moreover, this session invites us to consider how progressive movements take up the challenges posed by new ways of looking at different issues and what this means for building alliances, right-based claims, and identity politics.
Alejandra Sarda, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Argentina
Alice Miller, Columbia University, USA
Dorothy Akenova, INCRESE, Nigeria
Geetanjali Misra, CREA, India
Kartini Slamah, Sex Workers Program PT Foundation, Malaysia
Noelene Nabulivou, Women's Action for Change - Sexual Minorities Project, Fiji
Sonia Correa, DAWN, Brazil

Thursday 14:00-16:30 148
Strategic feminists or sell-outs? Debating the role of young women in different social movements
Room: Rattanakosin | Translation: SP, FR
Why do some young women join feminist movements, and others join mainstream social justice movements? What role should young feminists take on within international institutions? Is integrating feminist activism into broader social movements a better way for young women to challenge neo-liberal globalisation, fundamentalism and gender inequality? In this participatory conversational-style debate, presenters will provoke creative thinking and new insights on young women's involvement in feminist and other social justice movements. Come and explore new ways of connecting feminism with mainstream social justice advocacy as a means to ensure that women's rights are a core element of every social justice movement.
Anasuya Sengupta, UNICEF/Gender at Work, India
Dylis McDonald, Young Women's Forum, Trinidad and Tobago
Erin Leigh, Women's Budget Group, UK
Shamillah Wilson, AWID, South Africa
Sofia Avila, Independent, Colombia
Sylvie Niombo, AZUR Development, Republic of Congo

Thursday 14:00-16:30 410
Social Protection for Homeworkers in Southeast and South Asia: Insights and Lessons
Room: Singapore | Translation: TH
Homework continues to be a growing phenomenon in south east and south Asia. How do home-based workers handle risks such as sickness, disability, birth and old age, and similar often protected by social and labour security? How do home-based workers negotiate their social needs as women and economic needs as workers? In this interactive presentation, home-based workers from across the region evaluate existing models of social protection and draw lessons from national and regional practices to identify critical areas of success and ways to move forward.
Benja Jirapatpimol, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Donna L. Doane, Homenet, Philippines
Hesti Wijaya, Homenet, Indonesia
Ratna M. Sudarshan, Institute of Social Studies Trust, India
Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, Homenet Southeast Asia, Philippines

Thursday 14:00-16:30 406
Pacific Women on Peace and Security: Home, Community and Nation
Room: Sukhothai
In the late 90s there has been increasing civil strife and violence in the Pacific, despite widely-held perceptions of peace. Women and families constituted a disproportionate number of those adversely affected by the conflict. Now in this post-conflict period, Pacific women are more susceptible to poverty, malnutrition and violence. Despite the many efforts being made to gender-sensitise police forces, improve victim support services and draft sexual offence legislation, women continue to experience violence. In this interactive session, women from a range of disciplines and from across the Pacific will come together through poetry, academic discourse and experience to strategise for safety in the home nation and region.
Ema Tagicakibau, Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, Fiji
Ethel Sigimanu, Permanent Secretary National Reconciliation and Peace, Solomon Islands
Jenny Nand, Student, Fiji/ New Zealand
Lautoa Faletou, Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Secretariat/ Tongan Police, Tonga
Peggy Fairbairn Dunlop, UNESCO Pacific, Samoa
Shamima Ali, Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, Fiji

Thursday 14:00-16:30 912
Your Net, My Work: Pitfalls and lessons learned from coalitions, alliances and networks at regional, national and international levels
Room: Thonburi
Networks are a fact of life in women's rights advocacy. They offer vital linkages, alliances and communication -- without which we are unable to tap and wield the extraordinary power of our numbers to advance our agendas and voices. But, our differences -- as people, as leaders and as organizations -- can be as powerful as our common interests. How can we understand and negotiate differences to build and consolidate the coordination we need for clout, credibility and size? How can we negotiate and coordinate our key differences in terms of size, style, funding, and more to maximise our connections and minimise the tensions caused by difference? This workshop explores these challenges through the experiences of four women's rights advocates with many years experience in the joys and pains of networking.
Everjoice Win, ActionAid, Zimbabwe
Jan Reynders, Independent, Netherlands
Lisa VeneKlasen, Just Associates, USA
Lori Heise, Global Campaign for Microbicides, USA

Thursday 17:00-18:30 818
Do Lesbian/Transgender Rights have a Place in your Work?
Room: Ayuthaya 1
Many traditional women's organizations and networks are currently debating the relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation and their work, and in the process are encountering transphobia as well as homophobia within the women's movement. In this session we will begin to deconstruct transphobia through a brief overview of terminology and examples of the rights and privileges afforded to non-trans individuals. The bulk of the session will be spent investigating the challenges and barriers that prevent alliance building between traditional women’s movements and trans movements around the world through audience participation, testimonials and the presentation of research. These challenges will be discussed by participants from a variety of geographic contexts and scales. Through this discussion we hope to challenge our notions of gender-based discrimination, expand our comfort zones and strengthen the global women’s movement through collective struggle. Resources will be provided for you to take home and share with your colleagues.
Emily Utz, Independent, USA
Kirsten Westby, Independent, USA

Thursday 17:00-18:30 36
Moving Beyond the Rhetoric of Conflict Resolution: Tools and Practical Applications for Engendering Peace
Room: Ayuthaya 2
Bringing together theories from the fields of conflict analysis resolution and psychology, this session analyses the role of women as victims and offenders in conflict. It encourages us to think of how we can use conflict more constructively. Moving beyond the academic rhetoric of 'conflict resolution', we will use tools and practical applications of gender and conflict analysis to engage participants in a discussion that will creatively bridge theoretical ideas with practical strategies of conflict resolution and peace building for women.
Karenjot Bhangoo, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Canada
Simer Sanghe Kailay, Student of Psychology, Canada

Thursday 17:00-18:30 641
The New Circumstances, New/Old Subjects and New Paradigms of Global Feminisms
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, FR, RU
The new dynamics created by globalization has meant the end of an era, with the resulting obsolescence of old paradigms and uncertainty about how and with what to replace them. This session will be an interactive political debate to encourage dialogue on the forms/strategies with which feminisms are encouraging new emancipatory paradigms in dialogue with other movements. It will be useful to analyze new ways of existing, conditions and spaces for alliances between feminisms and other movements and the way they are shaping new practices in our agendas.
Guacira de Oliveira, Articulación Feminista Brasilera, Brasil
Jurema Werneck, Cotidiano Mujer-Uruguay, Uruguay
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM, Sri Lanka
Virginia Vargas, Centro Flora Tristan, Perú
Vivian Taylor, Red DAWN, South Africa

Thursday 17:00-18:30 929
Crossing Boundaries: the Politics of 'Femicides' in the Americas
Room: Ballroom 2 | Translation: SP, FR, RU
A particularly sinister and extreme form of violence against women has been crossing boundaries in the Americas. Women are being killed across North and Central America. The characteristics are similar from country to country - the violence is racialised, sexualised and discriminates on the bases of socio-economic status and age. It occurs in the context of rampant neo-liberal globalisation, state indifference and impunity, neo-colonisation, narco-trafficking, growing urbanisation, new technologies and organised crime. The mobilisation against widespread killing and disappearance of women started in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, about 12 years ago, and 14 years ago in Canada. It has surfaced more recently in other countries of the Americas, such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Argentina. This session will bring together leading women's rights activists from across the Americas to discuss, strategise and develop collaborative initiatives to end this horrific form of violence against women.
Alice Miller, Columbia University, USA
Audrey Huntley, Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty, Canada
Brigid Inder, Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, Netherlands
Elizabeth Plácido, CLADEM, Mexico
Giovana Lemus, National Network against Violence against Women, Guatemala
Julia Perez Cervera, Vereda Themis, Mexico/Spain
Lydia Alpizar, AWID, Mexico/Costa Rica
Purna Sen, Amnesty International Asia Program, UK
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM, Sri Lanka
Yadira Rodiriguez, Hondurean Team of Independent Monitoring, Honduras

Thursday 17:00-18:30 913
Leadership, Power and Visions: African Feminists Talk Show
Room: Ballroom 3 | Translation: FR
Within feminist movements, the rhetoric of how we make the personal political has been at the forefront of feminist struggles and organising. How have feminist movements managed to make the political personal in their organising, and in the engagement with power and diversity? How has this affected our visions for change? On the African continent in particular, feminist movements have been impacted by male institutional leadership structures and models, and they have to continuously organise around women's rights in the context of poverty, wars and HIV/AIDS. How have feminist movements in Africa managed to effect change in leadership, perceptions or notions of power, and alternative social visions?
Bene Madunagu, Girls Power Initiative/DAWN, Nigeria
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, African Women's Development Fund, Ghana
Everjoice Win, Action Aid, Zimbabwe
Muthoni Wanyeki, FEMNET, Kenya
Sarah Mukasa, Akina Mama wa Afrika, Uganda

Thursday 17:00-18:30 158
Power, Politics and Sexuality: Moving the Agenda Forward in Turkey, Poland and the UN
Room: Brunei | Translation: SP, RU
How do conservative political forces make active use of issues of sexuality and gender to seek to bolster their power? How do sexual rights and women's rights advocates struggle for progressive reform on sexuality in this context? Based on the recent reform of the Turkish Penal Code (2004), the struggle by women's groups in Poland to amend the restrictive abortion law adopted in 1993, and international negotiations to recognise sexual rights and name sexual orientation in UN documents, presenters will outline the key driving forces and obstacles to achieving success. Come and explore the strategies that have worked and examine the impact of competing interests and the lessons learned from ultra-conservative opposition strategies.
Sonia Correa, DAWN, Brazil
Francoise Girard, Eve and the Snake, Canada
Pinar Ilkkaracan, Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR) New Ways, Turkey
Wanda Nowicka, Astra Central & Eastern European Women's Network for Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights, Poland

