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Nordic Forum on Gender Equality

Around 12 000 visitors gathered in Malmö Sweden last weekend from the 12th – 15th of June for the Nordic Forum to discuss Gender Equality and Women’s rights. Among the speakers were Ministers from the Nordic countries, politicians, MEPs, women’s rights associations, activists, officers working at local and regional level, writers and journalists.

The Forum consisted both of seminars with discussions with the public and an exhibition hall were institutions, political parties, women’s rights associations, NGO’s, municipalities and other stakeholders working with equality related issues presented their work.

Among the topics that were discussed was the parental leave, the role of women on the employment market, the gender pay gap, the role of women in decision-making position, the right and conditions for women migrants, gender-based violence etc.

Executive Director of UN Women Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka participated in the Forum and held a speech were she highlighted the need for further instruments to monitor the implementation of gender equality policies, the necessity of indicators and called for further access to gender disaggregated data.  She also pointed out that the MDG:s must be analyzed to see how they affect women.

The Forum ended on Sunday the 15^th with an impressive closing ceremony accompanied music composed only by women artists. Four of the Nordic Ministers of Gender Equality (Sweden, Iceland, Greenland and Norway) were present and were given the final document of the conference.  In the outcomes, the Nordic Forum calls for:

1. That gender budgeting should be integrated in national as well as municipal and regional budgets in the Nordic countries
2. That the Nordic governments should provide funding to women’s movements organizations
3. That women should be granted with their own residence permit not linked to their husbands, that deportation of women victims of violence should be stopped and that women victims of trafficking should be given protection and support
4. That Nordic governments, employers – and trade-organizations should promote women’s employment, support equal pay for work of equal value, support decent working conditions, promote activities improving the work-life balance, work for a more equal distribution of parental leave among women and men etc.
5. That Nordic authorities should support women in their roles as stakeholder, innovators, scientists , teachers etc for sustainable development and that climate and environmental directed aid always and where relevant should include a gender perspective

For further information about the Forum please click on the following link.

Several signatories of the European Charter for Equality organized seminars to present how they are working with gender equality within their municipalities. Among these Norrbotten county council presented an interesting collaboration they have initiated with several stakeholders of civil society in the municipalities within the region, among these the Hockey club of Luleå, called “Break the silence” (Swedish: “Bryt tystnaden” linked to the website www.våldmotnära.se aiming to prevent and raise awareness on violence against women.

The municipality of Lindköping presented the activities on gender education in kinder gardens. To raise further awareness, the municipality has hired a specialized “gender-educator” that is visiting different kinder gardens to analyze the situation and come with recommendations and suggestions on how they can improve their work and be aware of the consisting norms influencing treatment of boys and girls even at early ages.

The City of Umeå proudly presented that they are the first city in Europe opening up Women’s History Museum (Swedish: “Kvinnohistoriskt museum”). The museum is officially opening in November 2014, for more information please visit link.