Andante - European Alliance of Catholic Women´s Organisations

Representation

Andante at the Council of Europe

Last September/October 3 representatives of andante participated in the autumn sessions of the NGOs having participatory status at the Council of Europe. Just as in previous sessions, they were active in the Gender Equality Transversal Group, the Committees ‘Culture, Science and Education’ and ‘Human Rights’ as well as in the working group ‘Human Rights and Religions’.

An other interesting and important session was the meeting of the Sustainable Territorial Development Committee of which you can find a short report by clicking here.
For more information on the Council of Europe: http://www.coe.int/

French Social Weeks (SSF)

On invitation of SSF president Jérôme Vignon, Marie-Louise van Wijk participated in the congress of this organisation of French Catholic women and men, 20^th - 22^nd November in Paris. With the theme ‘A new society, new solidarities’ this year’s session wanted to explore the idea that the denial of the other has not only led to an increasing marginalisation of an important part of the population. It also has undermined the social cohesion. The 2000 participants listened to interesting talks and sometimes deeply moving testimonies and could share their ideas during the six workshops and the plenary debates. All talks and speeches as well the videos can be found on http://www.ssf-fr.org

Solidarity - a challenge for Europe

Responding to the invitation of COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, two representatives from andante, Agnès Manesse and Marie-Louise van Wijk, took part in the first Catholic Social Days for Europe, 8-11 October 2009 in Gdansk, Poland.

For a report on this rich and interesting experience, click here.
For some of the talks given at the congress see: www.comece.eu
For the Statement of the Youth Group present in Gdansk, click here

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