KWN Condemns Woman Deputy’s Condoning of Gender Discriminatory Speech in Parliament

31.10.2015

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KWN participates in Gender in Value Chain Development Course

30.10.2015

From Oct. 5-9, thePromoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE) project in Kosovo held a Gender in Value Chain Development Course, where approximately 20 representatives participated. Among them, were representatives from the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN), the public sector and other project implementing agencies, Joel Alcocer and Grania Mackie, experts of International Training Center (ITC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO), were in charge of facilitating the training. Tailored to participants with experience in value chain development, the training provided tools for the inclusion of gender aspects in the analysis of value chains and sought to devise gender strategies that enhance empowerment and incomes for all stakeholder groups. 
    A value chain is the full set of different activities that a business goes through in order to bring a product or service to their customer. A value chain also refers to the model of how a business receives the raw material as an input, it adds value to the raw material by going through different processes, and then sells the finished product to its customers. 
     “KWN participated in this training not only because gender as an issue is tackled, but also because women’s economic empowerment is one of the five programmatic areas included in KWN’s Strategy 2015-2018.  The long-term goal of this program is: Women and men have equal economic opportunities at home and in the public sphere,” said KWN’s representative at the opening session of the training.

 By offering different materials and a lot of group work for participants, the training aimed to:
  • Clarify gender goals and objectives for value chain development, distinguishing between “do no harm”, gender inclusion, women’s empowerment and gender transformation.
  • Equip participants with tools and knowledge to develop sustainable gender strategies comprised of  gender change solutions capable of market uptake and time bound gender interventions which can catalyze these solutions.
  • Increase understanding of the business arguments and culturally relevant strategies for gender transformation which will improve quality of outcomes for women and men at different levels of the value chain.
  • Equip participants with tools and knowledge to develop convincing and sustainable business models for gender solutions to both improve chain efficiency and promote women’s empowerment and gender transformation.
  • Develop participatory skills to use effective participatory tools which can be transferred for gender and value chain work in different contexts and organizational settings.
  • Develop personal action plans to implement and communicate what participants have learned enabling them to make a difference in their work and bring others on board, mobilize resources and other leaders.
    The training also emphasized the rationale for promoting gender equality, including information on how equality of opportunity and women’s empowerment are essential for economic growth, enterprise efficiency, poverty reduction strategies, as well as a key goal of national and international commitments to women’s human rights and gender justice.
      The Promoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE)project in Kosovo, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Kosovo (SDC) and implemented by Swiss contact (lead partner), Riinvest Institute and PEM Consult, is a project working with the private sector and aims to enhance its competency in  supporting women’s economic empowerment. 

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Citizens Called to Contribute to Ground Breaking Research to Inform New Labour Law

28.10.2015

True or false: the maternity leave provisions in Kosovo are contributing to unemployment among women, due to discrimination in hiring? How much are businesses suffering financially from maternity leave provisions? Are men discriminated against considering the short time allotted for paternity leave? KWN believes that these and other questions pertaining to the Labour Law have not been sufficiently answered by existing research. 

 Therefore, KWN is currently conducting research with the aim of informing the new Labour Law with research based findings on topics such as maternity leave and paternity leave. Driven by an official request from the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Mr Arban Abrashi, to come up with recommendations and our believe that an important law like this one should be drafted based on citizens’ input, KWN is working on this influential policy changing research. As no public consultations concerning this law have taken place yet, this is a good and important opportunity for Kosovo citizens to express their ideas and concerns related to this law and the policies stemming from it which directly affect their daily lives. KWN has not received any funding or donation for this initiative and depends on citizens’ contributions and voluntarism to realize this important research. 
 
Citizens can contribute their important experiences and opinions to this research by taking these online surveys, which will close this Friday, Oct. 30:
 
Its also available in Serbian:
 
 
KWN welcomes citizens’ input to inform this new law!
 

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KWN Condemns Woman Deputy’s Condoning of Gender Discriminatory Speech in Parliament

27.10.2015

  Last night on the television program InfoMagazine on KLAN Kosova, LDK Assembly Member Besa Gaxherri said that the offensive words used by President of the Parliament Kadri Veseli during last Friday’s parliamentary session can be forgiven because “he is a man.” 

As a woman deputy, Ms. Gaxherri should be embarrassed for condoning rather than condemning discriminatory speech used against women in the parliament. 

