28 February 2000 – The Italian NGO representative Barbara Terenzi Calamai of AIDOS delivered today on behalf of the Italian delegation a speech in the session “Comprehensive Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the Platform for Action”.

This year the NGO representation was expanded to include a larger number of NGOs as Italy recognizes the importance of the role played by civil society in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The Italian NGOs have been working in emergency situations in Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Palestine, Somalia and Central America. They have fostered North-South co-operation, have set up empowerment initiatives by and for immigrant women, they have developed capacity-building courses for women whoi wish to be involved in politics.

She called for wider NGO participation in the Special Session and the convening of a 5th World Conference on Women as a natural forum for innovative partnerships between governments and civil society.

Speech by Barbara Terenzi Calamai NGO delegate from Italy, representing AIDOS

Madam Chairperson, distinguished collegues
I would like first to introduce myself. I am a member of an Italian women’s NGO and as such included in the Italian delegation. Italy’s policy has always been to have representatives of civil society in its delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women through the National Equality Commission.

This year the NGO representation has been expanded to include a larger number of NGOs as Italy recognizes the importance of the role played by civil society in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Italian women’s NGOs which partecipated in the 4th UN Conference on Women and the the NGO Forum have been extremely active in “bringing Beijing back” and have carried out a wide range of information and sensitization activities for other NGOs and local women’s machineries all over the country.

In the following years, NGOs have given input to preparations for the Commission on the Statuts of Women and for the Special Session of this year, as well as to international negotiations such as those to draft the Optional Protocol to CEDAW and the Statute of the International Criminal Court.

At European level, the European Women’s Lobby provided an important input to include the articles on gender equality into the Amsterdam Treaty.

The most important contribution by NGOs, however, can be seen at local and grass-roots level, where an empowerment and gender equality approach

is wide-spread not only among women who explicitly aim to implement the Platform for Action, but even among young women and men who criticise feminism, and yet work together for the same goals in anti-racist, and other forms of solidarity groups such as social protection and rehabilitation initiatives for women victims of trafficking.

Some examples of NGOs action are: women’s cultural centres, empowerment initiatives by and for immigrant women, women’s caucuses in labour unions, including pensioners’ trade unions, capacity-building courses for women who wish to be involved in politics, and campaigns to prevent the practice of female genital mutilation and to meet the health and psychological needs of immigrant women.

North-South cooperation has been fostered and new partnerships have been created by which women in the developing countries, the Balcans, the Middle East and the NIS have been able to benefit from transfer of experience from Italian women in order to establish women’s health centers, with a comprehensive approach to reproductive health, create micro-small enterprises, start resource centers on women’s rights. The Italian NGOs have been working in emergency situations in Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Palestine, Somalia and Central America.

In many cases, local authorities have been key partners in this effort, and provided essential funding for such work. Also at internaltional level, many of the widespread initiatives carried out by civil society have been sponsored by local authorities.

At government level, despite serious problems which remain concerning women’s representation in politics, a lot has been done starting with the unprecedented innovation, in 1996, of the appointment of a Minister for Equal Opportunities and the creation of a corresponding Department. In 1997, the Minister drafted our National Action Plan, based on the criteria of women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming.

Mainstreaming efforts have been especially targeted to influence budgetary and employment policies, including a gender analysis and monitoring unit clause in the Social Pact, gender impact monitoring and rules in the use of European structural funds to foster job creation, and guidelines for all programs of development cooperation. In terms of legislation, the new law on parental leave affirms the individual right for both parents of children under 8 years to take leave from work for periods of upto eleven months, and contains innovative measures to encourage the use of parental leave of fathers and the right to take educational leaves.

Furthermore, the new law on immigration contains advanced women’s rights concerning family reunion, health care and education, and includes a specific provision to protect and empower women victims of trafficking, through a special residence permit and social protection measures for women who wish to escape from traffickers. Forty-nine social support projects of this nature have been developed by local authorities in partnership with NGOs and funded by the Italian Government. On the coming 8th of March, the Minister for Equal Opportunities will submit to the Government an evaluation of the National Action Plan to implement the Beijing Platform for Action together with an Action Plan focused on labour and employment issues to be completed by the Government before the end of its term in 2001.

The relationship between the Government of Italy and the NGOs has been extremely fruitful therefore we deem important to develop innovative ways of partnership with NGOs also at the regional and international level.