Category: News

Last month, NGOs accredited to UNESCO, in partnership with the Division of Human Rights of UNESCO, organised a Young Persons Forum on the theme "Women, Africa and Human Development ". The event took place over an afternoon and focused on  raising awareness amongst young people aged 15-25 years of human rights, education and culture. Over 300 people attended to share…

Soroptimists all over the world are working on water related projects. To celebrate SIGBI’s 75th anniversary year, 2009-2010 SIGBI President, Jackie Mosedale, set a challenge to all Clubs to raise £75 towards assisting a total of 75 WaterAid projects worldwide. The fund closed in December 2010, having exceeded all expectations. A staggering £36,129.53 was raised…

Today is world water day! The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro and focuses on a different water issue each year. The theme for 2011 is Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge.…

At the Commonwealth Lecture in London, held last week, Mrs Sonia Gandhi called for women’s voices and concerns to be heard in the global climate change debate, to “help the world find a more sustainable and less consumerist path to development”. She argued that so far, most of the climate change debate has been ‘gender…

President Elect Alice Wells and Programme Director Reilly Dempsey visit our UN Reps in Vienna for International Women’s Day! From the 9th to the 13th March, Alice and Reilly visited Roswitha Benesch, our UN European Liaison and Dora Vrdlovec, UN Rep in Vienna.  Roswitha and Dora had set up quite the programme for Alice and…

 Source: UNODC Press Release At any given time, an estimated 2.4 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery – human trafficking. Women, children and men across the globe find themselves being enslaved in forced labour and domestic servitude, sexually exploited or used as child soldiers. A global enterprise worth in the region of US$32 billion,…

As part of the UNESCO NGO Committee of the Executive Board meeting in May, a one day debate and round table discussion on International Migration is planned. NGOs with experience in this area have been invited to share their experiences. In response, Soroptimist International has submitted a summary paper outlining the work SI does to…

Monday March 14th was Commonwealth Day. This year, the celebrations were of particular significance to Soroptimist International as the theme was ‘Women – Agents of Change’. To mark Commonwealth Day and to draw attention to this theme, a Parliamentary event was held in London paying particular attention to the transformational impact of education. The Prime…

The event took place for the first time at the UN FAO (Farming and Agricultural Organisation) Headquarters in Rome, with the presentation and launch of SOFA: The State of  Food and  Agriculture 2010-2011. The report was presented by the Division Gender, Equity and Rural Employment, whose director is Mrs. Marcela Villarreal. To read the report, click…

Source: UN Press Release Following an unusual delay in the negotiations of the CSW 55 agreed conclusions, the final session was held yesterday (March 14th). The final report was adopted after a period of ‘extensive and intense’ negotiations. Noting that quality education and women’s full access to and participation in science and technology were imperative…