Thursday 17:00-18:30 110
Cite, Site and Sight of the Women's Movement
Room: Chiangmai 1
This interactive presentation focuses on the assertions (CITE), locations (SITE) and images (SIGHT) that have informed and inspired the women's movement. Its main objective is to lay bare the inconsistencies and discrepancies between what the women's movements espouse and what is produced and achieved within its own ranks. Through a combination of visual and textual, as well as verbal inputs, the panel will, through historical analysis, find ways of bringing together the disparate paths of the women's movements.
Beng Hui Tan, IWRAW, Malaysia
Bernadette Muthien, Engender, South Africa
Lorna Quejong Israel, Women and Gender Institute, Philippines

Thursday 17:00-18:30 603
The New Information and Communication Technologies: Tools to Facilitate Change and Integrated Development in Indigenous and Rural Communities
Room: Chiangmai 2 | Translation: SP
Social inequalities and inequality of access to information, vis-à-vis new technologies, prevail between North and South in this era of globalisation. Asodigua, a group of indigenous women from Guatemala, have addressed this gap by creating 'Telecentros', centres that provide training on computers and women's rights. This session explores the ways the Telecentros have been used as a tool to facilitate development processes in indigenous and rural communities.
Julia Patricia Socperez, ASODIGUA, Guatemala
Vilma Leticia Tuy Jiatz, ASODIGUA, Guatemala

Thursday 17:00-18:30 932
Challenging Occupation in the Middle East and North Africa
Room: Indonesia | Translation: FR
In the Middle East and North Africa, women live under multiple forms of occupation - political, military, economic, and social/religious. Occupation creates an atmosphere of legitimised violence in which women are the direct and indirect targets. In a Gaza Strip survey in 2000, over 60% of the women interviewed reported having experienced some form of domestic violence. Since the US occupation and regime change in Iraq, incidents of rape and abduction by organized gangs have increased. But women are fighting back. Presenters from across the region discuss how they have challenged this through carving out public roles and public spaces for women to speak out and seek safety from honour killings and violence.
Afaf Jabiri, V-Day Karama Program, Jordan
Aida Touma-Sliman, International Commission for Peace in the Middle East, Palestinian citizen of Israel
Fahima Hashim, Sallmmah Women's Resource Centre, Sudan
Iman Bibars, Association of Development and Enhancement of Women, Egypt
Nibal Thawabteh, Jerusalem Centre for Women, Palestine
Yanar Mohammed, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, Iraq

Thursday 17:00-18:30 116
How Can We Make Gender - Equitable Change Happen in Trade Policy and Practice?
Room: Malaysia
It's not just the tenth anniversary of Beijing, but of the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Trade liberalisation and expansion have had negative as well as positive consequences for women both absolutely, and relative to men. But once the analysis is done, how can we make gender-equitable change happen in trade policy and practice? What would a gender-sensitive policy look like? This panel will debate these very questions.
Charlie Sever, BRIDGE, UK
Daonoi Srikajon, HomeNet, Thailand
Julie Delahanty, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Canada
Simel Esim, ILO, Turkey
Zo Randriamaro, Gender and Human Rights activist, Madagascar

Thursday 17:00-18:30 943
What do the future of technologies have to do with women’s rights and social justice?
Room: Myanmar 1
This session will bring together the voices of activists, researchers and funders to discuss issues and problems – as well as new opportunities – related to new technologies that most of us couldn’t even imagine. From the emerging communications, to surveillance technologies, from nanotechnologies to biotechnologies this session will explore the gloom and doom scenarios as well as the potential for social change we might uncover in advances in science. Be part of this interactive dialogue on our future and what we need to know about it.
Chat Garcia Ramilo, Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APCWNSP), Philippines
Jean Woo, International Development Research Centre, Canada
Niclas Hällström, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Sweden

Thursday 17:00-18:30 324
Implementation Stalled: How We Can Move Forward with the UN Agreements
Room: Myanmar 2 | Translation: SP
Women's advocacy efforts at the United Nations have resulted in numerous international agreements calling for gender equality and a human rights-based approach to development. Yet despite these gains, implementation has stalled, and many women are worse off today than they were over a decade ago when governments committed to the Beijing Platform for Action. In this interactive town hall-style session, participants and presenters explore why this is and what we can do about it. We will address the political state of the UN for women, the climate for advocacy at the national level, and how feminists can better work together towards implementation.
Alejandra Scampini, Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres (REPEM), Uruguay
Colleen Lowe Morna, Gender Links, South Africa
Doris Mpoumou, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), USA
Hadil El-Khouly, Centre for Egyptian women's Legal Assistance, Egypt
Zo Randriamaro, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) Board, Madagascar

Thursday 17:00-18:30 351
Women, Leadership Change: Using the Empowering Education Model for Transformation
Room: Myanmar 3 | Translation: RU
Building leadership through the use of the Empowering Education approach has proven useful in wide-ranging contexts. In this interactive session, participants who have experienced positive change through this process share the benefits of its use when working in conflict transformation, gender sensitivity training, leadership skills building and HIV/AIDS advocacy. After each activity there will be demonstrations of how each could influence social change.
Natalka Kurhanovska, Gender educator and psychologist, Uzbekistan
Olena Suslova, Women's Information Consultative Center, Ukraine
Olin Monteiro, Human Rights activist, Indonesia
Sakena Yacoobi, Afghan Institute of Learning, Afghanistan

Thursday 17:00-18:30 72
Beyond Gender Mainstreaming: promoting change in difficult circumstances
Room: Philippines | Translation: SP
While there is broad agreement on where gender equality is most urgently needed: increased economic opportunities, access to quality education, ending violence against women etc, there is little empirical evidence on how positive changes can be promoted in practice. The session will illustrate ways in which integrated, rights based interventions which also tackle men's resistance have been used to end Violence Against Women, and to bring about positive transformations in the aftermath of the tsunami.
Caroline Sweetman, Oxfam, UK
Ines Smyth, Oxfam, UK
Nidhi Labh, Oxfam, Sri Lanka
Shawna Wakefield, Oxfam East Asia, USA

Thursday 17:00-18:30 33
Women's Rights are Worker's Rights: Organizing Informal Women Workers
Room: Rattanakosin | Translation: SP, TH
Between 40%-60% of total urban employment in most developing countries today is based upon informal and non-standard work arrangements - and this number is growing, not shrinking. In this interactive panel, women's rights and workers' rights activists, cooperative organisers and trade union federations talk about innovative and successful models for organising in informal and non-standard work, based on their experiences of building broad-based support through trade unions, NGOs and governments. These new models for trade and women's organising can be vehicles for social, economic and political change in communities, countries and globally.
Chhaya Bhavsar, Self-employed Women's Association, India
Daonoi Srikajon, Homenet Thailand, Thailand
Inez McCormick, Irish Confederation of Trade Unions, Ireland
Jetunben Abdulrazak Shaikh, Self-employed Women's Association, India
Thandiwe Xulu, Street Net, South Africa
Wendy Pekeur, Women on Farms Project (WFP), South Africa

Thursday 17:00-18:30 17
Changing Public Opinions on HIV/AIDs: Learnings from India
Room: Singapore | Translation: TH
How do we mainstream women's human rights without compromising feminist principles? How do we create compelling public dialogue on sexuality and HIV/AIDS from a feminist perspective without alienating or boring people? Using examples from a multimedia campaign that challenges gender roles and stereotypes within heterosexual marriages, Breakthrough, an NGO that draws on multimedia for social transformation, presents successes, options and ideas on how to 'talk about' increasing infection rates to a much larger audience. In this interactive session you will also gain insight into some of the practical strategies and applications of both general and feminist campaign development.
Alika Khosla, BREAKTHROUGH, India
Sonali Khan, BREAKTHROUGH, India

Thursday 17:00-18:30 402
Targeting the Corporation: A Toolbox of Effective Skills and Techniques
Room: Sukhothai | Translation: SP
A new model is emerging in anti-sweatshop activism. With an increasing number of organisations seeking to engage corporations in behaviour-changing dialogue and collaboration, which place the groups directly at the table with the corporations, tangible results can be achieved. Scores of organisations want to try this approach, which can yield significant revenue and capacity building opportunities as well. This skills-building workshop will give participants a toolbox of skills and techniques. We will share what has worked and what hasn't worked from the experiences and perspectives of feminist leaders of local organisations that have directed human rights and gender-focused engagement projects in factories producing for global corporations.
Heather White, Verité, USA
Sayeeda Khan, SHEVA, Bangladesh

Thursday 17:00-18:30 161
Extraordinary Lives, Hard-Won Lessons: Survivors of Trafficking Speak Out
Room: Thonburi | Translation: TH
The workshop entitled "Extraordinary Lives, Hard-Won Lessons: Survivors of Trafficking Speak Out" held in cooperation with Action Aid Vietnam, Cambodia Women's Crisis Centre, Oxfam Nepal and Foundation for Women (FFW), will feature 4 presenters who have experienced the trauma of trafficking. Speaking (through translators) from their own experience the women will highlight how social and political exclusion continue to affect their lives even though the actual experience of trafficking happened a long time ago. They will also talk about the actions they have been able to take at a personal and social level to change this situation and reclaim their place in society.
Bandana Pattanaik, GAATW, Thailand
Ms. Phally, Cambodia
Ms. Ratree, Thailand
Ms. Tam, Vietnam
Natisara Rai, Nepal

Friday 11:00-12:30 168
How Do We Change Male Privilege?
Room: Ayuthaya 1
Perceptions of male superiority and female subordination give men the most important of all privileges: that of agenda setting. This gives them the power to define gender issues as non-issues. During this session presenters will demonstrate the global costs of maintaining male privilege, present alternatives to today's agenda in order to enhance human development and explore the crucial question of how to make this change happen. Come and brainstorm the dismantling of male privilege.
Gerd Johnsson-Latham, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Mahnaz Afkhami, Women's Learning Partnership, USA
Zenebewerke Tadesse, Ethiopia

Friday 11:00-12:30 303
Process is Change: Negotiating Power and Partnerships
Room: Ayuthaya 2
This interactive session, run by a team from Mongolia, will discuss issues of power, capacity and leadership faced by national activists when attempting to build international civil society partnerships and movements. Based on the presenters' experiences of negotiating power at multiple levels, we will examine how to incorporate an understanding of power inequalities into process; women's leadership within pro-democracy campaigns, and at how to make a movement effective at all levels: local, national, regional and international.
Jurmediin Zanaa, CEDAW Watch Center, Mongolia
Tumursukhiin Undarya, CEDAW Watch Center, Mongolia

