By Maggie Palu, AWAquitaine
Some notes from the parallel event: "We Have Your Back" (co-sponsored by FAWCO)
Lucina di Meco – “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” (re digital and on-line abuse) (trolling)
Social media = a barrier to seeking public office
Chris Segona – League of Women Voters US – “What is not OK off-line is not OK on-line.”
Tone Wilhelmsen Troen – President of the Norwegian Parliament - Young people, primarily girls, choose not to give comments online because they fear harassment; freedom of expression is weakened if 50% of the population does not choose to participate.
According to the IPU Secretariat - 18 women MP’s in UK left politics because of on-line trolling.
And from the parallel event: "Women’s Leadership in Securing Dignity and Rights for People on the Move"
2.7 people become displaced each minute (2018 average), 68.5 million displaced annually, which means 5 or 6 people will have been displaced by the end of this 90-minute session. In that session, Samantha Silva from Caminamos Juntos talked about displaced American citizens, and US citizens married to undocumented foreigners, US citizen and non-citizen spouses. She said that over 1.5 million Americans are married to foreigners without social security numbers. That’s my case, as I’m sure it is for many FAWCO members. We did indeed have some harrowing times when we were in the US for Serge to study guayule. And I don’t even want to think about our trip across the (northern) border for him to go to a job interview in Québec. We spent three hours in the no-man’s land at the border because the Canadians said they wouldn’t let him in unless the US guaranteed that they would let him back in after the interview, and the US said they could provide no guarantee in writing. But three hours is a mere drop in the bucket compared to lives that are spent in some of the conditions described in the talk.
Also in that session we saw the trailer for a film that has not yet been released, about refugees primarily from Mali, Sierra Leone, and the DRC, transiting North Africa. Isabella Alexander-Nathani, Founder and Exec Director of Small World Films, spent 5 years undercover to bring the film "The Burning" to life. She said some of the people in the film are still trapped in North Africa. “The Burning” has not yet been released. You can stay posted on the upcoming release through Twitter (@isabella_writes) Instagram (@smallworldfilms) Facebook (@SMALLWORLDFILMS) or on our website www.smallworldfilms.org