Lecture: VIOLENCE TARGETING WOMEN / EQUALITY BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

The Consulate General of France in Washington,

The Office for Cooperation with Civil Society Organizations at the Embassy of France,

La Maison Française

present a panel discussion

on Tuesday, February 28 at 7PM

at La Maison Francaise

4101 Reservoir Rd, NW

Washington, DC 20007

The discussion is followed by a reception

Free reservation required

Moderator:

Patricia Ellis, Women's Foreign Policy Group
Ms. Ellis is President of the WFPG, an NGO which promotes women's leadership in international
affairs. Previously, she was a journalist for fifteen years and covered foreign affairs for the MacNeil-
Lehrer Newshour and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She also taught news coverage of
foreign affairs at American University's Washington Semester Program, worked at the US Mission to
the UN, and at MIT’S Center for International Studies. She was awarded a fellowship at Harvard's
Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy; received a scholarship from the Netherlands for
graduate study in The Hague; participated in the European Community Visitor’s Program; and was a
founding member of the International Women's Media Foundation. She also serves on the State
Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP).

Speakers :

Christine Clamens, managing director of Fédération Nationale Solidarité Femmes , since March 2003. Was formerly responsible for the Délégation en Europe de Enda Tiers Monde, a Senegal based NGO, which published Vivre Autrement, the daily French speaking newspaper during Rio and post Rio UN conferences (1992 – 1998) among which the 1995 Beijing conference.. She holds a Certificate in Management in the social field, a degree in Sociology and a degree in English.

The Fédération Nationale Solidarité Femmes is a network of nearly 70 associations which help, shelter, support women victims of domestic violences and their children all over France. FNSF was officially founded in 1987 but a number of its member associations were created in the 70’s.

The shelters and other places where women can find specific day support and help for police and legal procedures, health care, ….deal with about 30 000 women a year and shelter about 3 000 women and as many children. They offer specific services which encompass all the aspects of the women’s daily life (physical and psychological health, social grants, legal help, …)

FNSF is based in Paris. It created and still administers the national helpline for domestic violences, “the 3919”. The helpline answered more than 50 000 calls en 2010, of which nearly 20 000 had to do with domestic violence;

Besides the “3919 – Violences Conjugales Info”, the FNSF has other services : an observatory, a training service (for social workers and all professionals who have to do with domestic violence), an information and communication service .

Born of Algerian immigrant parents, Sihem Habchi, former president of the French movement Ni Putes Ni Soumises followed a course of study in secondary school and university that primarily involved linguistics and multimedia. She obtained a specialized degree in the field of multimedia at the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University in Paris, in 2001. After having taught French abroad to an audience predominately made up of women undergoing rehabilitation, she launched into multimedia production and oriented her research toward educational methods and multimedia directed at children.