   First, Mr. Veseli violated aspects of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovothat he has the responsibility to implement in accordance with Article 41. Rather than ensuring order, he engaged in “discourteous and inappropriate conduct”, used “unparliamentary language” and, more specifically, used “offensive, defamatory, [and] offending language” against women. Further, he arguably violated the Law on Protection from Discrimination (2015) and more specifically the Law on Gender Equality (2015) by engaging in gender “discrimination”: “when an individual is treated less favourably on grounds of gender.” 

    By excusing his acts “because he is a man”, Ms. Gaxherri accepted Mr. Veseli’s engagement in direct gender discrimination, violating Kosovo law and the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly. 

Second, the condoning of men’s discriminatory behaviour only allows such behaviour to continue by considering it socially acceptable.  As a woman deputy, Ms. Gaxherri has an even greater responsibility to condemn gender discrimination when it occurs. In condoning his statement, she is undermining her own as well as other women’s ability to lead, by creating an enabling environment for the spread of gender discrimination that ultimately undermines women’s position as political leaders. 

We call upon all deputies to follow the Rules of Procedure and implement the laws of Kosovo by not engaging in discriminatory speech or supporting persons who do. 

   Further, we strongly encourage the Group of Women Deputies to come forward with a public reaction against gender discrimination and any justification of such gender discrimination as violations of Kosovo law. If the Group of Women Deputies does not react they are, in their inaction, allowing for continued gender discrimination to occur, which undermines their positions as women leaders as well as the opportunities for women to lead in the future.  

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AGE launches First Monitoring Report on the Progress of Implementation of the Action Plan to implement Resoultion 1325

08.10.2015

 On 8 October, the Agency for Gender Equality (AGE) launched the first monitoring report on the progress of implementation of the Action Plan to implement Resolution 1325. Participants in this event included representatives of various institutions of Kosovo, most of whom have also been part of the technical group for the drafting of the Action plan itself. This report was drafted by Linda Eriksson in close cooperation with AGE. 
   The launch included presentations of the main findings of this report, the methodology of data collection, as well as the research limitations. It should be kept in mind that the reporting period includes only the year 2014, results achieved in 2015 will be reflected in the second monitoring report, to be launched in 2016. 
The Action Plan foresees three main pillars according to which the objectives were drafted

  •        Increased participation of women in decisio nmaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping processes
  •        Integrated gender perspective in security affairs and increased women’s participation in the security forces
  •        Survivors of sexual violence, torture and other forms of violence associated with conflict have improved access to protection, access to justice, rehabilitation and re-integration.  
The main findings of the report, include figures showing that during the reporting period (2014), 33.3% of all indicators have been achieved, 39,4% of the planned activities have began; while 21.2% of activities have not began at all. On the other hand, for 6.1% of activities, no data was abailable.
The publication of this report was supported by UN Women.
 

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The 11th Handicraft Fair has Started

07.10.2015

Women’s Center “Open Door” organized the 11th edition of the Handicraft Fair. The fair is taking place at Square “Skenderbeu” in Prishtina from 6 until 8 October. Its aim is to promote culturalheritage and also to empower women.
“There are 120 participants in this fair and most of them are women.” Said Belgjyzare Muharremi, the organizer. “This fair is a great opportunity for women that are participating, because this way they can economically empower themselves and promote their work.” 
   For three days, the fair brings for visitors, applied art works, unique craft work in different materials, in textile, stone metal, folk, costumes, works in different styles and also traditional food that are part of the traditional culture in heritage of Kosovo and region.
 

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American students from Danish Institut visit KWN

05.10.2015

Last week KWN welcomed five students from the Danish Institute for Study Abroad’s Justice and Human Rights program. Mimoza Pachuku, the Manager of Kosova Women’s Fund at Kosova Women’s Network (KWN), explained the roots of KWN, its history and activism throughout the years. 

Since the student’s field of study is Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflict they were interested to know about KWN’s engagement in gender based violence. As this is one of the main pillars of KWN’s strategy 2015-2018, they were informed about the nation-wide research KWN is conducting on gender based violence and sexual harassment; the creation of the National Council for the Survivors of Wartime Sexual Violence, the #TakeBackTheNight initiative of FemAct; and the initiatives of KWN members on local level regarding gender based violence. 

Several students, after they got informed regarding KWN’s work and activities expressed their interest to intern for KWN.

