MISSION BERLIN INCORPORATES WOMEN'S ISSUES INTO

UNCLAS BERLIN 000021 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/PGI JIM KUYKENDALL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KWMN XG PHUM GM SUBJECT: MISSION BERLIN INCORPORATES WOMEN'S ISSUES INTO OVERALL AGENDA, TEAMS WITH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS REF: STATE 00124579 ¶1. (U) SUMMARY. Embassy Berlin's programming on women's issues has focused on a range of themes, including violence against women, discrimination, and raising awareness. The Mission's approach has been to address issues that affect women within our broader agenda and to strengthen our ties to local women's organizations. We have taken advantage of Germany's rich civil society, reaching out to women's organizations covering broad themes including domestic violence and female genital mutilation. We plan to continue integration of women's issues and women's roles into our greater Mission agenda and develop programs in conjunction with women's NGOS. The Embassy's very active chapter of the Federal Women's Program (FWP) has strengthened the Embassy's outreach to women's organizations, specifically with Terre des Femmes (TDF),raising awareness about problems within Germany as well as abroad. END SUMMARY. Mission's Broad Focus -------------- ¶2. (U) Women's concerns in Germany generally reflect those of women in many western countries, including the United States: domestic violence, discrimination, salary inequities, glass ceilings, and sexual harassment. Germany's immigrant population has brought with it additional issues, such as honor killings and forced marriage. The Mission addressed these issues both in our outreach to various societal and governmental groups, as well as within our congressionally mandated reporting. ConGen Dusseldorf has focused ) and will continue to focus ) on expanding contacts with women's development NGOs and events that will benefit networking of these organizations with key women in politics, business, academia and the media. This will be cross-cutting with contacts in minority organizations. ¶3. (U) As an example of our activities, in September 2006, the wife of then Ambassador William Timken and the Frankfurt CG engaged a group of Muslim women and German immigration specialists in a roundtable discussion at the Consulate General in Frankfurt. Mrs. Timken discussed the Mission's Muslim outreach activities and encouraged the women to continue a dialogue with each other. During a subsequent visit, Mrs. Timken visited their organizations and learned about their projects. During the past year, Frankfurt DPO Doria Rosen hosted an Iftar reception for the group and the Consulate hosted a holiday party in December, expanding the number of participants. ConGen Frankfurt regularly consults the group on a range of matters, for example on engaging minority youth. ¶4. (U) The Embassy's Political Section hosted a roundtable discussion on domestic violence in March 2009. Twelve women, including three members of the national parliament, a Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women, and Youth representative and representatives of various women's organizations, discussed the problem and expressed interest in hearing from American experts about our approaches to addressing it. As a follow up program, we plan to arrange video conference discussions with U.S. experts and these women participants on domestic violence. ¶5. (U) German journalist Andrea Roepke was recognized as an International Women of Courage Award finalist during an Embassy ceremony in March 2009, which highlighted her courageous journalistic work in covering right-wing extremism in Germany. Roepke has combined her investigations into right-wing extremist associations with a look at how women are treated within such organizations and their roles. This year, she is slated to participate in an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) that Mission Germany created to broaden perspectives on methods for addressing extremism. ¶6. (U) Last July, Public Affairs (PA) organized seminars with a visiting speaker on human resource management at the Universities of Frankfurt, Tuebingen and Freiburg. She spoke on dual career couples, helping the universities progress in their thinking about women in academic research and teaching. The University of Freiburg followed up with a letter thanking the Embassy and announcing the university's plans to establish a dual-career network based on the ideas at the seminar. The event received extremely positive press coverage. ¶7. (U) PA section is currently preparing the fall 2010 issue of the "American Studies Journal" on women's voices, which will feature well-known American writers from diverse ages (30-77) and backgrounds (probably German-Jewish, Turkish, Kuwaiti, Palestinian, and Iranian). ¶8. (U) In October, CG Duesseldorf programmed Barbara Balaj, a World Bank independent consultant, for a discussion on "Women in Post-Conflict Societies," hosted by the head of Medica Mondiale, a Cologne-based NGO supporting women and girls in war and crisis zones, and including representatives of the Bonn International Center for Conversion (including a research fellow on "Rape and War"),the spokeswoman for InWent, a non-profit organization with worldwide operations dedicated to human resource development, training and dialogue, and the spokeswoman for the German Development Service, a leading European development agency. CG Duesseldorf also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for women from politics, business, NGOs, academia, and the media, who found it a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences and start to build new networks. The consulate will follow up with a series of network-building events to bring women together involved in the full range of activities described in para 2, to include speaker events and roundtables. Federal Women's Program -------------- ¶9. (U) FWP Berlin officially formed in September 2009 to work with grassroots women's organizations in Berlin. They have since cultivated a relationship with Terre des Femmes (TDF), a German organization that tries to inform the public about the exploitation, abuse and persecution of women. FWP members have volunteered in TDF's office, raised money to purchase a flag for TDF's observation of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25),and displayed the flag in the Embassy where it was visible to visitors and passersby through December 10, International Human Rights Day. ¶10. (U) The FWP coordinator has begun attending meetings of Staedtegruppe Berlin, a grassroots women's collective working with TDF. Possible future projects include activities to recognize International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation on February 6 and a project with the Amazonian Initiative Movement (www.aim-sierra-leone.de) in Sierra Leone. ¶11. (U) FWP will screen the film "Desert Flower" (www.desertflower-movie.com),which tells the true story of Waris Dirie, a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM), at the Embassy on January 27, 2010, with remarks by its director and co-producer. After the screening, the filmmakers will be joined by FGM and violence against women experts from TDF for a short Q&A. ¶12. (U) FWP has been in touch with the Office of Civil Rights, HRO and the Equal Employment Opportunity counselor at post to organize sexual harassment prevention training at the Embassy. FWP is also working with the Embassy Green Team, Management and Public Affairs on a proposal to be mindful of ways to be more environmentally responsible and socially conscious during our routine business. We are also exploring if/how we may be able to support German nonprofits and NGOs, including grassroots women's organizations. ¶13. (U) Ideas for future endeavors include an International Women's Day event in cooperation with Staedtegruppe Berlin. FWP is also brainstorming ideas for an activity in conjunction with the documentary "Football Under Cover" (www.football-under-cover.de),about an exhibition soccer game between a women's team from Berlin and the Iranian female national soccer team. Similarly, FWP is exploring ideas for projects emanating from Greg Mortenson's book "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" (www.stonesintoschools.com), which advocates promoting peace through girls' education and literacy. ¶14. (U) Finally, on November 24, 2009, in the article "Advancing Women A Top Clinton Goal," "The New York Times" reported the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women is on Secretary Clinton's "treaty priority list." FWP Berlin requests guidance on what we can do to support any efforts at ratification of this treaty. ¶15. (U) This cable has been coordinated with the consulates. DELAWIE