News from The Community Human Rights Centre in Bamenda
May 2010
Laura Anyola Tufon, one of Cameroon’s National Commissioners for Human Rights and Freedoms came to Glasgow in 2008 as one of our Chevening Fellows. Whilst in Scotland she took an interest in the Govan Law Centre. Active Learning Centre supported Board Chair, Mike Dailly, who volunteered to visit Cameroon to work with Laura to help her to canvas support for a pilot Citizen's Empowerment Project In Cameroon.
The project they developed has now completed it's first year. COMHURIC has offered a rights advice service to poor and vulnerable people in and around Bamenda, listening to complaints, offering advice and taking cases to court. Complaints include; domestic violence, child abuse, women’s rights, rights of people with disabilities, land disputes and property rights, including inheritance.
The centre also conducts education activities with poor rural families on the dangers of trafficking their women and children. In the urban areas they have held education sessions with young people in schools, petty traders in the markets, law enforcement officers and members of the judiciary.
Laura can be justly proud of what she has started!
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An Annual Report Of The Community Human Rights Centre (Comhuric) Bamenda
June 2009 - May 2010 Microsoft Word Format |
Women in Power, Conference Report
March 22nd 2010
Professor Ishita Mukhopadhyay, Catriona Burness, Bertha Sefu, Christina McKelvie and Danny Phillips pose with Vice Chair of Active Learning Centre Kathy McNeil
It is widely thought that women have a different approach to social and welfare policy, one reason why women in power appears as one of the world’s poverty goals. But do women really have more interest in poverty and welfare questions?
This year we commissioned research to look at how an initially ‘mainly manly’ Scottish Constitutional Convention’ led to a call for ‘fifty/fifty’ women and men and the eventual impact of women ministers on post-devolution Scotland.(two pamphlets can be downloaded below)
All the main Scottish political parties (except for the Conservatives) were representatives at our conference to discuss women in power, alongside churches, charities, unions, equalities workers, retired people, and students. Over 50 (mostly female) participants heard several perspectives.
Danny Phillips and Susan Dalgety presented research on female ministers in the Holyrood administrations from 1999-2007. Former Labour minister Johann Lamont, MSP, spoke of the ground-breaking challenges faced by women ministers.
Maria Fyfe, retired Labour MP for Glasgow Maryhill, and Elspeth Attwooll, retired Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, joined Catriona Burness to discuss the hard-fought campaign to get more women into the Scottish Parliament whilst Nationalist MSP Christina McKelvie gave the current SNP-led Scottish Government position.
India amended its Constitution in 1994 to reserve one-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities for women. Professor Ishita Mukhopadhyay of the University of Calcutta presented her findings on the achievements of women in local office in West Bengal.
Finally the conference heard from Bertha Sefu who managed the 50:50 campaign in Malawi in 2009, which saw women winning a record 42 parliamentary seats.
The message was that political tradition and party make it difficult but when women do break through they can and do bring a different perspective to poverty and welfare questions. As Danny Phillips said in his BBC radio interview (see link below) Scottish women ministers had different life experiences and were informed by different political networks so yes there was a real difference in their approach to welfare questions.