Work towards Balanced Society

UBC meetings
During 2002, the UBC Women's Network has continued its work aiming towards balanced societies in the Baltic Sea Region, organising two meetings and one seminar. The Siauliai seminar (25-26.11.02) gathered more than 60 participants from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Its main objective was to familiarise the women from NGOs and municipalities with the financial and economic possibilities that a future EU membership brings. The special focus was on the European programmes supporting development of gender equal societies. The theme proved to be a very hot issue as presently some of the applicant countries are under the process of outlining their principles on that issue. The awareness rose during the seminar and the contacts given opened the possibility for active women in the municipalities and NGOs to influence and guide these processes in a gender equal direction.

Contribution to the International Conferences
The first 2003 meeting took place in connection to the Third Baltic Sea Women's Conference on WoMen and Democracy in Tallinn, 13-14 February 2003. The four main topics of the conference were women in power and decision-making, violence against women, women and the economy, and women and the media. The conference gathered 608 representatives of public institutions, researchers and NGOs from the core BSR, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the USA. The workshop's chairs delivered, based on his/her respective workshop results, an address or an appeal to the public. The workshop appeals and the speeches will be published in the conference report and on the website http://www.sm.ee/women. The national co-ordinator for Germany, Ms Karin Wohlgemuth, Co-ordinator of the UBC Commission on Health and Social Affairs and the co-ordinator of the Women's Network, Ulla Lundqvist, took part in the Planning Committee. The UBC Social Charter was introduced and distributed to the participants of the conference.

On 8-11 May 2003 Turku hosts the Third Baltic Sea NGO Forum which was planned with the active participation of the Co-ordinator who contributed to the programme for the Human Rights group. The Forum theme is Northern Dimension - Human Dimension? Strengthening Civil Society in the Baltic Sea Region. The Human Rights theme is Gender Equality and Human Rights in Changing Societies. Please visit the web-site http://www.cbss-ngo-fm.org.