16/6/2006
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: towards an action plan on gender equality

More than 100 civil society, government, academic and media representatives and parliamentarians from the Euro-Mediterranean region came together to propose a 5 year action plan for strengthening the role of women in societies across the region. The work was done during a Conference on Women that took place in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership in Rabat, Morocco, from 14-16 June.
 
The participants specifically addressed the protection and the promotion of women’s rights as a prerequisite of deepening democracy; women’s participation in economy; and the role of culture and media, specifically, as instruments for changing perceptions of gender. The Rabat conference builds on the women’s conference that took place in Barcelona in November 2005 and will pave the way for the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on equality between men and women that will take place in November this year in Istanbul.