WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAM
In Central and Eastern Europe

Albania

The Womens Program of Minnesota Advocates has actively worked in Albania to draw attention to human rights issues affecting women. As part of this advocacy effort, the Womens Program worked with two partner organizations - Refleksione and the Womens Center. Through this partnership Minnesota Advocates published a report on domestic violence in Albania. Domestic Violence in Albania. In addition, MN Advocates co-sponsored two inter-Balkan conferences on womens human rights issues with its Albanian partner organizations.

Bulgaria

The Women's Program works with women's human rights organizations in Bulgaria to promote women's human rights issues. In 1996 it published a report on domestic violence in Bulgaria. Domestic Violence in Bulgaria. The Women's Program recently completed a collaborative project to address issues of violence against women in Bulgaria. The project - "Elimination of Violence Through Research and Education is part of a collaborative effort with the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) and Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation (GPF). This project works to promote womens human rights, to combat violence against women through research and education and to develop strategies for future intervention and advocacy projects. To further these goals, BGRF, GPF, and Minnesota Advocates conducted the following activities 1) disseminated Minnesota Advocates' report on domestic violence in Bulgaria, 2) conducted additional research on the response of the legal system to domestic violence; 3) conduct research on sexual harassment as a human rights abuse; 4) disseminated the results of the research on sexual harassment; 5) conducted a multi-faceted public education campaign on womens human rights and violence against women as a human rights abuse; and 6) analyzed the results of the research and develop detailed recommendations for future advocacy projects to combat violence against women in Bulgaria.

Macedonia

The Womens Program researched and documented domestic violence as a human rights abuse in Macedonia. The Macedonian womens human rights organizations League of Women of Kumanovo and the Humanitarian Association for Emancipation, Solidarity, and Equality assisted with this research. The delegation conducted interviews of trauma center doctors and police officials in addition to judges, lawyers, journalists and womens organizations. The Womens Program collected additional statistics and information about the problem of domestic violence over a period of two years. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights staff and volunteers published a report documenting this work in September 1998: Domestic Violence in Macedonia.

Poland

Minnesota Advocates is beginning a project on Employment Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Poland. This project is a joint effort of the Womens Program and the Womens Human Rights Center in Warsaw.

Romania

The Women's Program sent a volunteer delegatin to Romania in the spring of 1994 to research and document domestic violence as a human rights aabuse in Romania. The Women's Program worked with ANA, the Society for Feminist Analysis and other women's human rights organizations to complete this research. In February 1995, the Women's Program published the findings of this research in a report, Lifting the Last Curtain: a Report on Domestic Violence in Romania.