N e w s

UKP to launch lecture series and website on women in politics
February 20,1999

Ugnayan ng Kababaihan sa Pulitika (UKP), a network of women from non-governmental organizations, the academe, electoral bodies, Congress and the bureaucracy, will launch on February 26, 1999, 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. at the Conference Room, Romulo Hall, Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, a 4-part lecture series entiled: Advocates National Lecture Series on Women in Politics and Governance. Also to be launched are two websites maintained by UKP which focuses on Filipino women in politics and governance : http://www.kababaihan.org and on women’s issues in the Philippine Congress: http://www.philwomen.net.

The first part of the lecture series shall be on topic The Woman and the Office to be delivered on the same day by Leonor I. Luciano, Women Sectoral Representative, Philippine Congress from March 1994 - June 1998 and Imelda M. Nicolas Chairperson of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, NCRFW , September 1992 - June 1998

Significant parts of the lecture shall be posted in the Online Working Group on National Machineries for Gender Equality, under the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) WomenWatch, on February 8 to March 19, 1999. Discussion will feed into the 43rd Session of CSW and a Special Session of the General Assembly in June 2000: "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century." (DAW:Home Location = http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw). The proceedings shall also be included in the NGO report for Beijing +5 on Women and Decision-making for the United Nations and other international organizations.

Daphne D. Roxas, chairperson of UKP, said that the first of the lecture series by Luciano and Nicolas is a rare event which will allow two main officials of the Ramos administration on women concerns to present an evaluation of their performance while in office.

On the launching of the websites, Ms. Roxas said that as venues for information dissemination on women legislative concerns and on women in politics and public policy including the latest data and statistics, debates and discussions on these issues , the websites are milestones among advocacy initiatives in the women’s movement. The websites continue efforts of UKP started in previous projects of the organization to use the internet to capture and post on-line the latest information on the participation of women in the 1998 national elections in the website Women’s Election Watch ’98 and in the website of the Committee on Women of the 10^th Congress.