GL scoops two awards for promoting women’s rights

Johannesburg 25 November: Gender Links is pleased to announce on International Day of No Violence Against Women two recent awards that affirm the organisation’s leading role in promoting women’s rights in Southern Africa.

At the tenth anniversary celebrations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Protocol on the Rights of Women in Lilongwe, Malawi, in August, the African Union recognised Gender Links as one of two civil society organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to women’s rights in Africa.

President Joyce Banda of Malawi and AU head Dr Nkosozana Dhlamini-Zuma presented the awards at Kamuzu Palace, the president’s official residence. GL CEO Colleen Lowe Morna and the Chairperson of the Malawi NGO Gender Coordinating Committee (NGOGCN) Emma Kaliya received the award on behalf of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance that GL coordinates. The NGOGCN is the focal network of the Alliance in Malawi.

The Alliance campaigned for the adoption in 2008 of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development that has 28 targets to be achieved by 2015. The Alliance produces the annual SADC Gender Protocol Barometer at regional level and in the fifteen countries of SADC. The Alliance has organised itself in theme clusters in a vigorous campaign for implementation in the count- down to 2015. The Alliance also mounted a campaign for an addendum on Gender and Climate Change.

On 7 November, CEO magazine named GL CEO Colleen Lowe Morna the Most Influential Woman in South Africa and Africa in 2013 at an award ceremony in Mauritius. GL Francophone Director Loga Virahsawmy received the award on Lowe-Morna’s behalf.

“The awards we have received this year encourage us to continue with our work,” Lowe-Morna said. “On International Day of No Violence Against Women we are reminded that the struggle for women’s rights and dignity is not a one day event but a year-long and life long struggle that is beginning to bear fruit. We are honoured and humbled by the recognition received by governments and the private sector. This reminds us that we are one in this struggle; that yes we can, and yes we must achieve gender equality.”

For more information contact Katherine Roberts on 076 227 6517.