ENGLISH CORNER

NEWSLETTER – December 2015

FEMINA EUROPA: a busy end to 2015!

“Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive”: The Eighth World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia (22-27 September) We had the opportunity to attend this meeting which is held every three years since the « Year of the Family » was proclaimed by the UN in 1994. The theme for this meeting emphasized the impact of the love and life of families on our society. This major international symposium gathered more than 20,000 people with cultural, political and private sector stakeholders from around the world committed to the family (Cardinals, bishops, university professors, including sociologists, psychologists, demographers, economists, theologians, jurists and agronomists).

Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said in his opening speech: « the family is not just important for the Church or for Christians, but for all people and culture…if the family is fully alive, then society is fully alive, » and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of Philadelphia, echoed this in saying « the strength of the family is a guarantee of human flourishing. The more we encourage and support the health of families, the more “alive” society becomes. « 

For FEMINA EUROPA, this meeting was an opportunity to share with our American counterparts who work on women’s issues in the US (including man/woman complementarity and the challenges facing working women) and to enlighten participants on the situation such as we live it in Europe.

Surrogacy: working hard at the Council of Europe

The Council of Europe Social Affairs Committee was ready to consider and vote on the draft Resolution authorizing Surrogacy throughout Europe in late November. We alerted our members of Parliament indicating our concern that under the guise of providing « guidelines » for surrogacy, such a resolution would in fact validate a new form of human trafficking, exploitation of the woman’s body and commodification of children.

Furthermore, we expressed « surprise » that the group’s rapporteur is Belgian Senator Petra De Sutter, who in her professional activity, practices third-party reproduction, which raises the question of her impartiality.

We learned with satisfaction that the Commission decided to postpone indefinitely the consideration of the draft resolution, due to a potential breach of the Parliamentary Assembly rules of ethics because of the choice of the rapporteur. The Social Affairs Committee has

decided to investigate this situation before deciding whether to « relieve the rapporteur of her duties » as stipulated in the Code of Conduct.

Involvement at the United Nations

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner in Geneva had requested information on the implementation of the Resolution on the Protection of the Family, adopted in July of this year. FEMINA EUROPA sent in a contribution that you can read here http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/ProtectionFamily.aspx The object was to highlight the value of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman and ask that the contribution of the family be taken into account in the sustainable development indicators.

Creation of Women of the World

In order to be more efficient, more noticeable, and to expand our field of action, we have created, with our Spanish and Belgian partners, a new platform: Women of the World. The purpose of this platform is to provide advocacy work on issues affecting the dignity of women and arouse greater interest among policy makers throughout the world. This platform follows our March 2015 Declaration relative to discrimination against motherhood and female identity in Europe which was signed by more than 140 NGOs and presented to the European Parliament in Brussels.

See: http://femina-europa.org/actu/2015/03/23/femina-europa-presente-la-declaration-des-femmes-au-parlement-europeen/

Seminar on « Women and Work »

In December, FEMINA EUROPA had the honor of being invited to participate in the seminar organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome. The seminar highlighted the role of women in reminding all humanity of the value and meaning of life, including in the workplace. Work is made for man and not man for work! Women should be aware of their responsibility so that our civilization is not destroyed by a culture of death. We are the sentinels of the invisible, let us be the ambassadors of human ecology.

You can find our written contribution here:

http://www.laici.va/content/laici/fr/eventi/seminari-e-congressi/donne-e-lavoro/girault—la-culture-contemporaine-est-elle-anti-feminine—-com.html

See also our oral statement made at the end of the first day:

http://www.laici.va/content/laici/fr/eventi/seminari-e-congressi/donne-e-lavoro/girault—il-lavoro-dona-dignita.html

Finally, we will be holding our General Assembly in Paris February 2, 2016.

If you would like additional information, please write to: info@femina-europa.org

or call (33) 7 81 58 32 03.

With best wishes for a happy and holy jubilee year,

Anne Girault

President

PS FEMINA EUROPA can only continue its action in favor of women, family and Life thanks to the generosity of our friends. If you wish to support our action, click here:

https://www.paypal.com/fr/cgi-