SEELINE (South Eastern European Legal Initiative) - South Eastern Europe
Initiated by the Croatia-based Be active Be emancipated (B.a.B.e.), SEELINE is a regional network of women's human rights organisations that exchange knowledge and engage in advocacy work on the legal and policy front in order to prevent violence against women and protect women's rights. Key strategies include encouraging regional governments and parliaments to incorporate gender-sensitive provisions into the legal system in an effort to:
Network members include both individuals and people who hail from NGOs based in Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Members meet and work together to exchange strategies that have been successful in their respective countries and to brainstorm about ways to unify and balance legislative systems with regard to women and gender issues.
The network engages in the following activities:
Women, Gender, Rights, Conflict, Political Development.
- improve the status of women in the region by reforming legal and institutional mechanisms in accordance with international standards
- strengthen collaboration between women's human rights organisations and concerned individuals
- make tribunals' work regarding violence against women publicly known and visible.
Network members include both individuals and people who hail from NGOs based in Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Members meet and work together to exchange strategies that have been successful in their respective countries and to brainstorm about ways to unify and balance legislative systems with regard to women and gender issues.
The network engages in the following activities:
- expanding the B.a.B.e. library, which includes relevant legal books and articles, international legal documents, and a regional database for women's human rights. The latter provides access to all countries' constitutions, as well as relevant laws and proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia (ICTY), the ICC (International Criminal Court), and the European Court for Human Rights. These documents and other information (reports, resources, links, and information on legislation and women in armed conflict and status of rape as a war crime in international law) are available on the SEELINE site.
- monitoring constitutions and other regional, national, and international documents meant to protect women from violence and to secure their economic, social, and reproductive rights.
- publishing monitoring findings in English as a book, CD, and on the SEELINE site
- producing a video clip on the women's human rights related to the work of ICTY and ICC
- organising regional meetings of the network to plan strategies and exchange knowledge and solutions for the problems facing certain countries
- teaching lobbying skills
- organising seminars for professional women from the network covering relevant international legal issues
- drafting new laws or amendments to already existing laws in order to introduce gender-sensitive and anti-discriminatory legislation
- serving as the legal women's clearing house in the region in order to provide easier access to relevant international expertise in legal reform
- following the work of UN bodies and agencies with regard to their gender-sensitive legislation (Commission on Status of Women, Human Rights Commission, International Crime Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Court).
Women, Gender, Rights, Conflict, Political Development.
Key Points
B.a.B.e. is a human rights group working in Croatia. The word "Babe" (Bah-beh) in Croatian also means "old hag," a pejorative term for an old woman. The women of this group seek to give new meaning to this term.
According to organisers, the SEE region has undergone serious economic, political and legal changes that have resulted in a failure to protect women's rights in general, and their reproductive, economic, and social rights in particular. Affirmative action measures have not been introduced in political and economic spheres; those that existed were annulled due to serious economic constraints. Furthermore, they say, laws regulating reproductive rights have been changed in most countries, with the result that women's right to free decisions regarding the reproductive choices has been restricted or eliminated. During the 1990s, they claim, women's participation in decision-making processes has seriously diminished, leading in part to an exclusion of women's concerns about rights and protections from changes in the make-up of the legislature and, by extension, legislation.
According to organisers, the SEE region has undergone serious economic, political and legal changes that have resulted in a failure to protect women's rights in general, and their reproductive, economic, and social rights in particular. Affirmative action measures have not been introduced in political and economic spheres; those that existed were annulled due to serious economic constraints. Furthermore, they say, laws regulating reproductive rights have been changed in most countries, with the result that women's right to free decisions regarding the reproductive choices has been restricted or eliminated. During the 1990s, they claim, women's participation in decision-making processes has seriously diminished, leading in part to an exclusion of women's concerns about rights and protections from changes in the make-up of the legislature and, by extension, legislation.
Partners
B.a.B.e. and member NGOs, which include Women's Rights Center Bar Association, the Women's Lobby of Macedonia, the Woman Bar Association & School of Magistrate, the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, the Institut of Social Sciences & Women's Studies, the National Union for Women's Rights, the Women's & Children's Rights Research, & Training Center Foundation, the National Council of Women Judges of the Court of Appeal, the Int'l Human Rights Law Group, and the Bulgaria Gender Research Foundation.
Sources
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