Caucasus 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence 2001 : Georgian Coordination Committee Update Meeting

As you know, last year WomenAid International introduced the 16 Days of Activism and the White Ribbon Campaign to the Caucasus and established the first national coordination for '16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence' – in Georgia. With your enthusiastic participation a broad range of activities and events were promoted and organized between the 25th November and the 10th December 2000.

The outstanding success of the first National 16 Days coordinated campaign in the Caucasus was the Joint Declaration Against Gender Violence. This was drafted and signed by over 70 representatives drawn from the Georgian government, international and local non-governmental organisations. GOOD NEWS! You will be very pleased to hear that after a long wait the UN legal department in New York granted approval of the Declaration, paving the way for the UN agencies to finally sign the document.

MORE GOOD NEWS! To support the ‘broadening and deepening’ of regional civil society activities WomenAid International-Caucasus connected with non-governmental organisations in Azerbaijan and Armenia with the aim of creating a Caucasus wide campaign. By sharing resources and the experiences gained through the pilot programme in Georgia, WomenAid has now initiated the creation of 16 Days Co-ordination Committees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Over 150 NGOs from the Caucasus are currently participating in Caucasus 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence 2001. It is anticipated that the final number of Caucasus 16 Days partners will be over 300 NGOs, INGOs, and UN agencies. It is an exciting fact to realise that Caucasus 16 Days is the first such regional coordination in the world!

AND EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS!! You will remember our joint effort earlier this year to present a proposal for support of the Georgian 16 Days 2001 campaign to the Open Society Institute Network Women's Program and Network Media Program. This was successful - and with additional funding from WomenAid International, Georgia will once again participate in global efforts to eliminate violence against women. HOWEVER THE GOOD NEWS CONTINUES…. WAI-C also developed a proposal for submission by its Azerbaijani partners to OSI. This was also successful! The Caucasus 16 Days 2001 activities in Armenia will be supported by WomenAid ….although we are hoping to announce more good news of support from other donors.

WomenAid staff have been hard at work progressing plans for Caucasus 16 Days 2001 and already more than 90 organisations are participating in Georgia. We also welcome many NGOs from regions of Georgia and thank those NGOs offering to be a Caucasus 16 Days 2001 Local Coordination Partner.

Pida Ripley, the Founder of WomenAid International, is currently visiting Georgia and hopes the founding members of the Georgian 16 Days 2000 will be able to attend an UpDate meeting to discuss outcomes of last years campaign and planning for Caucasus 16 Days 2001. The meeting will be held at 14:00 hr, Friday 19^th OCTOBER at the WomenAid International-Caucasus Office, Khvichia St., Tbilisi.

Please reply to: WomenAid International-Caucasus

Focal Point: Caucasus 16 Days Activism Against Gender Violence

17 Khvichia St. Tbilisi 380060 Georgia Tel/Fax: (995 32) 37 92 70

Email#1: waigeo@access.sanet.ge

Email#2: caucasus16days@womenaid.org

Caucasus 16 Days 2001 website can be visited at www.womenaid.org/16days