Friday 11:00-12:30 214
Young Women Creating Alliances for Change!
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, RU
Today's young women leaders have various identities. We identify ourselves as women of different ethnicities, religions, ages, abilities and sexual orientation. How do we address women's rights within the context of diversity? What can we learn from each other? What can women of colour share with women with disabilities and vice versa? This interactive session features young women from the Second Mobility International USA Women's Institute on Leadership and Disability. They will present a disability perspective and share the experiences and challenges they have faced in their own attempts to bridge the fights for women's rights and disability rights.
Issavara Sirirungruang, Association of Blind Women in Thailand, Thailand
Jana Maiuri, Mobility International USA, USA
Lydia Shula, Mobility International USA, USA
Rosa Mercedes Valdiviezo Ruiz, Peru
Seinep Dyikanbaeva, Kyrgyzstan

Friday 11:00-12:30 408
Responding to Conflict - Strengthening Activism for Women's Rights
Room: Ballroom 2 | Translation: SP, FR, RU, TH
How can we strengthen activists' response to conflict? This 'news hour'-style panel will explore and expand women work in conflict areas, the obstacles to activists' work in this area and most importantly how these obstacles can be adequately addressed. International presenters will discuss improving funding mechanisms for their work and addressing safety and security concerns as some of the ways to achieve change.
Ariane Brunet, Rights and Democracy, Canada
Igballe Rogova, Motrat Qiriazi/Kosova Women's Network, Kosova
Jane Barry, Urgent Action Fund, USA
Julie Shaw, Urgent Action Fund, USA
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM, Sri Lanka
Vahida Nainar, Urgent Action Fund, India

Friday 11:00-12:30 358
The Final Frontier? Women and Culture as a Human Rights Issue
Room: Ballroom 3 | Translation: SP
One of the biggest obstacles faced by those implementing and enforcing women's rights is cultural relativism. For instance, the universal rights of women are said to clash with 'religious obligations'. Religious practices and culture become untouchable private spheres to protect, and culture becomes the closet where governments put the issues they 'don't want to discuss'. Feminists and human rights advocates however, have shied away from culture and cultural rights. Using the examples of property rights and the right to health, this interactive session debates and strategies on both future conceptual frameworks and practices to challenge culture as a barrier to women's human rights.
Lois A. Herman, Women's United Nations Report Program & Network (WUNRN), USA
Manisha Gupte, MASUM, India
Priti Darooka, Program on Women's Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, India
Susana Chiarotti, CLADEM, Argentina

Friday 11:00-12:30 123
Strategic Opportunity or Black Hole? Assessing Policy Spaces to Advance Women's Rights
Room: Brunei | Translation: TH
Sustained pressure from women's rights and other civil society groups has led to the opening up of innumerable opportunities for participation in official policy discussions with national governments, multilateral institutions, and other powerful players. However, the agendas in these spaces are often preset or circumscribed in ways that principally serve to legitimise the institution's prior goals, and rarely offer us any real opportunities to advance a women's rights agenda and analysis on key policy issues. Panellists will debate the pros and cons of engaging in some of the primary spaces that consume much of the time and energy of women's rights activists (eg MDGs, PRSPs, miscellaneous IFI consultations, Beijing +10, World Social Forum, and GCAP). After hearing their diverse and provocative views, participants will be invited to join the debate.
John Samuel, ActionAid, India
Lisa VeneKlasen, Just Associates, USA

Friday 11:00-12:30 125
Claiming Space for Women's Rights in Mixed Organizations and Movements
Room: Chiangmai 1
Can change happen while involving men? Can change happen within mixed-sex organisations? Join panellists as they share their stories and experiences of putting women's rights at the centre of movements and organisations for social justice. Based on the case studies and research for an ActionAid initiative, this interactive session reflects on contributors' key insights, challenges and the lessons learned in furthering women's rights in spaces not exclusively for this purpose. This session will be valuable to those working inside mixed organisations, or for those of us who are trying to influence them.
Everjoice Win, Action Aid, Zimbabwe
Nani Zulminarni, PEKKA, Indonesia
Nazish Brohi, ActionAid, Pakistan

Friday 11:00-12:30 206
Changes from inside: Rethinking contradictions in gender mainstreaming strategies
Room: Chiangmai 2 | Translation: RU
Gender mainstreaming strategies have become a buzz word in the development work in Asia in the last decade. Although recognizing the importance of gender mainstreaming, as was included in the Beijing Platform of Action, there are many debates and criticisms on gender mainstreaming strategies, and there is a doubt how much gender mainstreaming strategies - appointment of gender focal points, development of gender policies and strategies, gender training - will enable transformation of institutions or engender policies of the organization. This panel starts from revisiting these criticisms by critically assessing our own organizations/ projects. Such internal reflection is important to clarify the contradictions and dilemma that are faced in everyday work.
Chandni Joshi, UNIFEM, India
Govind Kelkar, IFAD-UNIFEM South Asia, India
Kyoko Kusakabe, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
Revathi Balakrishnan, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand
Tone Bleie, UNESCAP, Norway
Toshiko Hamano, Ministry of Women's Affairs and Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan

Friday 11:00-12:30 600
Latin America: An Ongoing Debate
Room: Indonesia | Translation: SP
This session will analyse the impact of macroeconomic decisions on Latin America from a feminist perspective, with the consideration that they affect the genders differently. To what extent and under what conditions can economic and financial liberalisation stimulate development? Up to what point does the flexibility of labour, which has developed in response to new paradigms, necessarily produce instability in employment? In what way do economics interrelate with social, political, institutional and cultural variables? These questions focusing on Latin America can enrich the debate on ways to address inequalities both in the region and globally.
Alejandra Scampini, Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres (REPEM)/DAWN, Uraguay
Alma Espino, Uruguay
Cecilia Lopez, REPEM, Colombia
Fanny Gomez, Colombia
Norma Sanchis, IGTN, Argentina
Rosalbao Todaro, Chile

Friday 11:00-12:30 914
Culture, Tradition, Religion and Creating New Identities in Africa
Room: Malaysia | Translation: FR
Within the African continent, one of the most valuable resources is the diversity of cultures, traditions, religions and their identities. In practice however, it is within this realm that the feminist movement on the continent has been most challenged. In an ever-changing context, where societies have had to respond to extreme poverty, have had to respond to threats on their identities, conflicts and wars; culture, tradition and religion have been used as a justification to violate the rights of women, and in some cases women have found themselves in situations where their mobility, their resources, their ability to protect themselves have been compromised.
Ayesha Imam, BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, Nigeria
Fatou Sow, DAWN, Senegal
Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, Women in Law and Development, Togo
Sylvia Tamale, University of Uganda, Uganda

Friday 11:00-12:30 715
Catalysts and tools: What Theories of change are the most useful for our work?
Room: Myanmar 1 | Translation: FR
What are the theories of change that are the most useful and practical? What place/role does feminism take in these theories? Can we promote a rights-based agenda while at one using a perspective based on equality between the sexes? This interactive presentation explores theories of change in the African context through the example of men and women working together in civil society and the African Union adoption of the "Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples Relatif aux Droits des Femmes, " where women laid out the tools to reinforce their efforts.
Codou Bop, Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal (GREFELS), Sénégal

Friday 11:00-12:30 921
The pitfalls of diversity or the right to be different? What do inclusivity, tolerance and diversity mean in a feminist framework
Room: Myanmar 2 | Translation: SP
How honestly have feminist movements challenged the andocentric and hierarchical nature of power? To what extent are we succeeding in challenging racism, ethnocentrism and hetero-normativity within expressions of feminism under the old and homogenising notion of a series of collective identities? In Latin America, race continues to be a barrier to full and equal rights. The same is true of racially marginalised groups across the globe. This interactive session will initiate a meaningful dialogue and debate amongst international presenters on 'inclusivity', 'tolerance' and 'diversity'.
Enisa Eminova, Roma Women's Initiatives, Macedonia
Nilza Iraci Geledes, Black Women's Network from Brazil, Brazil
Guacira de Oliveira, Articulación Feminista Brasilera, Brasil
Tarcila Rivera, Intercontinental Front of Indigenous Women, Ecuador

Friday 11:00-12:30 375
Changing the World one Community at a Time: Women in Local Government
Room: Myanmar 3 | Translation: RU
Change happens at different levels. The Millennium Development Goals include 30% representation of women in national parliaments as a key indicator for eradicating poverty. Supporting women's leadership at the local level is a vital strategy for transforming local governance and building capacity for national level leadership. Starting with a film series developed by Julia Barco that raises issues confronted by women mayors in Mexico, this interactive session will feature women mayors or municipal council members from Mexico, India and Thailand, who have instituted a local-level transformation - sometimes against all odds and expectations - to support stronger action on women's rights and more accountable governance.