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October Brings Third Edition of FemART

01.10.2015

Centre for Promotion and Community Artpolis is organizing a Regional Women’s Artists Festival (FemART) for the third time in Prishtina. FemART will start on 7 and will go on until 12 October. 
  The program of the Festival will contain different themes such as: human rights, LGBT, reproductive health, women’s economic empowerment, violence against women etc.
   Similar to previous years, this edition will also contain artistic creations, including theatre plays, movies, concerts, book promotions, fashion, installations, street art, poetry, workshops, and other forms of art creations from feminist women and men artists from Kosovo and region, including: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey. The deadline for application was open from 24 August until 15 September. Even though the Festival doesn’t have a competitive nature, the program will be chosen from different artists and activist and will take place in different locations such is cultural institutions, cinemas, and other different spaces. 
   The agenda and the places will be online very soon in FemART official page. The festival will be open and will have free for all interested citizens. 

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GIZ and MLSW Launch New Project on Youth Employment

30.09.2015

On September 30th, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Ministry for Labour and Social Welfare (MLSW) signed the agreement for the lauch of a new innovative project on youth employment. The project, titled Youth Employment Promotion in Kosovo (YEPiK), has a twofold overall goal of: 1. increasing the employability of youth; and 2. increasing their awareness of existing opportunities in their municipalities. The project aims to achieve these goals by enhancing the existing employment infrastructure in three pilot municipalities: Gjakova, Ferizaj, and Vushtrri. This will be done by offering support to employment (EOs) centers and vocational training centers (VTCs) directly. 
    In her opening remarks, project leader Emily Cullom, stated that the project “can and will go directly into action”, emphasizing her happiness about the cooperative nature of their agreement with MLSW and local authorities.  Subsequently, Minister Abrashi of MLSW, stated that “we need quick and concrete results”, adding that the premise of YEPiK is exactly that. One of the specific focuses of this project will be to increase the employability and employment rates of young women. 
KWN representative Donjeta Morina was present at the meeting and KWN looks forward to the success of this project. 

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KWN organized a training on Gender Mainstreaming in Public Policies.

Activists Aim to Mainstream Gender in Public Policies

21.09.2015

On 21 Sep., KWN trained member organizations, representatives of the Kosovo Lobby for Gender Equality and FemACT members on how to mainstream gender in public policies.
During the first part of the workshop, participants learned basic concepts related to gender mainstreaming from Nicole Farnsworth and Donjeta Morina from KWN. They explained the various forms of public polices (e.g., laws, strategies and action plans), as well as gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and gender responsive budgeting. Gender mainstreaming, defined as the integration of a gender perspective in all public policies, is a crucial instrument for achieving gender equality. Participants can use gender mainstreaming in analysing the impact of various public policies on men, women, girls and boys.
 Then, they detailed steps that should be taken in order to mainstream gender and discussed different practical examples. Any new public policy could potentially impact men and women differently, so conducting a gender impact analysis to inform draft policies is important. An example discussed was that of a public policy that would cut salaries of primary healthcare sector employees in half. This seemingly “neutral” policy would impact women more, as women are employed in the public health sector in much higher numbers than men. Another example included increasing car taxes, which would disproportionally impact men (as there are more men drivers in Kosovo).
 “This is a very new approach of analysing public policies,” said a participant. “It will be very useful for our future work at the local level.”
After lunch, participants divided into several groups where they discussed specific public policies and sought to mainstream gender in them. The documents and laws discussed included: the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the Ministry of Economic Development; the Education Strategic Plan in Kosovo; the Labour Law; the Draft Law for Registration and Records of the Unemployed and Jobseekers; the Budget of Fushe Kosove; and the Gender Action Plan for Dragash Municipality. Participants worked directly on each document, preparing recommendations from a gender perspective that they later presented orally to the entire group. Among the recommendations presented were the following: 
  • Disaggregate all information by gender in public policies, including laws, budget documents, strategies and administrative instructions;
  • Specify terms, such as “women and men”, instead of using general terms like “citizens” and/or “persons”;
  • Analyse labour market demands for women and men before launching the Draft Law for Registration and Records of the Unemployed and Jobseekers;
  • Encourage more women to register at Regional Employment Centres (RECs); Add a gender annex to annual budget documents and raise awareness among citizens to participate in public hearings. 
Participants were very active and interested in learning how to mainstream gender. They also obtained ideas from other participants regarding advocacy activities and initiatives that have already begun in other municipalities.
The aforementioned recommendations, among others made directly on policy documents, will be used by KWN, its members and KLGE to inform future policies from a gender perspective, especially considering that most of the aforementioned policies can still be influenced.This workshop was supported by the European Union Office in Kosovo.

 

 

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