National Commissions: Good Practices for the Promotion of Gender Equality

 
Austrian Commission for UNESCO: Gender Activities


1. Accordance of UN Decade Status to projects on Education for Sustainable Development:

In 2005, the Austrian Commission for UNESCO has established an expert advisory board “Education for Sustainable Development and Global Learning” in the framework of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This expert advisory board awards twice a year the UN-Decade Status to projects in Education for Sustainable Development.
Sustainability can only be realised locally. It is therefore crucial to support local partners. The award of Austrian UN Decade Projects, which is allocated by the Austrian Commission for UNESCO in cooperation with the Ministries in charge, emphasises this idea. The award aims at making the UN Decade Education for Sustainable Development visible in Austria. Moreover it allows the stakeholders to network and to exchange ideas.
Several projects that have been awarded the Decade Status focus on gender. One example is the project “Nachhaltige Geschlechterbilder” (Sustainable Gender Images). The technical office for landscape planning and consulting Knoll & Szalai developed the guideline “Focus Gender. Guideline for Media Design” on request of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. The guideline focuses on the visual display of themes in the field of sustainable development and gives concrete operation procedures from a gender perspective. The guideline aims at representatives of organisations which publish in the area of sustainable development and at professionals who design media in general such as journalists. Knoll & Szalai has also held workshops and other awareness raising events on media design with a gender perspective for this target audience.


2. Cultural Diversity:

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted with an overwhelming majority in 2005, became effective on 18 March 2007. In 2007, several symposiums and meetings were held on the subject of cultural diversity, always featuring members of the Working Group and representatives of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO as lecturers. A dominant theme of the year was “gender and cultural diversity” for the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, on which platform discussions were organised within the scope of several Austrian cultural festivals. One of those events was the “UNESCO Lounge” held by the Austrian National Commission for UNESCO at the Ars Electronica in Linz on 8 September with experts in media, law and gender mainstreaming. The experts discussed how the Convention can help strengthen democracy and gender equality and encourage a diverse cultural production.


3. Activities in the framework of the International Year of Astronomy:

The Austrian Commission for UNESCO focuses on the cornerstone project “She is an Astronomer” for the International Year of Astronomy.
In May 2009 the Austrian Commission for UNESCO supported the event “Was hält der Kosmos noch für Dich bereit?”. The activity, organised by the Wiener Urania in cooperation with the Observatories of Vienna, aimed at getting young people and especially girls interested in jobs in the field of Astronomy, Engineering and Natural Sciences through presentations and workshops.
A similar event is planned for autumn 2009 in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture in the framework of the activities of the Cultural European Capital 2009, Linz. 100 students from UNESCO schools in the region will be invited to the ARS Electronica Centre for one morning. A stipendiary of the L’OREAL-UNESCO scholarship “For Women in Science”, Austria, will give a presentation about her work as an Astronomer. A second Astronomer will talk about her work at a ground station. Furthermore an exhibition on astronomical objects will be displayed.
Moreover a Poetry evening is planned in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture for the end of 2009 in Vienna. A female celebrity will read out poems on Astronomy written by women and an Astronomer will give a presentation on the “sound of the stars”.

See also

The Austrian Commission for UNESCO