Friday 11:00-12:30 178
Transforming Health Systems for Women: Building on the Recommendations from the UN Millennium Project Task Force
Room: Philippines | Translation: SP
Health systems can be conceptualised as core social institutions at the interface between individuals and the structures that shape their broader society. As such, the abuse, exclusion and inequality experienced through the health system become part of the experience of being female. This interactive session will explores the opportunity provided by the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals to review our understanding of health systems and their role in forging an equitable and democratic society. Presenters will draw upon the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Task Forces to examine mechanisms to decrease maternal deaths and improve maternal health, using a rights-based approach that strengthens and transforms the health system.
Caren Grown, Levy Economics Institute, USA
Helen de Pinho, UN Millennium Project, South Africa
Junice Melgar, Likhaan, Philippines
Lynn Freedman, Columbia University, USA

Friday 11:00-12:30 218
Patterns for Change: Labour Rights in the Garment Industry
Room: Rattanakosin | Translation: SP, TH
Labour rights in the garment industry, with 23 million workers, of whom 75% are women, are fundamentally a women's issue. The next two years are critical for garment workers as Northern-based retailers reorganise their global supply chains to adapt to and benefit from the new free trade agreements as quotas are phased out. In this session, experienced international leaders within the labour rights movement will debate the advances and setbacks of the last ten years, assess different strategies that have been pursued and examine how these strategies have complemented - or been at odds with - one another. Here we will map what has been achieved, where we have fallen short, as well as identifying key questions for leaders and activists in moving forward.
Junya (Lek) Yimprasert, Thai Labour Campaign, Thailand
Lynda Yanz, Maquila Solidarity Network, Canada
Magaly Pineda, Centro de Investigación para la Acción Feminina, Dominican Republic
May Wong, Asia Monitor Resource Center, Hong Kong

Friday 11:00-12:30 147
How to Say 'I Love Fundraising'- and Really Mean It
Room: Singapore | Translation: SP, FR
The right attitude towards money is the key to successful fundraising and an essential driver for positive change. Since so many of us dislike or even hate fundraising, a paradigm shift is needed. In this interactive presentation participants gain new insights into fundraising so that they are better equipped to do just that. After examining prevailing attitudes towards fundraising in women's movements, presenters share their own processes of making the shift from 'hating' to 'loving' fundraising.
Bisi Adeleye Fayemi, African Women's Development Fund, Ghana
Elizabeth Seja Min, Women's Funding Network, USA
Ellen Sprenger, Independent, Canada
Emilienne Leon, Semillas, Mexico

Friday 11:00-12:30 115
Me, Us and Them: Migrant Workers Organizing for Change
Room: Sukhothai
Migrant women in Italy are defining their own agendas, working to change their lives, and organising to change the nature of their work. In this session, the Filipina Women's Council of Italy and Babaylan share their lessons on organising for change in Italy. Through their community action research work which resulted in the book 'Me, Us and Them', these women not only gained deeper insight into the socio-cultural realities of domestic work, but also into how the process empowered participants, fostered new skills and provided the tools and impetus to address the challenges to their rights. In this session women will share their experiences and will engage with participants in a broader discussion on migrant workers needs and rights internationally.
Adora Fisher, Babaylan, Italy
Charito Basa, Filipino Women's Council, Italy
Rosalud Jing de la Rosa, Filipino Women's Council, Italy

Friday 11:00-12:30 925
How Can We Balance, Pleasure, Sexuality and Safety?
Room: Thonburi | Translation: SP
Sexual pleasure - though now more imaginable and available for women that at the end of the 19th century - is still complicated and frightening in many cultures that are deeply hostile to both women and sex (Carole Vance). This workshop will explore this complex relationship of balancing sexual pleasure and safety in women's lives. It will address how people's attitudes and perceptions towards sexual pleasure in women impact program interventions.
Dorothy Aken 'Ova, INCRESE, Nigeria
Marina G. Bernal, Artemisa, Mexico
Meena Seshu, SANGRAM, India
Radhika Chandiramani, TARSHI, India

Friday 14:00-16:30 935
Tools for Change? The Case for Integrating Gender into Biodiversity Conservation
Room: Ayuthaya 1
The purpose of this session is to look at gender integration into international organizations working on conservation issues and answer the question - Is there a conservation-based rationale for integrating gender issues with the environment? The session seeks to answer this question through: 1) presenting the rationale for integrating gender into conservation, 2) identifying the process for ensuring gender integration takes place in conservation organizations, some of the successes, and how is the momentum is sustained, and 3) scaling up of gender integration in conservation from local/national to a more regional level especially as conservation organizations focus on landscapes/regions.
Alice Macharia, The Jane Goodall Institute, USA
Cayetana Carrion, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), USA
Irene Dankelman, WEDO, Netherlands
Rebecca Pearl, WEDO, USA

Friday 14:00-16:30 131
Measuring Outcomes: Using Gender Evaluation Methodology to Assess Information and Communication Technology Interventions
Room: Ayuthaya 2
Can an evaluation tool provide the means for determining whether ICTs are really improving women's lives and gender relations as well as promoting empowering change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels? The Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for ICT initiatives is an innovative evaluation guide for ICT practitioners seeking appropriate gender framework and analysis tools for their information and communication technology (ICT) interventions. During this interactive session, the multicultural and multilingual panel shares their learning from the field and their findings from the GEM used to measure the impact of different ICT initiatives around the world.
Chat Garcia Ramilo, Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APCWNSP), Philippines
Cheekay Cinco, APCWNSP, Philippines
Dafne Plou Sabanes, APCWNSP, Argentina
Jennifer Radloff, APCWNSP, South Africa
Lenka Simerska, APCWNSP, Czech Republic

Friday 14:00-16:30 927
Strategies, Struggles, and Moving Forward: Perspectives on Working to End Violence Against Women
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, FR, RU, TH
The activism around violence against women has been both an area of struggle and one of success for the feminist movement. What frameworks and strategies, used by women to advance this struggle, have worked in the past, and what challenges are we confronting now and in the future? In this session, presenters will debate where we are at, what we have learned in our struggle against VAW, and where we should go from here.
Barbara Limanowska, SEE Rights, Poland
Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), USA
Everjoice Win, Action Aid, Zimbabwe
Farida Shaheed, WLUML, Pakistan
Hilary Fisher, Amnesty International, UK
Julia Perez Cervera, Vereda Themis, Mexico/Spain
Lydia Alpizar, AWID, Mexico
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM, Sri Lanka

Friday 14:00-16:30 113
Secularism as an Alternative to Fundamentalisms: Questions for Feminists
Room: Ballroom 2 | Translation: SP, FR, TH
For more than two decades, feminists have discussed the impact and mechanics of extreme right politico-religious forces and shared strategies of resistance against fundamentalisms. But we have yet to develop a coherent analysis of the concrete alternatives which would allow us to move beyond resistance and to be more proactive in our advocating for an alternative society. In the context of globally rising extreme right politics, justified with reference to religion, and neo-liberalism's deepening impact on democratic governance and social inclusion, it is time to discuss secularisms in depth. After an exploration of our multiple understandings and models of secularisms and the impacts these have on women, this interactive session will challenge us to create alternative models that ensure that secularisms protect and promote alternative visions of society to improve the lives of women.
Ayesha Imam, BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, Nigeria
Cassandra Balchin, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, UK
Nadje Al-Ali, Act Together, UK
Vivienne Wee, Southeast Asia Research Center, Hong Kong

Friday 14:00-16:30 631
Intersectionality of Agendas: A Step Forward. Where Are We Going?
Room: Ballroom 3 | Translation: SP
Recently, the concept of intersectionality has been debated within different social movements. The concept of intersectionality of identities is complementary with that of intersectionality of agendas. This session aims to advance the discussion of intersectionality of agendas and its differences and similarities to the idea of mainstreaming. A series of questions emerge from the debate, including: How to avoid parallel paths in the struggles based on gender, race and ethnicity? What do these perspectives have in common and where do they differ from the strategy of gender mainstreaming?
Alejandra Sarda, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Argentina
Alejandra Scampini, Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres (REPEM), Uruguay
Beatriz Simonetti, REPEM, Uruguay
Celita Echer, DAWN/International Council of Adult Education, Uruguay
Sofia Valdivielso Gomez, Universidad de las Palmas, Spain
Sueli Carneiro, Geledés Black Women's Institute, Brazil
Ximena Machicao, REPEM, Bolivia

Friday 14:00-16:30 27
Feminists talk Trade: How to get the Big Boys to Listen
Room: Brunei | Translation: SP
The world of power brokers and players and the fast pace of their trade negotiations desperately needs to be penetrated by feminists and our agendas. Changing trade policy to actually improve the lives of women around the globe demands more feminists focused on macro-economics and trade negotiations themselves. In this skills-building workshop, leaders from the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) will train participants on how best to speak out on substantive feminist issues in trade talks.
Alma Espino, LAGTN, Uruguay
Jean D'Cunha, UNIFEM, Thailand
Junya (Lek) Yimprasert, Thai Labour Campaign/International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN), Thailand
Kristin Sampson, International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN), USA
Norma Sanchos, International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN), Argentina

Friday 14:00-16:30 325
Smart Growth: Building Stronger Women's Organisations
Room: Chiangmai 1 | Translation: RU
SMART GROWTH is an organisational assessment tool developed for women's organisations. It is a developmental and discovery model based on six life stages of a women's organisation. The tool enables the organisation to benchmark both its overall life stage, and the life stage of 11 key organisational capacities over time. Further, it allows the users to make plans for building on strengths and overcoming weaknesses in order to move forward. This skills-building workshop will focus on: Planning, Programmes, Resource Development, Financial Management, Systems, Marketing and Strategic Communications, Staff, Board/Governance, Values, Community Role/Alliance Building and Impact/Measurement, and participants will leave the session equipped to use this tool with their own organisations.
Ellen Sprenger, Independent, Canada
Hope Chigudu, Independent, Zimbabwe
Natalia Karbowska, Ukrainian Women's Fund, Ukraine

Friday 14:00-16:30 617
Women with Disabilities in Developing Countries: Government Responsibility or Social Solidarity?
Room: Chiangmai 2 | Translation: SP
The situation of women with disabilities in developing countries is more severe due to extreme poverty and structural barriers. The objective of this session is to create an important debate on the need to search for collective ways to integrate these women into development processes. Is it the responsibility of our governments, of our poor countries that do not have the ability to respond? Or does the responsibility also belong to organisations and countries in the developed world? This collective debate seeks to generate favourable proposals, alternatives such as how to modify behaviours and to share ideas and action plans for women with disabilities in the poorest countries.
Arquitecta Clara Francisco, Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad (CIMDUS), Dominican Republic
Belkis Reynoso, CIMUDIS, Dominican Republic
Cristina Francisco, CIMUDIS, Dominican Republic

Friday 14:00-16:30 910
The Women's Movement in the North: Where Has It Gone?
Room: Indonesia
The women's movement has been called one of most successful and dynamic social movements of the last quarter century. Discrimination is prohibited by law. Women make careers and stand for political office. But a lot remains to be done. The results have not been the same for all women - black, migrant and refugee women, older women, and unemployed women, for example, still struggle for rights. And today, the movement is much less visible. In some countries there is stagnation, or backlash. Advocates from Canada, the US, the UK, Netherlands and Australia reflect on the past thirty years of the women's movement in the North: - achievements, strategies, lost opportunities and lessons learned - and strategise to reenergise and inspire women's activism in the North.
Charito Basa, Filipino Women's Council, Italy
Ireen Dubel, Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos), Netherlands
Jennifer Plyler, University of Toronto School of Social Work, Canada
Leontine Bijleveld, FNV Vrouwensecretariaat, Netherlands
Zonny Woods, International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), Canada

