Events
In our campaigns for gender equality we organise speaker tours, conferences and seminars, to raise awarness on issues related to women’s rights in Central America.
We have invited two colleagues from the "Maria Elena Cuadra" Working and Unemployed Women's Movement (MEC) to London to share experiences with civil society in Europe, and to influence policy makers whose decisions impact on the lives of women in Nicaragua.
MEC speaker tour March 2008
CAWN invited two colleagues, Sandra Ramos and Gladys Urtecho, from the "Maria Elena Cuadra Working and Unemployed Women's Movement” (MEC) to London to share experiences with civil society in Europe, and to influence policy makers whose decisions impact on the lives of women in Nicaragua.
Sandra is a co-founder and Executive Director of MEC. Gladys coordinates its Economic Literacy Programme, supported by CAWN, which aims to empower women and encourage activism to influence economic policy at local, national and regional levels.
Sandra & Gladys had a very busy week in London, Ireland and Brussels – and a very useful one.
MEC took part in an economic literacy workshop run by Irish organization Banulacht for the County Wexford Community Women’s Collective. It was an inspiring exchange between women working on economic literacy at grass roots level in two different and distant countries. MEC were surprised at the similarities between the lack of women reproductive rights in Nicaragua and Ireland. For both parties the meeting was an enjoyable and useful opportunity to learn about each other’s concerns, ideas and approaches.
In Brussels and the UK MEC met with different civil society organisations and representatives from the European Commission in order to express their concerns about the possible impacts that the Association Agreement currently being negotiated between Central America and Europe on women in the region.
MEC and CAWN criticized the lack of a gender focus, and awareness of how the changes produced by the agreement will impact differently on different groups of women and men, which is not only absent within the agreements but also often insufficient within the voices of movements who are working to influence the negotiations and promote human rights and respect for the environment. The meetings were an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how the AA is developing and the lack of real space to influence the process.
At meetings with Charlotte Atkins and Jeremy Corbyn (Labour MPs working on Central and Latin America) and at a film event organised by Amnesty International’s Women’s Action Network, MEC called attention to the present attack on women’s sexual and reproductive rights in Nicaragua. Nine leaders of the women's movement were served with charges in September 2007 for their role in supporting nine year old Rosita’s right to abortion after she was raped. Therapeutic abortion – when the woman’s health is at risk if she carries the pregnancy to term – has since been made illegal in a move widely interpreted as a political deal to gain conservative Catholic support for president Ortega’s bid for power.