The All-African Conference on Gender and Media organised
by the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) has concluded today in Kigali, Rwanda, after three
days of debate. The following is the text of the Declaration adopted by the
conference:
We, the participants
to the All-African Conference on Gender and Media gathered in Kigali from 26-28 August 2011, on the theme "Empowering African Women
Journalists: Stepping up to the Challenge of Gender Equality":
- Conscious of the huge challenges facing the African
region in its quest to enhance gender equality in the media institutions,
unions, associations and the society at large;
- Underscoring that African women journalists continue
to occupy lower graded levels in the media industry, where they face
marginalisation, discrimination, exploitation, harassment and abuse;
- Noting the challenges and constraints of women
journalists in Africa;
- Considering the barriers to women journalists' active
participation in activities of journalists' organizations;
- Cognizant of
the difficulties facing women journalists in attaining leadership positions,
equal treatment and remuneration in the work place;
- Concerned about gender discriminatory practices
prevalent in the media, male domination of journalists organizations and low
understanding of gender issues among journalists;
- Taking into account the concerns, challenges and
recommendations that emanated from the gender surveys conducted by the IFJ, the
FAJ and the affiliates in the five sub regions of the African Continent;
- Considering the guidelines and standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in the workplace;
- Noting the gender policies and programmes of the African Union (AU)
and the UN Women;
- Recognising the contribution that women journalists
make to development in Africa,
- Considering that the conference has adopted a
comprehensive regional gender sensitive policy framework which mainstreams
gender into the structures, programmes
and processes of the FAJ that would
serve as a guiding tool to the unions and associations in the interest of
gender equality and equity as well as improve the chances for fair, balanced
and ethical reporting that will in turn positively impact the quality and
quantity of reporting from a gender perspective.
- Reaffirming the policies
and programmes of the FAJ, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and their affiliates around the fundamental and inalienable rights of
people for a just and equal society;
Hereby resolve:
1. To call on FAJ to encourage its affiliates to promote better
representation of women at all levels by setting some mechanisms such as quota
system and others;
2. To ensure the establishment and building of gender
structures and employment of gender coordinators in all affiliates and
regional associations;
3. To campaign for women to take up strategic
leadership positions;
4. To embark on a review of the statutes, constitutions and collective bargaining
agreements of its membership with a
view to mainstreaming gender equality into the operations of the unions and
associations as well as promoting gender concerns, in particular issues that
are specific to women in the workplace in order for the unions to be
able to genuinely advance the interests of women journalists;
5. To engage the media employers and editors, especially
in countries in conflict, so that they provide their employees - irrespective
of their gender- with a conducive work environment which guarantees their
safety and security;
6. To develop a systematic mentoring and training
programmes to address the specific needs and aspirations of young women journalists;
7. To advocate for gender education in the curriculum of
the journalism schools and other training institutions;
8. To campaign
side-by-side other relevant gender advocacy groups to eliminate gender
inequality and violence against women in the media industry of Africa and the
broader African society as well as unemployment, poor and unsafe working
conditions of female and male journalists;
9. To uphold the norms and standards of employment of the
ILO and ITUC on gender mainstreaming;
10.
To make
journalists trade unions and associations affiliated with the International
Federation of Journalists and the Federation of African Journalists
democratically accountable and responsive to the needs of both female and male
membership;
11. To urge the IFJ,
FAJ and their affiliated organisations to commit and mobilise more resources to
finance women structures and all other gender equality work in Africa;
12.
To establish
a continental Commission/Council for Gender Equality (CGE) to advance, promote
and protect gender equality within the journalists' movement and the media
industry in Africa;
13.To commit to build monitoring and evaluation systems of the gender policies and programmes in order to
assess progress;
14.
To allocate resources through gender budgeting
in order to address gender objectives more effectively;
Adopted
in Kigali, Rwanda
28
August 2011
For more information, please contact FAJ : + 221 33 8679596/97
FAJ represents 50.000 members in 38 countries