Friday 14:00-16:30 803
Whose Feminism Is It Anyways? Young Women Document, Define and Re-envision Feminism
Room: Malaysia | Translation: FR
This double header features four young women, two presentations of short videos, and a lot of inspiration. "Feminism: Speak up!" the first of this double feature, uses a documentary to provoke discussion on what people understand by "feminism". Should it change to appeal to a wider audience? Ultimately, how should the movement change - what do young women, non-feminists, activists of different movements think of how feminism could change to be more effective? The second feature, "Pass the mike: From Cape Town to New York to Montreal, girls speak out about their lives through collaborative video," is a series of short videos that document girls' exploration of ideas such as feminism, racism and the struggle for a better world. Presenters will then address the possibilities of multimedia changing women's rights, and young women's engagement with women's rights.
Angela Collet, ABIA, Brazil
Farah Malik, Breakthrough, USA
Shannon Walsh, Guava Collective, Canada
Valentina Homem, Universidade Internacional da Andalucia, Brazil

Friday 14:00-16:30 294
Pacific Women Speak Out! Visions for the Future of the feminist movement(s)
Room: Myanmar 1
After a brief factual overview of the South Pacific region - number of island countries, size and population, culture, economies, history, current politics and the continued existence of colonies (French), speakers will address a cross-section of critical issues facing women in the Pacific including what forces or structures negatively affect changing women's rights, how should they be responded to, what sort of leadership is needed and, if there is a Pacific feminist movement, where is it going/where will it be in the future.
Imrana Jalal, Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Fiji
Josepha Namsu Kanawi, Land Commission, Fiji
Teresa Teaiwa, Victoria University, Fiji
Vanessa Griffen, Asia and Pacific Development Centre, Fiji Islands
Vina Ram-Bidesi, Fiji

Friday 14:00-16:30 104
Dilemmas of Gender and Micro Credit - A Debate
Room: Myanmar 2 | Translation: TH
The phenomenon of microcredit is enormous - not only in terms of its scale but also in terms of its impact on development interventions and on the very nature of development discourse. Some feminists absolutely reject microcredit, seeing it as a tool of globalisation, while others see at as an opportunity for capacity building. This dialogue will provide a rare opportunity to share feminist perspectives on microcredit in an in-depth, open and non-judgemental space. The discussions will be preceded by presentations made by speakers representing different perspectives.
Archana Dwivedi, Nirantar, India
Gigi Francisco, Women and Gender Institute, Miriam College/DAWN, Philippines
Zo Randriamaro, African Economic Justice researcher and activist, Madagascar

Friday 14:00-16:30 906
Workshop on Working in Alliances or Coalitions
Room: Myanmar 3
Last year, AWID called for essays and case studies on building feminist movements and organisations. The response to this call was overwhelming. The 150+ contributions from 55 countries we received addressed diverse issues and answered questions such as: 'What processes make a strong women's organisation?' and 'How can we move beyond our fragmented feminist and women's movements?' The authors and activists selected by AWID share their insights and experiences on building stronger organisations, and their lessons and successes in working in coalitions and campaigns.
Alexandra Pittman, Boston College, USA
Andrea D'Atri, Bread and Roses, Argentina
Caroline Brac de la Perrière, Collectif 95 Maghreb Egalité, New Ways, France/Algeria
Dalia Sachs, Isha L'Isha - Haifa Feminist Center, Israel
Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, Abantu for Development, Ghana
Elizabeth C. Plácido Rios, Elige Red de Jóvenes por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos, Mexico
Hannah Safran, Isha L'Isha - Haifa Feminist Center, Israel
Liz Ercevik Amado, Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR) - New Ways, Turkey
Margalit Shilo, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Monika Swasti Winarnita Doxey, Australian National University and Catholic Women's League of Australia, Australia
Nalini Singh, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Thailand/India
Titilope Salaam, Women Advocates' Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Nigeria
Verónica Baracat, Gender and Commerce International Network - Latin American Chapter, Argentina
Yamini Mishra, Independent, India
Yusmidia Solano Suárez, Women for Peace Initiative - National University of Colombia in San Andrés, Colombia

Friday 14:00-16:30 187
Realising Rights! A Hands-on Workshop on the Rights-based Approach
Room: Philippines | Translation: RU
This is an interactive skills building activity that will create knowledge and expertise for participants to apply a rights-based approach in the work that they do. The session will provide opportunities to address and discuss issues around the rights framework in a pragmatic manner. At the same time it will allow for a discussion on the value of such an approach viz. the current political climate. The workshop will begin with a philosophical exchange on what rights are and why they are important. Participants will then be taken through a process that enables them to (1) assess their own work and see where this fits into the rights framework, and (2) identify elements that are needed for the application of such an approach in the work/programme. The workshop will also look at CEDAW and other UN human rights instruments and special procedures that provide standards which are necessary to inform any demand for rights.
Anuradha Rao, International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW), Malaysia
Manisha Gupte, International Women's Health Meeting, India
Maria Herminia Graterol, International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW), Malaysia
Tulika Srivastava, IWRAW, India

Friday 14:00-16:30 802
Generation Next: Young Women Raising Consciousness and Developing Leadership
Room: Rattanakosin | Translation: SP, RU
In this double header, young women from Mexico, Russia, Ukraine and the Caribbean talk about locally specific strategies to develop young women's leadership. First get the international "burning issues" and perspectives in young women's leadership development. Then participate in an interactive workshop used to raise consciousness and build movements. Participants get a range of theories, tools and practices to use to explore peer experiences and the possibilities for young feminist organising.
Elena Gvozdeva, Siberian Academy of Public Administration, Russia
Gabrielle Henderson, Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action, UK
Gabrielle Jamela Hosein, Centre for Gender and Development Studies, Trinidad and Tobago
Kateryna Shalayeva, UNDP, Ukraine
Masum Momaya, Harvard University, USA
Raquel Valencia Aguirre, Independent, Mexico

Friday 14:00-16:30 386
Leadership for change: How to communicate effectively, negotiate purposefully and build consensus
Room: Singapore | Translation: SP
How do we empower change-makers at the grassroots? Come and experience innovative and inclusive leadership learning strategies rooted in the cultural, religious, and socio-economic conditions of each community. These will enable participants to realise their agency and to mobilise their communities to bring about change. This workshop will use participatory and interactive facilitation to explore definitions of leadership and the characteristics of effective leadership based on the real life experiences of women. Participants will acquire the skills to communicate effectively, negotiate purposefully, understand power-sharing, accommodate diversity, build consensus, and cultivate advocacy skills that will enable them to mobilise for change in their communities.
Amina Lemrini, Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc, Morocco
Bunmi Dipo-Salami, BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, Nigeria
Malena de Montis, CENZONTLE, Nicaragua
Rakhee Goyal, Women's Learning Partnership, USA

Friday 14:00-16:30 800
Gender Budget Analysis - a tool of empowerment or a technocratic trap?
Room: Sukhothai | Translation: FR
Gender budget analysis is considered one of the key tools to advance gender equality and gender mainstreaming. On the surface, the budget appears to be a gender-neutral policy instrument. However, gender budget analysis (GBA) can be used to assess how resources hinder gender equality, but also can be used to ensure their allocation promotes gender equality. Participate in this workshop to learn more about the shape and scope of gender budgeting, and then engage in a debate on whether this is really a tool of empowerment, or a technocratic trap!
Amrita Patel, Utkar University of India, India
Erin Leigh, Women's Budget Group, UK
Marilyn Waring, Massey University, New Zealand

Friday 14:00-16:30 306
Crash Course in Media Training: How to Effectively Communicate through the Media
Room: Thonburi | Translation: SP
Women working in human rights and development are talented, active and vibrant members of their communities. Their specialist knowledge makes them a valuable resource to media. Additionally, the media is a valuable resource for women's rights and development work. Any campaign or advocacy effort requires information networks and raised awareness, for which media involvement is crucial. Yet, women rights activists face an uphill battle in competing for media coverage. News in women's rights and development isn't 'sexy' but it is important. So how can you get your message across to the media? This skills-building workshop will focus on several key elements in dealing with the media, and will provide participants with the basics to make them and/or their organisations better communicators.
Gabriela De Cicco, EnLACes/AWID, Argentina
Irene Ocampo, Red Informativa de Mujeres de Argentina, Argentina
Jane Connolly, AWID, Canada
Frances Kissling, Catholics for a Free Choice, USA

Friday 17:00-18:30 296
The Asian Women's Economic Agenda: Gearing up for the December 2005 Women's Strike
Room: Ayuthaya 1
In the Philippines, a network of more than forty women's groups and like-minded organisations led by the Freedom from Debt Coalition Women's Committee have combined their experiences, ideas and energies to launch a nationwide campaign on women's economic issues. This will culminate in a women's strike in December 2005. This roundtable discussion with women from Asia, Africa and Latin America will cull insights and learning from the experiences of each. Questions to be answered will include: What are the economic issues, agendas and policy alternatives pushed by women? How can women work together with other women to develop and put forward an East Asian Women's Economic Agenda? The ensuing interactive dialogue will aim at future common actions and mobilisations across countries and regions.
Lidy B. Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines
Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, University of the Philippines, Philippines
Viola Torres, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines

Friday 17:00-18:30 287
Not so Strange Bed-Fellows: Sexual Rights and International Development
Room: Ayuthaya 2
Sexuality has been sidelined by the international development industry. Yet, sexuality is a vital aspect of development. In this session the panel will develop a conceptual framework of sexual rights which allows for a more positive framing of sexuality and a discussion of sexual pleasure. The panel will also explore connections between sexuality and development, material impacts of sexuality and interactions between sexuality and poverty. We will draw together experiences of operationalising and mainstreaming sexual rights, and will draw energy, inspiration and learning for the rights-based approach to development from activism around sexual rights in developing countries.
Angela Kuga Thas, KRYSS, Malaysia
Susie Jolly, BRIDGE, UK
Veronica Magar, CARE, Thailand

