A Strategic Planning Meeting of Polish NGOs: Warsaw, January 6-7, 2006
Contributed by: Agnieszka Mrozik, Poland National VAW Monitor
Dear Prime Minister! A Strategic Planning Meeting of Polish women’s organizations took place on the 6th and 7th January 2006 in Warsaw. It’s goal was to discuss the current political situation and determine our plans for the upcoming years.
Women’s organizations from the very beginning of the political transformation have actively taken part in the creation of the independent NGO sector, which is one of the pillars of democracy. We are worried about the paternalistic way that the new government makes initiatives without including the representation of the people concerned. In the name of NGOs representing women in the whole country we expect stabilization and the defense of modern political and legal solutions in the field of the equal status of women and men in Poland and the recognition of them as the most important goals of the new government.
In particular we expect:
1) Institutional changes:
• the restoration of the office of the Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men;
• to maintain the province representatives of the Plenipotentiary and secure finances for their activity;
• dismissing from the service of the Prime Minister’s Family Consultant Ms Hanna Wujkowska, whose declarations are a threat to the state's is neutrality in matters of religion.
2) In the field of equality policy:
• the realization of the European Union’s rule of including gender mainstreaming into every decision and legal act;
• monitoring equality indexes and their realization by officials and institutions.
3) In the field of antidiscrimination policy:
• the policy of counteracting discrimination against sexual minorities.
4) In the field of social policy:
• close cooperation with NGOs;
• including women’s NGOs in the process of creating The National Program of Counteracting Violence in the Family;
• the restoration of the Alimony Fund;
• provision of institutionalized child care (preschool age) financed by the national budget.
5) In the field of employment policy:
• work towards the professional activation, integration and reintegration of women and increasing possibilities of starting their own enterprise;
• organizing a campaign which would counteract stereotypes about social roles of women and men and the presence of women in the job market.
6) In the field of health policy:
• implementation of the Act on Family Planning, in particular the guarantee of access to contraception and prenatal tests.
7) In the field of financial policy:
• abolition of barriers in access to the European Social Fund for women’s NGOs by for example reducing the requirements concerning a bank guarantee on the side of the grantee;
• provision of funds in the Department on Women, Family and Counteraction of Discrimination for NGOs working for women and discriminated groups;
• reduction of budget funding for military goals and instead enlarging the expenses for social goals.
8) Increasing the presence of women in the public life:
• creating a national program aiming at increasing the number of women taking part in local elections in the year 2006.
Women’s organizations will run a constant monitoring of the government’s initiatives in order to make sure that they are in accordance with the national and international law. Any information concerning the departure from the realization of the policy of the equal status of women and men will immediately be passed on to foreign international organizations and the appropriate structures of the European Union.
We expect an immediate and comprehensive response as to when and in what way these demands will be fulfilled.
Centrum Praw Kobiet - Oddzial w Gdansku
Centrum Praw Kobiet Warszawa
Demokratyczna Unia Kobiet
Demokratyczna Unia Kobiet - Klub Gdanski
Demokratyczna Unia Kobiet - Klub Wroclawski
Dolnoslaski Zwiazek Organizacji Pozarzadowych "WROS"
Dolnoslaskie Forum Stowarzyszen i Srodowisk Kobiecych
Europejski Komitet Ekonomiczno-Spoleczny
Federacja na rzecz Kobiet i Planowania Rodziny
Fundacja Centrum Promocji Kobiet
Fundacja Kobieca eFKa
Fundacja Oska
Fundacja Kobiet Polskich Zawsze Zdrowa i Aktywna
Fundacja Lorga
Fundacja Przestrzenie Dialogu
Fundacja Wspierania Rozwoju Spoleczenstwa Obywatelskiego w Opolu
Gender Studies Uniwersytet Warszawski
Goldapskie Stowarzyszenie Kobiet Aktywnych
Grupa Nieformalna Wiedzmy
Interdyscyplinarna Grupa Gender Studies, Uniwersytet Wroclawski
Kampania Przeciw Homofobii
Kaszubskie Stowarzyszenie Ekologiczne
Kobiety Aktywne Szczecin
Kobiety Tez
Kolo Gender Studies, Uniwersytet Gdanski
Kolo Gender Studies, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski
Lambda Warszawa
Liga Kobiet Polskich Oddzial w Elblagu
Liga Kobiet Polskich Oddzial w Gdyni
Loza Kobiet 2006, Warszawa
Miedzynarodowe Forum Kobiet
Nieformalna Grupa GENDA, Slubice
Nieformalna Grupa Lódz Gender
Polskie Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Prawnej
Redakcja portalu Homiki.pl - Piotr Bukowski, Pawel Walczak, Jerzy Piatek
Stowarzyszenie AKADEMIA PELNI ZYCIA
Stowarzyszenie Aktywne Kobiety w Sosnowcu
Stowarzyszenie "PROMYK" Przeciw Przemocy w Rodzinie
Stowarzyszenie Czulent Stowarzyszenie EUROTomaszów
Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Niezaleznych Mikuszewo
Stowarzyszenie Klub Kobieta 2000 Choszczno
Stowarzyszenie Kobiet Aktywnych i Twórczych Wroclaw
Stowarzyszenie Kobiet Konsola
Stowarzyszenie Kobiet Niezaleznych w Warszawie
Stowarzyszenie Kujawsko-Pomorskie Centrum Promocji Kobiet w Toruniu
Stowarzyszenie na Rzecz Kobiet Poszukujacych Pracy "Victoria" z Rzeszowa
Stowarzyszenie Stumilowy Las
Stowarzyszenie Wspólpracy Kobiet NEWW-Polska
Slaskie Centrum Równych Szans
Towarzystwo Interwencji Kryzysowej
Warszawski Klub Kobiet Aktywnych Zawodowo
Marta Abramowicz
Kinga Andrzejak
Edward Arciszewski
Katarzyna Bartosik
Grzegorz Barzycki
Ewa Charkiewicz
Agnieszka Dudzik
Joanna Filarska
Katarzyna Gumowska
Renata Górka
Renata Granat
Agnieszka Gradziel
Barbara Hanff
Anna Hewelt
Izabela Jagodzinska
Ingeborga Janikowska
Malgorzata Janur
Wiktoria Jargilo
Agnieszka Kaim
Boguslawa Kalita
Katarzyna Kasia
Tomasz Kitlinski
Rafal Kobierzynski
Ewa Kondratowicz
Beata Kowalska, Gender Studies, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski
Rafal Kowalski
Rafal Kownacki, Warszawa
Aleksandra Kretkowska, Miedzywydzialowe Kolo Gender UW
Magdalena Kunz
Emilia Kuzniewska
Adam Lipszyc
Agnieszka Lisewska-Hasulak
Ida Lukawska
Alina Michalik
Katarzyna Miller
dr Joanna Mizielinska, Gender Studies UW
Malgorzata Murakowska
Anna Nacher
Radek Oliwa
Ewa Osowska - Kolo Polskiego Klubu Ekologicznego w Mlawie
dr Agnieszka Pantuchowicz
Piotr Perkowski
Dagmara Rode
Karolina Skowron
Pawel Solodki
Aleksandra Sowa
Jolanta Stark
Beata Stasinska
Marek Styczynski
Renata Szczepanik
Agata Teutsch
Teresa Tulska
Irena Tulska
Bozena Uminska
Ewa Wanat, red. naczelna TOK FM
Lukasz Wenc
Katarzyna Wiacek, Wroclaw
Piotr Wronarowicz
Irena Zablotna
Published in:
Letter to the Prime Minister, NEWW-Polska, 19 January 2006