(Brussels 16 October) The first ever Women’s Congress in Hungary since the democratic transition is organized by the Hungarian Women’s Lobby. The event is inspired by the success of the Polish Congress of Women (Kongres Kobiet). The Polish Congress has been organized yearly since 2009, getting high visibility and media attention, mobilizing and uniting a large number of women from all over the country, and generating legal and policy changes in Poland.
The Women’s Congress aims to bring gender equality into the spotlight, to the forefront of public discourse before the parliamentary and local government elections, and the elections to the European Parliament, all to be held in 2014. The main goal of the Women’s Congress is twofold: to make political parties – as well as policy makers – accountable for and responsive to gender equality as a democratic value, by lobbying and pushing them to have a say on women’s rights in their communication, programs and campaigns; as well as to mobilize civil society to show up and stand up for women’s rights, and to make voters more open and conscious so as to assess the political parties’ agenda from a gender perspective.
The Congress is a non-profit initiative, independent from any political parties and ideology and following the human rights-based approach. The event is open to anybody being committed to gender equality and women’s human rights.
If you’d like to join in, please do! Please visit the webpage: www.nokongresszus.hu Here you will find all the details and registration which is obligatory and free of charge.
There is also a Facebook group, however, only in Hungarian: https://www.facebook.com/IttVagyunkNokongresszus
To find out more about the event, please see here.
About the Hungarian Women’s Lobby
The Women’s Congress is organized by the Hungarian Women’s Lobby (HWL). The HWL, established in 2003, as an umbrella organization recruits, unites and represents the interests of Hungarian women NGOs with a gender equality and human rights-based agenda, particularly those that advocate for the rights and equal opportunities of women.
The HWL is dedicated to promote the value of gender equality and to combat all forms of discrimination against women.
The Hungarian Women’s Lobby is the Hungarian member organization of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the largest gender equality-oriented umbrella organization in the EU with more than 2000 member organizations. As such, the Hungarian Women’s Lobby represents the national women’s organizations’ agendas internationally, while at the same time it takes up, represents and campaigns for gender equality issues that are relevant Europe-wide and concern Hungary as well.
The Hungarian Women’s Lobby has currently 22 member organizations.