Friday 17:00-18:30 354
From Stigma to Activism: Feminist and Women's Movements Addressing the Challenge of HIV and AIDS
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, FR, TH
Gender inequality is key to the rapid escalation of HIV and AIDS. However, this is a fairly recent realisation as up until the late 1990s there was a lack of understanding of it being a significant contributory factor. We are presently at a cusp, where women's activism, organising, empowerment and leadership is the only way that acknowledgement of this can be transformed into a force that governments, national and international NGOs can no longer ignore. In this interactive session presenters discuss the lessons learned to date and debate strategies for moving this agenda forward to determine the critical elements necessary for women's empowerment in relation to HIV/AIDS.
Kanjoo Mbaindjikua, World YWCA, Namibia
Mary Wandia, Action Aid, Kenya
Monique Tandoi Wanjala, WOFKA, Kenya
Natalie Fisher-Spalton, World YWCA, Switzerland
Shamillah Wilson, AWID, South Africa

Friday 17:00-18:30 98
Anti-trafficking on the Global Agenda: Be Careful What You Wish For
Room: Ballroom 2 | Translation: SP, FR, RU, TH
The global women's movement has succeeded in bringing anti-trafficking agendas to the fore of international human rights. We have drawn attention to the issues, and even changed policies. But this 'success' has a downside. We had not fully anticipated the discontents and dangers of the visibility and success of anti-trafficking advocacy. This interactive debate explores the forces, interests, structures and unintended consequences of anti-trafficking advocacy. Advocates working on the violence and exploitation of migrants, have an open, frank, careful, and self-reflective deliberation on the many issues that collide and collude in 'trafficking'.
Alice Miller, Columbia University, USA
Baerbel Heide Uhl, Dept. of Political Science, Institut fur Politikwissenschaft, Germany
Barbara Limanowska, SEE RIGHTS Project, Poland
Iana Matei, Reaching Out, Romania

Friday 17:00-18:30 934
Linking Poor Rural Women, Gender and Environment to the Global Women's Movement
Room: Ballroom 3 | Translation: FR
The specific concerns of rural and poor women are sometimes said to be overlooked by the larger women's movement(s). Poor rural women are rarely involved in decision-making process or policy development at national and regional levels, and, global women activists often lack the specific technical knowledge related to environmental issues, rural poverty and community development. This interactive session brings together activists working on land rights, desertification, agriculture and forestry to explore ways of bridging the gap between activists in the global women's movement and local activists working on sectoral issues.
Govind Kelkar, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), India
Jeannette Gurung, Women's Organizing for Change in Agriculture & NRM (WOCAN), Nepal
Jing de la Rosa, Filipino Women's Council, Italy
Kanchan Lama, Society for Partners in Development, Nepal
Irene Dankelman, Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), Netherlands
Rebecca Pearl, The World Conservation Union (IUCN), USA
Yianna Lambrou, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Italy

Friday 17:00-18:30 916
Realising Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Stories of and Strategies for Success
Room: Brunei | Translation: SP
The current context and future trends in macroeconomic policy, political priorities, and religious-political fundamentalist activities contour women's experiences of economic and social rights. And while these trends pose impediments to women's rights, movements in terms of drafting an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR, legalizing abortion and the provision of HIV/AIDS medications at affordable prices among many others suggest opportunities for advancement. What is required for the realization of women's economic and social rights given that realities have changed considerably since international conventions were written 30 years ago? What are the strategic opportunities in different international venues? Panelists share their success and learnings on how to use the committees, conventions and optional protocols, the policies and interventions that have been most effective and how meaningful links be made between local, national, regional and global strategies and mechanisms.
Juan Picolotti, CEDHA, Argentina
Robyn Hunt, Human Rights Commission of New Zealand, New Zealand
Sara Hossein, Lawyer, Bangladesh
Susana Bartolomé, Municipality of Rosario, Argentina

Friday 17:00-18:30 209
Using International Human Rights Instruments in Local Change: Possibilities and Limitations
Room: Chiangmai 1 | Translation: RU
Transnational US-based women of colour feminists will speak to the historical and emerging phenomena of using international human rights instruments to make change happen. The presenters will use specific examples of four local experiences involving implementation of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); addressing the economic rights violations of national right-wing anti-poor policies including welfare reform, and promoting the right to health while challenging the Bush administration's regressive policies on women's reproductive and sexual rights domestically and internationally. Based on these case studies, the conveners will pose a series of dialogue questions about the practical limitations and possibilities for using international human rights' frameworks for meaningful change in local contexts.
Anita Nayar, University of Sussex, USA
Leila Hessini, Ipas, USA
Radhika Balakrishnan, Marymount Manhattan College, USA
Ramona Ortega de Araujo, Human Rights Project (HRP), USA

Friday 17:00-18:30 368
Male Feminists: Allies not Adversaries for Social Change
Room: Chiangmai 2 | Translation: RU
Debates have been raging about involving men in achieving gender equality. Some say men's participation will ensure sustainability and increase the reach of current efforts for social change. Up until recently, efforts to involve men have centred on reproductive health and violence against women. However, in the last five years some men have initiated conversations and processes to talk about men's involvement in the quest for social change. This panel brings together men of different generations active in women's human rights. Hear and engage with their perspective on men's roles in efforts for social change and their ideas for the future of men in women's rights.
Dean Peacock, Engender Health & the Men as Partners Network, South Africa
Regis Mtuti Munyaradzi, PADARE Men's Forum on Gender, Zimbabwe
Shatish Kumar, Sayahog, India
Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS, South Africa

Friday 17:00-18:30 371
Do We Dream Differently? Feminists for a New Generation
Room: Indonesia | Translation: SP
The experiences, perspectives and visions of young women and girls are unique and extremely valuable in both understanding the current world order and looking to shaping a better future. Currently, there are many civil society movements (locally, regionally and globally) working for an alternative order. There are many feminists from different generations engaged, as advocates, organisers, spokespersons, protesters, researchers, and strategists. In this debate, contributors to the Anthology: Defending our Dreams: Feminists for a New Generation debate whether 'the younger generation' is dreaming differently, what are those dreams, and illustrate from their perspective what is different about their dreams. Each panelist speaks for or against this argument to liven up the discussion.
Anasuya Sengupta, UNICEF/Gender at Work, India
Indigo Ann Williams, Australia
Jennifer Plyler, University of Toronto School of Social Work, Canada
Alejandra Scampini, Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres (REPEM), Uruguay
Paromita Vohra, Independent, India
Salma Maoulidi, Sahiba Sisters Foundation, Tanzania

Friday 17:00-18:30 374
The Promise of Social Contracts to Human Rights: A Feminist Conversation
Room: Malaysia | Translation: FR
Reinventing social contracts as a tool to examine the past and present can illuminate how change happens in this troubled and confusing 21st century. The creation and re-creation of social contracts define the social values, norms, institutions, structures, behaviours and practices that impact women's human rights. In addition to human rights frameworks, the social contract can be used to reflect on the economic, the political (the state), freedom of belief (secularism and the separation of religion from the state), and personal freedom (sexuality and reproduction), On the occasion of DAWN's 20th anniversary, a conversation on this renewed conceptual frame was started. This interactive session is a continuation of this dialogue.
Bene Madunagu, Girls Power Initiative/DAWN, Nigeria
Celita Echer, DAWN/International Council of Adult Education, Uruguay
Gigi Francisco, Women and Gender Institute, Miriam College, Philippines
Sonia Correa, DAWN, Brazil
Vanita Mukherjee, DAWN, India
Yvonne Underhill Sem, DAWN, Cook Islands

Friday 17:00-18:30 820
A Battle on Two Fronts: Romany Women Challenging State Racism and Fighting Community Sexism
Room: Myanmar 1
In the late 90s, Romany women struggled for legitimacy as part of the overall Roma rights agenda, by locating gender specific concerns within the community's larger agenda of fighting poverty, health discrimination and educational segregation. The new generation of Roma women activists are combining a more explicitly anti-racist feminist perspective in tackling practices such as virginity testing, early and arranged marriages, coerced sterilisation and trafficking. In this interactive session, young Romany activists discuss the dynamics of challenging racism within larger society while working towards gender equality within their own communities.
Andrea Buckova, Roma Women's Initiative, Slovakia
Beata Olahova, League of Human Rights Advocates, Slovakia
Enisa Eminova, Roma Women's Initiative, Macedonia

Friday 17:00-18:30 247
My Movement, Your Movement, Our Movement: Defining a Healthy Women's Movement from Inside and Outside
Room: Myanmar 2 | Translation: SP
The aim of the session is to provide a space where participants can draw on their various identities - political, cultural, gendered - to define a healthy women's movement that builds on commonalities and diversities. What does it do? Where does it operate (levels, spaces?) Why is it necessary to have a movement? Who is in it? When does it respond? How does it organise? After a video that juxtaposes the voices of ordinary women in Kenya against those of their sisters working within the movement, workshop participants are invited to share their vision of a healthy movement.
Nyambura Ngugi, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Kenya
Wangari Kinoti, ECWD, Kenya

Friday 17:00-18:30 347
Gender and Natural Resources: Negotiating Independent Rights
Room: Myanmar 3
For poor rural households, natural resources are and will remain the single most important source of income and security against poverty. Ownership and access to productive resources not only allows for livelihood and food production, but it defines social status and political power in the community. While women contribute to the management of natural resources, they almost never legally own the resource, and most development initiatives still do not focus on increasing women's access, rights or entitlements to resources. In this session, presenters debate how the process of women exercising their independent rights to natural resources will be negotiated, and the consequences of advocating for gendered rights to natural resources.
Bina Agarwal, University of Delhi, India
Maliha Khan, School for International Training, USA
Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia, UK

Friday 17:00-18:30 320
Defying Borders: Balkan Women Revisit their 2002 Strategies for Peace and Share Lessons for Us All
Room: Philippines | Translation: RU
Between May 25 and June 2002, 47 women from the Former Yugoslavia and Albania journeyed together through the cities of their countries visiting places of destruction and the spaces where civic initiatives had prevented further bloodshed. They joined forces to cross the newly created borders (physical as well as psychological) that divided their communities, to meet other women activists from the region and to re-establish the women's network that existed for years prior to the war. In this interactive session, the participants and organisers discuss, analyse and revaluate this experience. We will look at questions of women's' mobility, crossing the borders within oneself and overcoming prejudices and pressures from their communities (especially in patriarchal societies and societies divided by conflicts). Ultimately this is a space for strategising and strengthening women's political engagement and visibility through action.
Ana Miljanic, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Serbia and Montenegro
Slavica Indzevska, Foundation Open Society Institute, Macedonia
Tamara Bushtreska, Women Activist Cross Border Action for Macedonia, Macedonia

