Transcript LEGISLATIVE AWARENESS & ADVOCACY 2008

LEGISLATIVE AWARENESS &
ADVOCACY 2008 - 2010
WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED
WHY OUR ADVOCACY IS VITAL
Presentation to
60th ZONTA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
San Antonio, June 2010
WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
A. Getting more members / clubs /
districts to focus on status of
women issues in advocacy and
linking advocacy to service
activities.
See advocacy stories on new
website:
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WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
Domestic minor sex trafficking –
Washington State – participation by Zonta
Club of Olympia in drafting legislation and
informing community of this problem.
LEGISLATIVE AWARENESS / ADVOCACY
Addresses legal status of women and
elimination of trafficking. (CEDAW
Articles 2b and 6)
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WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
Award for non-traditional area of policing –
two female motor cycle police officers.
By Zonta Club of South Puget Sound
ADVOCACY FOR CEDAW ARTICLES
1 – Eliminate discrimination in job
(economic endeavour) AND 5 – eliminate
sex role stereotyping / prejudice.
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WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
Emma-Conlon Service Award to
Golden Z Club – Colombo 1
IMPROVING WOMEN’S HEALTH AND
ECONOMIC STATUS THROUGH
SERVICE & ADVOCACY
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WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
 COMMEMORATION OF AMELIA EARHART
MONTH
By Zonta Club Santa Clarita Valley, through
a service and educational program on girl’s
robotics. Girls learn about educational and
professional opportunities in science and
engineering, still a non-traditional area for
women.
Advocacy for non-traditional careers for
girls via an award program.
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WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
B. Developed advocacy tools and
resources.
These are on the website. More
detail is in the LA&A Committee
Report in The Convention
Handbook.
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WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
C. Addressing ‘difficult’ issues
such as:
– Natural disasters
– Appointment of Iran to CSW
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WHAT WE HAVE NOT ACHIEVED
Getting all members to use and
understand how to apply the
‘scorecard’.
There are many activities being
undertaken which do not meet
Zonta’s objects.
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WHAT WE HAVE NOT ACHIEVED
Getting District LA&A Chairmen
to respond to requests for
reports. Response rate average
= 50% for 2008-2010.
There were 7 Districts from
which no reports were received.
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WHAT WE HAVE NOT ACHIEVED
At a global level, equality for many women
is still a long way off. In some places laws
have changed but outcomes for women
have not.
There are women in every Zonta District
who are needing our help to overcome
disadvantage and inequality – our
advocacy is vital to each ad every one of
them to improve their status.
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WHY IS ZONTA’s ADVOCACY
IMPORTANT?
1. Our international service programs
are making a difference to the
status of women but, because our
fundraising is always going to be
limited by our size, we need to use
advocacy to achieve more
advances for women.
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WHY IS ZONTA’s ADVOCACY
IMPORTANT?
We need to be strategic and stick
to our Objects and not become a
community service organisation
or a welfare agency (that is,
engage in non-core activities
which do not get a tick () on our
‘scorecard’).
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WHY IS ZONTA’s ADVOCACY
IMPORTANT?
We also need to make
decisions based on rational
assessment, not emotion.
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IN BEING ‘STRATEGIC’ WE
SHOULD:
 Use other people’s money.
 Advocate for change, we
don’t have to do it
ourselves.
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IN BEING ‘STRATEGIC’ WE
SHOULD:
 For example, advocate for funding /
increased funding by Governments
for women’s health services.
(It is not Zonta’s responsibility to
provide funding for government
services).
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IN BEING ‘STRATEGIC’ WE
SHOULD:
 Persuade governments to ‘measure’
equality in their reports to CEDAW.
 Read our country’s report to CEDAW
and any ‘shadow’ reports to look for
issues for our advocacy.
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WHY IS ZONTA’s ADVOCACY
IMPORTANT?
2. The concerns about preventing
violence against women and the girl
child are increasing, not reducing.
Two have made ‘headlines’ this
Biennium (and there are thousands
more).
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Both issues concern
violence against women
and the girl child.
We need to ‘step up’ our
commitment to the UNiTE –
VAW Campaign.
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At this year’s CSW meetings in
New York, Zonta International
was publicly recognised as a
leading advocate for women’s
rights and status, by our
significant contributions to 3
Projects - 1 each with UNICEF,
UNIFEM and UNFPA, totalling
US $1,650,000.
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As part of our ZISVAW
Program we committed
US $600,000 to 3 projects
addressing violence
against women in
Cambodia, Egypt and
Syria.
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Zonta International is now
the ONLY International
Women’s N.G.O. which
focuses solely on status of
women issues under
CEDAW Articles 1-16.
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We should, therefore, be the
organisation of choice for those
who want to make a difference to
the status of women world-wide.
We need to publicise our
achievements resulting from our
advocacy to our local communities
and invite like-minded women to
join us.
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Our goals for 2010-2012 are set
out in The Convention
Handbook. Our major aim for
this coming Biennium is to
ELIMINATE ALL advocacy (and
service) which is not related to
improving the status of women.
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The LA&A Committee will
work closely with the UN
and Service Committees to
achieve all goals.
We are asking for YOUR
SUPPORT to do this.
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