Women’s rights to be discussed at Istanbul forum

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The 12th International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development will take place from April 19 to 22 in Istanbul under the theme of “Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women’s Rights and Justice.”
The event is being organized by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), an international feminist organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women’s human rights.

The forum will gather more than 2,000 exceptional women’s rights leaders and activists from around the world.

The AWID Forum is both a conference and a call to action. The event will act as a platform by bringing women leaders and activist together to strategize, network, celebrate and learn in a highly charged atmosphere that fosters deep discussions and sustained personal and professional growth.

“The forum’s aim is to explore how economic power is impacting women and the planet and to facilitate connections among the very diverse groups working on these issues from both human rights and justice approaches so that together we contribute to stronger, more effective strategies to advance women’s rights and justice,” said Lydia Alpizar Duran, the executive director of AWID.

The four-day forum will include plenaries, interactive breakout sessions, workshops, debates and creative sessions geared to powerful thinking on how to advance gender equality and women’s human rights within the current world context of interlocked crisis. Delegates will participate in informal caucuses, artistic events, cultural activities and social and political spaces geared to global and regional networking and alliance building.

Expected attendees include Rebeca Grynspan, deputy coordinator of the United Nations Program (UNDP) and former vice president of Costa Rica; Marilyn Waring, a leading academic and the youngest parliamentary deputy elected in New Zealand’s history; Mirna Cunningham, the current chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples; Yakin Ertuk, former U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women; Esperanza Huanca, head of the Jordanian National Commission for Women; Eileen Fisher, a leading U.S. entrepreneur; Dina Dublon, a U.S. financial expert and former vice president of JP Morgan Chase Bank & Co.; Joanna Kerr, chief executive officer of Action Aid International; Irma van Duuren, head of the gender unit of the Dutch Foreign Ministry; Musimbi Kanyoro, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women; Kaythi Win, the founding member of the National Sex Workers Network, as well as Amina Mama, a widely published feminist intellectual and founding editor of Feminist Africa. For further information, please visit, www.forum.awid.org/forum12.