Friday 17:00-18:30 240
All Fired Up! Young Women Advocate for Sexual Rights
Room: Rattanakosin | Translation: SP, TH
Global activism has seen the emergence of an articulation of sexual rights as an integral part of human rights. Discourses on sexual rights are fast gaining ground despite violent opposition from conservative quarters which work to undermine women's sexuality under the garb of religion, culture and tradition. In the midst of this environment, young women leaders are defining their ideologies, developing their politics, and engaging in activism by building awareness through public education, mobilising public opinion, and legal advocacy. This interactive presentation will highlight young women leaders in South and South East Asia who are passionate about and engage with young people's access to sexual rights. A student, a lecturer, and an intern - discuss how they make change happen as they push discourses around sexual rights, articulate young people's needs, and advocate for young people's sexual rights.
Kaushalya Perera, Women's Support Group (WSG), Sri Lanka
Neha Sood, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), India
Ponni Arasu, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Rodelyn Marte, Network of Asia Pacific Youth (NAPY), Philippines

Friday 17:00-18:30 411
Contributing to the UN Secretary General's Study on Violence against Women: An Opportunity for Intervention
Room: Singapore | Translation: SP
In 2006, the UN Secretary General will submit an in-depth study on violence against women to the General Assembly to highlight the unacceptability of the persistence of violence and to encourage international and state governments to eradicate violence against women. This brainstorming session will be an opportunity for participants to raise their key issues, regional or issue-based, and to discuss strategic recommendations for the study to accelerate momentum for action. Come and add your contributions to the study and explore ways of using this study to further monitoring and accountability at the national and regional level.
Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women's Global Leadership, USA
Christine Brautigam, United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, USA
Eva Foldvari, Open Society Institute, Hungary
Lisa Pusey, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Thailand
Susana Chiarotti, Latin America and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM), Argentina

Friday 17:00-18:30 126
Learning for a Change: Challenges of Measuring and Assessing Equality Gains (and Losses)
Room: Sukhothai | Translation: SP
After a three-year action research initiative to evaluate social change and advocacy efforts to transform power relations, activists, advisors and team members will reflect on how best to measure and assess change efforts. How do we measure change in an empowering way and how do we apply this learning to our actions? This panel will discuss the frameworks, approaches and questions from their work on power, change and strategy, and will ask participants to build knowledge that goes beyond the superficial listing of best practices to explore the dynamics of power, change and strategy.
Jenny Chapman, ActionAid, UK
Malena de Montis, CENZONTLE, Nicaragua
Sarah Otto Okwaare, ActionAid, Uganda
Valerie Miller, Just Associates, USA

Friday 17:00-18:30 336
The Practicality, Merits and Challenges of using Gender Indicators in the Field
Room: Thonburi
This session gives a space for the continuation of a dialogue held by the International Women's Development Agency between the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNIFEM and UNDP, at a side event in New York during the Beijing +10 session of CSW. This is an opportunity for new donors and project actors to come into the dialogue. Two multilateral funders and two project implementers from the Asian region will discuss the practicality, merits and challenges of using gender indicators in the field.
Dr. Angela Langenkamp, GTZ, Germany
Patricia McCullagh, CIDA, Canada
Patti O'Neill, Network on Gender Equality OECD, New Zealand
Rohini Weerasinghe, Kantha Shakti, Sri Lanka
Suzette Mitchell, International Women's Development Agency (IWDA), Australia

Saturday 11:00-12:30 328
Is There Any Movement? Social Change in the U.S.
Room: Ayuthaya 1
What is the role of formal NGOs in helping or hindering movement building and how can NGOs build their movement building capacity? This interactive session conceptualises the differences and intersections between building movements and building organisations, before focusing on how to build the capacity of organisations (formal and informal) using the Building Movement Project's Features of Movement Capacity Building. Participants discuss how a highly institutionalised NGO sector (such as that found in the US), a rapidly increasing professionalised NGO sector (such as that in South Korea), and those countries with little civil society infrastructure, all build their movement capacity. All discussions will consider the impact of generational change in movement building.
Frances Kunreuther, Building Movement Project, USA
Helen Sunhee Kim, Building Movement Project, USA

Saturday 11:00-12:30 119
The Power of Critical Citizenship as a Force for Change
Room: Ayuthaya 2 | Translation: RU
How many of our visions that others once considered 'too radical' have now been incorporated into international norms and practices? This session covers a range of women's activism for change linked through community and institutionalized education. We will be looking at how activism in Serbia over the last 15 years has generated rights and recognition for lesbians, at the development of Women's Studies as a discipline during and after the wars in Croatia, at how to bridge activism and academia for women's socio-political autonomy and at how young women can learn about their rights through the media in Afghanistan.
Chris Corrin, International Center for Gender and Women's Studies (ICGWS), Scotland
Jelisaveta Blagojevic, Belgrade Women's Studies Centre, Serbia
Rada Boric, Centre for Women's Studies, Croatia
Ruth Pearson, University of Leeds, UK
Yusra Moez, UNICEF, Afghanistan

Saturday 11:00-12:30 380
Gender, Sexuality and Law Reform in Muslim Societies: Successful Campaigns from the Middle East and Southeast Asia
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, FR, TH
Despite conservativisms and the rise of religious right ideologies, women succeeded in breaking new ground in law reform in the MENA and South/Southeast Asia. This change resulted from a growing, determined activism, which has further fuelled and affirmed the possibility and necessity for law reform in the domain of sexuality. In this interactive session, presenters form Turkey (where recent penal code reform included over thirty amendments to safeguard sexual and bodily rights), Morocco (recent family code reform) and Indonesia (new law on domestic violence) will offer an in depth look at these successful campaigns, analyses of gender, sexuality and law reform in Muslim societies and the challenges and opportunities of current advocacy efforts.
Dima Aweidah Nashashibi, Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), Palestine
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, MP, Indonesia
Pinar Ilkkaracan, Women for Women's Human Rights- New Ways, Turkey

Saturday 11:00-12:30 806
Women, Peace and Security: How Does UN Resolution 1325 Move Us Forward?
Room: Ballroom 2 | Translation: SP, FR, RU, TH
The implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 is necessary for the prevention of armed conflict and to facilitate inclusion of gender in the ongoing peace and security debate. In this skills-building workshop, presenters will give an overview of the SCR 1325 formulation by a coalition of women's peace and human rights organisations, how it was presented to the Security Council and accepted, and how it is now being implemented. Women from countries in conflict or coming out of war will tell the stories of how they used 1325 "on the ground".
Annelise Ebbe, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Denmark
Dalia Sachs, Women in Black, Israel
Hedva Eyal, Isha L'isha, Israel Sushma Pankule, WILPF, India

Saturday 11:00-12:30 260
Your Assumption, Whose Rights? Debating the Debate on Sex Work
Room: Ballroom 3 | Translation: SP, RU
Sex work is understood by the mainstream within an emotional - moral context and this tends to polarise opinions. Some argue that sex work is inherently demeaning. Others argue that social stigmatisation of sex work is the cause of abuse in sex worker's lives. There is no middle ground; if one is not against it, one is for it. This structured debate will facilitate discussion of issues around sex work, the use of a human rights approach to claim sex worker's rights, the limitations of its application, the assumptions that come into play when claims are made for an 'other' community, and the question of whose rights are protected or neglected in the process.
Alice Miller, Columbia University, USA
Meena Seshu, Sangram, India
Pramada Menon, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), India

Saturday 11:00-12:30 928
Mobilising Movements and Money: The GCAP Experience
Room: Brunei | Translation: SP
Early this year civil society organisations launched one of the largest global collective actions in history, known as the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). The GCAP has effectively leveraged people power to advocate for the G-8 and the UN to put resources towards an economic justice agenda. However, the coalition has also been fraught with criticism that it has been too Northern NGO-driven, too feminist (!), or ultimately lacking a clear strategy to challenge the root causes of poverty. In an open, informal discussion, NGO leaders will explore what GCAP can teach us about how change happens.
Joanna Kerr, AWID, Canada
Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS, South Africa
Rosa Lizarde, GCAP New York, USA
Sylvia Borren, NOVIB, Netherlands

Saturday 11:00-12:30 639
Young Women's Perspectives: Lessons Learned and Challenges in Constructing Strategies that Strengthen the Feminist Agenda and Movement
Room: Chiangmai 1 | Translation: SP
This interactive session will share the perspectives, positions and proposals of young feminist women from Latin America on strengthening the Latin American feminist movement. Members from two young feminist organizations will facilitate reflection with the use of audiovisual materials in order to identify common tools, strategies and methods to strengthen and advance the agenda of the feminist movement.
Ana Adave
Aura Ibett Gutieriez, Elige Red de Jóvenes por los Derechos, Mexico
Elizabeth C. Plácido Rios, Elige Red de Jóvenes por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos AC., Mexico
Fernanda Gigolin, Jovens Feministas de Sao Paulo, Brasil
Perla Vasquez, Elige Red de Jóvenes por los Derechos, Mexico

Saturday 11:00-12:30 401
The global impact of women's human rights activism and the future of leadership development
Room: Chiangmai 2
What impact have women's global and regional leadership institutes had on advancing women's rights? This interactive session brings organisers of leadership programmes together to discuss the initiatives that have lead to successful change in political, social and economic arenas, and to share how leadership building can respond to challenges with authentic voices. Panel participants focus on the impact of learning and information across cultures, geography, economic backgrounds, and ages at the institutes and the impact that leadership dialogue has made in their work.
Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women's Global Leadership, USA
Geetanjali Misra, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), India
Mahnaz Afkhami, Women's Learning Partnership, USA
Shamillah Wilson, AWID, South Africa
Zeedah Meierhofer-Mangeli, Akina Mama wa Afrika, Uganda

