MEETINGS AROUND THE WORLD

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK AGAINST THE TRAFFIC IN WOMEN International strategy meeting, 6-15 April 1983, Rotterdam.

This network originated at the Copenhagen Forum held in 1980 in conjunction with the United Nations Mid-decade Conference on Women. A number of sessions were held on female sexual slavery and sex tourism, and many women present felt the need for an on-going network. This network is now coordinated from the offices of the International Women's Tribune Center in New York, and is currently organising a "strategy meeting" to be held in Rotterdam (Netherlands) from 6-15 April 1983

The network explains that, "traditionally forced prostitution has been somewhat euphemistically referred to as 'traffic in women' thus often masking the actual conditions of involuntary servitude and violence against women that this practice entails. We proceed from a feminist definition of the problem based on the concept of female sexual slavery as defined by Kathleen Barry (in Female Sexual Slavery, 1979): 'female sexual slavery is present in all situations where women or girls cannot change the immediate
conditions of their existence; where regardless of how they got into those conditions they cannot get out; and where they are subject to sexual violence and exploitation.' "

The meeting in Rotterdam will be a closed series of working sessions involving a small number of participants representing all world regions and who are involved in diverse aspects of feminist activism on these issues. One of the aims of the meeting will be to develop immediate and long range strategies for combatting different forms of
female sexual slavery.

There will be a chance for wider participation - on Friday 15 April, when an "open day" will enable local women and those from elsewhere to come together for discussions and sharingon the issues. For further details about this write to: Marianne Ketting, Erasmus Universiteit, Postbus 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands.

EUROPEAN WOMEN AND HEALTH MEETING Edinburgh, 25-27 May 1983

The World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe and the Scottish Health Education Group (SHEG) are organising an conference on women and health in Scotland from 25—27 May this year. The first part of the conference will be spent examining the health structures which affect women and their health, and the second part
to discussion on specific health questions such as "medicalisation", birth control, alcohol and drug abuse, sexuality, violence against women, women and work, women and disabilities, mental health and aging.

Participants, by invitation only, will include researchers, activists in the feminist movement, health education officers, and representatives of the WHO and SHEG. There will be between 150 and 200 people, almost all from the European region.

A "Health Fair" will take place immediately after the conference, beginning in the evening of 27 May and continuing through the whole of 28 May. This Fair is organised by local groups and will consist of exhibitions, displays, workshops on alternative health projects and methods. It is open to all women who can manage to make the
journey to Scotland at that time. For further details on the Health Fair, write to: The Scottish Health Education Group, Health Education Centre, Woodburn House, Ganaan Lane, Edinburgh EHIO 4SG, Scotland.

WOMEN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL AND MEETING ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS July 1984

The International Contraception, Abortion and Sterilisation Campaign — ICASC — is organising an international tribunal and meeting on reproductive
rights, to be held in Mexico in July 1984.

The aim of the tribunal is to expose violations of women's right to decide if and when to have children, by coercive and racist practices, by laws and religion, and by medical practices and economic policies. It will bring together women from all parts of the world in order to share experiences and information and to identify priorities for
international solidarity and action. T

he event will be a mixture of open plenary sessions when participants will make personal statements of their experiences or the experiences of women they work with, and smaller workshops for discussion and more informal exchange of experience and knowledge. Among the topics for suggested tribunal sessions are: contraception, abortion
and sterilisation — availability and informed choice; effects of population control policy and ideology on our lives; drug companies, drug dumping and contraception abuse; sexuality and self-determination; the impact of pregnancy and having children on women's health and lives. The proposed topics for discussion sessions are more
practically oriented, and include: international solidarity work; countering the ideology of population control and resisting the policies; developing a good health care system for women; fighting drug companies' power and policies; high technology birth control versus traditional methods — feminist perspectives; skill-sharing sessions, e.g. fitting
a diaphragm.

ICASC hopes to provide all meals, accommodation and creche. There will be translation into English, French, Spanish and at least one other language . Please write to them now if you are interested in participating.

April 6-9, 1983: HEALTH, SAFETY AND THE CONSUMER venue: National Women's Education Centre, Ranzan, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

organizer: International Organization of Consumers Unions (lOCU), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Penang, Malaysia

The seminar will bring together leading consumer advocates and activists from lOCU member organizations. Selected environmental and pharmaceutical specialists,
investigative journalist, representatives of UN agencies involved in policies on health and safety issues and community organizers will also attend.

The seminar will provide a forum for exchange and sharing of experiences on health and safety issues; will examine the ways groups organize themselves
for local and global networking and action; will encourage solidarity and concerted action at all levels for better consumer protection.

For further information please contact: Ms Susan Slew, Facilities Coordinator, Seminar on Health, Safety and the Consumer, lOCU Regional Office for
Asia and the Consumer, P.O. Box 1045, Penang, Malaysia, Telex: MA 40164 APIOCU. Cable: INTEROCU PENANG.

April 9-12, 1983: COMMON DIFFERENCES: THIRD WORLD WOMEN AND FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES venue: University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, USA
organizer: Office for Women's Resources and Services

The main goal of this international conference is to provide a forum where issues pertaining to the third world women can be articulated in relation to the recent developments in feminist theories. The organizers are using the term "third world women" to include women from developing countries as well as women from minority communities in industrialized countries. Their concern is the desire to explore and debate issues related to race and class as they bear upon the general concern
of feminist theory with gender and marginality.

For further information please contact: Office for Women's Resources and Services, 346 Fred H. Turner Student Services Building, 610 East John Street,
Champaign, Illinois 61820, tel. (217) 333 3137.

April 16, 1983: WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT venue: Quebec,Canada organizer: Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women

The topics under consideration are: Women and Unions, Sexual Harassment on the Job, Retraining, Re-entry, Alternatives to Wage Employment, Job Safety.

For more information contact: The Director, CCLOW (Quebec), The New School of Dawson College, 485 McGill Street, Montreal, H2Y 2H4.

April 23, 24, 25,1983: WOMEN AND WORK venue: Turin, Italy organizer: Casa delle Donne

The topics are: Women's work: where, who, how much...; between production and reproduction; Sexual discrimination. Work related health hazards
and more.

For more, information contact: Casa delle Donne, via Fiochetto 13, 10152 Torino, Italy.

June 24-26,1983: BLACK WOMEN'S HEALTH CONFERENCE venue: Spelman College, Atlanta,Georgia, USA organizer: National Women's Health Network

Endorsed by Black organizations and consumer groups, this national conference will give Black women a chance to talk about health care problems facing
them, their families, and communities, and to learn how to live healthier lives. Issues to be addressed at the conference include: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, teenage pregnancy, stress, sexism, racism, domestic violence, maternal and child health, sterilization abuse, diet and nutrition, dental hygiene, abortion and rape.

For more information contact: Billye Y. Avery, Project Coordinator, Black Women's Health Project, 605 N.E. 7th Terrace, Gainesville, Florida 32601.

July, 1983: SECOND LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN MEETING venue: Lima, Peru

For more information contact: Colectivo Organizador del II Encuentro Feminista Latinoamericano y del Caribe. Apartado Postal 5294, Lima 100, Peru.

June 12-18, 1983: WOMEN, RELIGION AND SOCIAL CHANGE venue: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

organizer: a working group on Women and Social Values of the Berkeley/Harvard cooperative program on Social Values in a Comparative Perspective

While basic attitudes, values, ideologies and religious images are crucial to the struggles of women in various parts of the world, both in negative and positive
ways, both on the right and on the left, there has been no occasion on which women from a variety of contexts have gathered to discuss the question
of the relation of religion and social values in their concerns. This conference wants to begin that discussion.