The World Student Christian Federation will participate in the Beijing +15 Review. WSCF’s annual European Regional Student Conference will use Ecumenical Women’s Resurrect Beijing! as a part of its programme.
Resurrect Beijing! is a tool developed by Ecumenical Women to bring grassroots voices to the next Commission on the Status of Women, which has as its theme a review of the Beijing Platform for Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
The Europe Regional Conference to be held in Sibiu, Romania 6-13 October 2009 will bring over 40 Christian student leaders together. The conference theme this year is: “Gender, Society and Religion – exploring diversity in an expanding Europe”. During the conference there will be many workshops exploring gender and sexual identity, especially as it relates to faith. Some of the topics will be: the Koran and gender, a Bible Study around gender issues, and Human Rights and gender, among many others.
The workshop on human rights and gender is a perfect opportunity for the European students to learn more about WSCF’s participation in the Commission on the Status of Women as a part of the Ecumenical Women coalition and for them to share their experiences, which will feed into Ecumenical Women’s advocacy as well as sharpen their own advocacy at home.
The workshop will focus on institutional barriers that the students, especially women, have faced in their universities. Through sharing their stories the students will be able to better understand how they are personally affected by violations of women’s rights. However, we are aiming for more than understanding alone – WSCF students seek to be powerful catalysts of change toward the full participation of women in all aspects of society and the development of innovative partnerships between men and women to this end.
The thoughts and interventions of these student leaders will give Ecumenical Women a young voice that is so necessary in all international advocacy. The insights of these students will be an invaluable contribution in the preparation for CSW 2010 and the advocacy to be accomplished during it.
Contact: Christine Housel, Global Project Manager, World Student Christian Federation, chh@wscf.ch
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