Saturday 11:00-12:30 918
Mapping HIV and AIDS Interventions for Women: What Are We Doing Wrong?
Room: Indonesia
Over the last decade there have been a range of interventions focusing on prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS. Yet, in all of these areas, the different interests have been weighed against the actual interventions. In this interactive session, panellists discuss and draw on actual case studies to reflect on the changes that have occurred in HIV interventions for women in the last few years. What have these changes meant? Why, despite intense public relations campaigns with a focus on young people and women, do HIV infection rates continue rising? What are we doing wrong?
Luisa Orza, International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS (ICW), UK
Sisonke Msimang, USISA, South Africa
Wanjiru Mukoma, Kenya/South Africa

Saturday 11:00-12:30 365
Rights and Religion: Women's Perspectives
Room: Malaysia | Translation: TH
The UNIFEM Workshop intends to bring to the fore debates on women's status in and positions on religion, provide a conceptual framework in understanding the intersecting stratification hierarchies that may produce oppression and/or opportunities for women and men depending on social location and historical context, and share rich and varied experiences and political strategies of women organizing to advance women's rights. "Rights and Religion: Women's Perspectives" will begin with the presentation of a framework paper that provides an analysis of the complexities surrounding contested issues of human rights and freedom of religious beliefs from a feminist perspective. This will be followed by presentations from panelists who will speak on their experiences of working with women and men within the framework of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. A discussant will share her reflections on the presentations of the three panelists and ways forward. And the interactive panel will conclude with open discussions from the floor.
Arche L. Ligo, Women's Studies St. Scholastica's College, Philippines
Jean D'Cunha, UNIFEM, India
Ouyporn Khuankaew, Gender trainer, Thailand
Salbiah Ahmad, Lawyer/Researcher, Malaysia
Siti Musdah Mulia, Religions Affairs Department, Indonesia
Zaitun (Toni) Mohamed Kasim, Trainer/Consultant, Malaysia

Saturday 11:00-12:30 808
The Gendered Impacts of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs)
Room: Myanmar 1 | Translation: RU
In this interactive presentation, presenters from across the globe discuss their visions of ending the harmful gendered impacts of International Financial Institution (IFI) policies and investments and, then strategise on how to get there. Looking at IFIs from the perspectives of macro-economics and human rights, together we will explore what short-term strategies have been successful and what long-term directions will get us further forward.
Dian Kartika Sari, INFID, Indonesia
Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana, Ghana
Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action, USA
Maggie Langins, INFID, Indonesia

Saturday 11:00-12:30 403
How does Culture Change?
Room: Myanmar 2 | Translation: SP
Many of the greatest challenges facing the global women's movement today are in the realm of culture; to meet them, we must improve our work in the cultural sphere and express our ideas to a much broader audience in a more vivid and memorable way. We need to develop feminist networks and institutions that can train our activists in expressive skills and nurture women's independent and political thought. Four panellists from India, Russia, Uganda and the United States provide examples of how to strengthen women's public voices and have a long-term impact on culture.
Goretti Kyomuhendo, FEMRITE, Uganda
Meredith Tax, Women's World, USA
Nadezdha Azhgikhina, Russian Union of Journalists, Russia
Ritu Menon, Women Unlimited, India

Saturday 11:00-12:30 904
Taxes are a Feminist Issue: Making Public Finance Work for Women's Rights and Poverty Alleviation
Room: Myanmar 3
This session will consider revenue collection and taxation as a strategy in work for women's rights and poverty alleviation. It will introduce participants to key concepts and actors involved in tax policy and review questions that are critical for fiscal policy reform. Examples from South Africa and other countries will be discussed.
Caren Grown, Bard College, USA
Imraan Valodia, University of KwaZulu, South Africa

Saturday 11:00-12:30 332
From Where We Sit: Defining Change from Our Perspective
Room: Philippines | Translation: SP
What exactly does change mean to a woman in the slums of Rio de Janeiro? Does a woman living with HIV & AIDS in Kenya see change the same way a donor in Brussels wants to measure it? After many years of community development programmes and projects, what kind of change have women experienced in their own lives, from their own perspectives? This stellar panel of experts share their experiences. This interactive session validates and celebrates community women leaders' knowledge and analysis. Women define change from their perspective -women who have tended to be the 'beneficiaries' of development, and whose analysis of the change they want and have experienced is never acknowledged.
Beatrice Lardi Billa, Action Aid International Ghana, Ghana
Chotip Chaichan, Action Aid, Thailand
Everjoice Win, Action Aid International, South Africa
Naima Achieng, Kenya
Nguyen Thi Hoai Duc, Thailand
Taziona Sitamulaho, Action Aid, South Africa

Saturday 11:00-12:30 405
Who will Protect the Protectors? Making Activism Safer for Women's Human Rights Defenders
Room: Rattanakosin | Translation: SP, FR
What are the fundamental risks faced by women activists and by others promoting women's human rights -- externally and internally within movements? What are the core strategies for the protection of women human rights defenders? This interactive session is a collective reflection across movements on the issues and insights raised during the international campaign on women human rights defenders. While the discussion focuses on distilling learning and strategies to improve the protection of women human rights defenders, the underlying theme is a discussion among activists from different movements on the gains and challenges in the promotion and realisation of women's human rights.
Mary Jane Real, Women's Human Rights Defenders Campaign, Philippines
Rauda Morcos, ASWAT Palestinian Gay Women, Palestine
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM, Sri Lanka
Susana Fried, USA

Saturday 11:00-12:30 389
The Politics of (un)wanted Pregnancy: Women Make Waves
Room: Singapore
Change is achieved by initiatives that test the boundaries of society and law, cross professional borders and reach out beyond one's own constituency. In this interactive session, we learn about the strategies, obstacles and successes of Women on Waves' first three campaigns in Ireland, Poland and Portugal. Women on Waves' mission is to prevent unsafe abortions and empower women to exercise their human right to physical and mental autonomy. This innovative program includes a mobile clinic on a ship that sails to countries where abortion is illegal, anchors in international waters and safely provides early medical abortions. Outside of territorial waters, this becomes legal... and possible.
Rebecca Gomperts, Women on Waves, Netherlands

Saturday 11:00-12:30 285
Sex Selection as a Transnational Issue - New Technologies, New Challenges
Room: Sukhothai
Pre-pregnancy sex selection, human cloning, inheritable genetic modification, stem cells and other new genetic and reproductive technologies have become staples of news headlines and policy debates. Both the technologies and the policy processes surrounding them pose challenging and urgent questions for women's health and rights, now and in the future. Most feminists and social justice/human rights advocates have not yet grappled with the profound political, ethical, and social implications at play. These new technologies will profoundly challenge the definition of reproductive 'choice', eugenics, gender equity, and health equity. How are these new reproductive technologies being commercialised, consumerised, and normalised? How will pressures to perfect and commodify our children affect women's health and choices? This interactive workshop debates the transnational dimensions of sex selection as well as reproductive and genetic technologies. It explores different political, cultural, and economic framing contexts in order to strengthen solidarity and build an international campaign against sex selection.
Marsha Darling, Adelphi University, USA
Shamita Das Dasgupta, Manavi, USA
Sujatha Jesudason, Center for Genetics and Society, USA

Saturday 11:00-12:30 814
Ending Sexual Violence in the Congo- Stories and Strategies form the Ground
Room: Thonburi | Translation: FR
Sexual violence has been inflicted upon thousands of young girls and women by the armed forces in the Province of Kivu on the Eastern side of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this session, presenters from communities in Congo will discuss their realities and challenges to women's rights- in particular economic exploitation of rural women and sexual violence. Presenters will then discuss the strategies to move government, the international community and local women's organisations to further work towards the attainment of women's rights.
Anicet Masumbuko Mutima, Centre Mater Misericordiae (CMM), Democratic Republic of Congo
Nzigire Julienne Ospy-Totoro, CEMADEV-Femme, Democratic Republic of Congo

Saturday 14:00-16:30 804
Gender and Justice in the Gene Age: What We All Need to Know
Room: Ayuthaya 1
Genetic technologies have potentially serious implications for women across the globe. This year, the landmark meeting, Gender and Justice in the Gene Age began charting a path that simultaneously protects women's rights, health equity, and access to abortion, while promoting responsible social governance of reproductive and genetic technologies. Unlike the many other meetings on genetics, participants were activists, civil society leaders, women of colour, and disability rights advocates. In this interactive session they will share their experiences, and in describing and evaluating the emerging efforts, will work to bring new feminist voices into the often skewed and incomplete framework that characterises the mainstream discussion of reproductive and emerging genetic technologies.
Judy Norsigian, Our Bodies Ourselves, USA
Marsha Darling, Adelphi University, USA

Saturday 14:00-16:30 393
No Policy is Neutral: Making the Links with Global Trade Policy and Violence in the Workplace
Room: Ayuthaya 2
Profit from current global trade policy rests on the labour of women workers worldwide; women are more than half the workforce in light manufacturing and agricultural industries. Yet they have low wages, long hours, unsafe conditions, harassment, and sexual abuse. Trade policy myths continue to suggest that these women are benefiting from liberalisation. This film screening and interactive presentation session will develop strategies to identify what is happening to women workers globally and to build the necessary collaboration to ensure that macroeconomic policy (specifically trade and investment) does not continue to compromise the lives of women. Trade can be a positive tool for development.
Junya Lek Yimprasert, IGTN- Asia, Thailand
Kristin Sampson, International Gender and Trade Network, USA
Natacha Thys, International Labour Rights Fund, USA

Saturday 14:00-16:30 924
New Revolutions, Old Sexisms: Change in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan: Who is in the Driver's Seat?
Room: Ballroom 1 | Translation: SP, FR, RU
In the past two years, extraordinary efforts by people of three countries of the former Soviet Union have brought change to their societies. These courageous masses stood up against corrupt leaders. Their revolutions are now associated with colourful symbols of peace: the Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003), the Orange Revolution of Ukraine (2004), and the Tulip Revolution of Kyrgyzstan (2005). These regime changes were mostly non-violent and peaceful and they gave hope to the rest of the region and to the world: Change is possible and real change has to come from within. Still, despite the fact that each of these revolutions also had very visible w