Survey

1 | Gender Mainstreaming

2 | Peace and Security

3 | Fundamentalisms and Women's Rights

4 | Bio-Politics

5 | Information Society

6 | Globalization, Migration and the Future of Work

7 | Living Globality

Focal Point 1 |  Gender Mainstreaming

Selected Papers on Gender Mainstreaming

Reflections on Gender Mainstreaming - Taking stock of a radical social-political concept ten years after the Beijing World Conference on Women by Barbara Unmüßig Download Paper >> See also Panel 1.1

Opening speech to the congress: "Femme Globale - Gender Perspectives in the 21st Century  by Barbara Unmüßig Download Paper >> See also Panel 1.1

Comments on the HBF’s paper on Reflections on Gender Mainstreaming by Gigi Francisco   Download Paper >> See also Panel 1.2

Why we CANNOT engender the WTO by  Gigi Francisco Download Powerpoint Presentation PPT See also Panel 1.2

Incorporating Gender Considerations for the Designation of Special Products in WTO Agriculture Negotiations by Maria Pia Hernandez Download Abstract >> See also Workshop W 1.1

For further reading please have a look at [Material]

In the aftermath of the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, women’s movements worldwide placed great hopes on gender mainstreaming as a tool for achieving gender equality. Gender mainstreaming was expected to go far beyond traditional affirmative action policies for women through its inclusion of men and its application in all areas and fields of policy-making. As strategy, method, and programmatic goal, gender mainstreaming made its way into ministries and public institutions – as well as their programs and projects – through international agreements such as the Amsterdam Treaty and national implementation strategies. Nothing was safe from gender mainstreaming, it was claimed, for gender neutral policies – from personnel decisions to budget-planning – no longer existed. On one hand, gender mainstreaming is associated with high expectations and various successes. On the other, the concept and what lies behind it remain complicated and accessible only to a small group of actors.

After euphoric beginnings and the arrival of gender mainstreaming in the real world of bureaucracies and cumbrous institutions charged with its implementation, many questions remain unanswered. Panel discussions and workshops shall contribute to a greater understanding of gender mainstreaming for a broader public by facilitating knowledge of the concept. At the same time, specific aspects of gender mainstreaming shall be elaborated on in the workshops. 

• What could and should gender mainstreaming achieve?
• What experiences have been made with gender mainstreaming around the world?
• What parallels but also differences are there in the North and South, at a local, national and international level?
• In which policy areas and institutions has gender mainstreaming proven to be worthwhile?
• How could and should gender mainstreaming include women and men as agents in making policies based on gender equality?
• Where can one find support for gender mainstreaming? Where can we identify resistance? Which areas propose the greatest challenges?
• What strategies allow for “best practices” to be used and resistance to be overcome?

> Presentations

> Material to Gender Mainstreaming (german only)

> Speakers to Gender Mainstreaming (german only)

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Focal Point 2 |  Peace and Security

Overcoming Resistance and Instrumentalization!
Women’s and Gender Perspectives in Peace Processes and Security Policy

Selected Papers on Peace and Security

Security for all. A Feminist Critique of the New Security Agenda Discussion Paper, Prepared by the Feminist Institute of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Based on the expert input of the Working Group “Gender in Security Policy and Civilian Conflict Prevention”, September 2005 Download Paper >> See also Workshop W 2.1

Comments on the Feminist Critique of the New Security Agenda by Josefa "Gigi" Francisco Download Paper >> See also Workshop W 2.1

For further reading please have a look at [Material]

Ten years after the Beijing Platform for Action and five years after UN Security Council Resolution 1325, women are still underrepresented at decision-making levels in conflict resolution and peace processes. In fact, (inter)national peace and security policies rarely acknowledge the significance of gender relations in the development and nature of (armed) conflicts. In addition, the threats and affects of violence that women and children face in their social environments fail to be recognized as a security problem.

Again and again, standards and strategies for conflict resolution developed by men are accepted as universally valid. It is civilians, however, especially women, who suffer most during times of war, military conflict (including over natural resources), and in post-conflict situations. Moreover, women make enormous contributions to the prevention and resolution of conflicts, as well as to post-war reconstruction efforts.

In light of the many current international conflicts and military interventions, and in the interest of exhausting all possibilities for – civilian – conflict management, the incorporation of a gender perspective, as well as the participation of women at all decision-making levels on issues of war and peace, remains a priority on the international agenda.

The aim of focusing on these issues is to raise awareness through an outline of the problem and an update of the current state of the debate in this area:

• What has been achieved since the Beijing Platform for Action? What limits have (inter)national actors encountered in the international system and/or on a national level? What strategies have been used to implement a gender perspective and increase women’s participation in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security? Where are there specific implementation challenges?
  
  
• Develop a perspective: Which implementation strategies seem to be most promising in light of current experiences? With which partners?
  Mobilize and raise awareness especially through further networking among actors

> Presentations to Peace and Security

> Material to Peace and Security (german only)

> Speakers to Peace and Security (german only)

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Focal Point 3 |  Fundamentalisms and Women's Rights

Selected Papers on Fundamentalisms and Women's Rights

Religiöser Fundamentalismus gegen Frauenrechte, auf internationaler, EU- und deutscher Ebene by Franziska Brantner Download Paper >> See also Workshop W 3.2

For further reading please have a look at [Material]

Fundamentalisms are understood as a political project pursued by certain groups in different countries. As these groups aspire to acquire or maintain political and economic power they develop a vision of community, or nation, respectively, which suggests only one social and societal model as reconcilable with their vision of community/nation. Behind these fundamentalist projects lie political forces that employ religion – Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other – to impose one particular “holy” conception of society as truthful. These groups discourage the right to choose from different social and societal models. Only their comprehension is seen as legitimate. They do not leave space for opposition, for alternative visions, or for individual rights. They attempt to silence opposition forces and put pressure on them as they strive to build a homogenous society.

The podium discussion and the workshops in this thematic area aim to uncover and analyze fundamentalisms, and to understand the underlying motives. It shall also be pointed out how those who label others as “fundamentalists” can quickly become such themselves. The purpose is to identify the consequences that fundamentalist currents and movements have on the lives of women and men. For such movements tend to become totalitarian systems, in which diversity and plurality of lifestyle choice, sexual preference, and political orientation is unwanted and strongly repressed.

On top of this, people who wish to get involved working for women’s rights and against fundamentalisms shall be shown what possibilities exist – be it through international campaigns using specific interpretations of international law, through national campaigns by women’s rights organizations, or individually in one’s private sphere or immediate social environment.

>> Presentations

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Focal Point 4 |  Bio-Politics

The new biotechnologies have opened up possibilities to intervene in human life in ways that previously have been beyond reach. Conventional notions of the body, of kinship, health and illness change along with social standards and technological development. This technical development is not easy to control by society, as the various discussions on technological impact assessment and innovation policy have shown. Control can more easily be exerted on the cultur specific desires and fantasies that help turning discoveries and inventions into applicable technologies. They are by all means open to discourse on social and ethical issues.