UK& SPAINCO-HOST UNPRECEDENTED
EUROPEAN WOMEN’S SUMMIT
Wednesday 3rd February
2010
UK&
SPAINCO-HOST UNPRECEDENTED
EUROPEAN
WOMEN’S SUMMIT
Harriet Harman, Minister
for Women and Equality, will today call on EU women Ministers to
agree a new structure for working together to improve women’s
lives, and to work to support the establishment of a new UN agency
for women.
Ms Harman will call for these women Ministers
to meet routinely on a regular basis, as EU leaders and Finance
Ministers do, to make progress on supporting women, both at a
European and international level.
Today, for the first time, an unprecedented
number of women Ministers from across Europe will gather at a
summit in Cadiz. The summit is part of the Spanish presidency of
the EU, and is co-hosted by Minister for Women and Equality Harriet
Harman and Spanish Equalities Minister Bibiana Aido Almagro.
Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and
Equality, said:
“Today’s meeting is an unprecedented
opportunity for women ministers to work
together and make a difference to women’s lives
in their own countries and internationally.
“There are now women ministers and
parliamentarians in every continent and in most countries, and that
is a trend which is only set to continue. This offers the
prospect that the agenda for women – equality, tackling poverty,
ending violence against women, women’s representation - can move
beyond making demands of male dominated international
structures.
"Now, women in Government and Parliaments,
can themselves work together, not just to ask male Ministers for
change, but to make change happen. Women are stronger when we all
work together.”
The summit is the latest in a series of events
to build support for the agenda and new structure. Next week Ms
Harman will:
- Host a meeting in London with women
Ambassadors to the UK gain their support
- Host a meeting of Non-Government
Organisations concerned with women issues and development
issues.
- Next month Ms Harman will attend the UN
meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The European Women in Power Summit is being
held in Cadiz, Spain, on Wednesday 3rd February
2010.
Ms Harman is working with Foreign Office
Minister Baroness Kinnock and International Development Minister
Gareth Thomas on the new UN agency for women.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Please contact the Government Equalities
Office press office on 0207 276 1175, out of hours 07500 816
959.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
- The Government Equalities
Office is responsible for the Government’s overall
strategy, legislation, and priorities on equality issues. The
Office also has direct responsibility for policy on gender
equality, sexual orientation, and for integrating work on race. The
Prime Minister announced the establishment of the Government
Equalities Office (GEO) in July 2007 and it became a Department in
its own right in October 2007. It works to Ministers Harriet
Harman, Maria Eagle, Vera Baird, and Michael Foster.
About the
CadizSummit
- Twenty five women Ministers from across
Europe are expected to attend the Cadiz summit.
- The Cadiz Summit comes ahead of the
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
in New York on 1st March 2010. It is expected that the
UN will take forward the establishment of the new UN agency
for women, to be led by a new Under Secretary-General by
the close of the current General Assembly session (UNGA 64),
following the UN resolution 63/311 of September 14th,
2009.
- The Cadiz Declaration,
expected to be agreed at the Summit, will commit Ministers to
working towards getting more women in roles of high political
responsibility; more women at the top of democratic structures; and
a more equal balance between men and women holding elected office.
The Declaration will highlight the need to ensure that the
improvements in women’s educational achievement are reflected in
the number of women in decision making roles.