Short biography
Dr. Anne Bergheim-Nègre, Attorney at law, President of “University Women of Europe”
Vice President in charge of Equality – Conference of INGOs – Council of Europe
A long time feminist, and very active on the European level. Former president of University Women in France (AFFDU), a lawyer and an activist.
Based near Paris, see her profile in LINKEDIN – Bilingual English-French
Mob. + 33 (0)6 86 46 23 09 anne.negre orange.fr – http://www.annenegre.com
Long biography
Attorney at law Vice President in charge of Equality Conference of INGOs – Council of Europe
Since my studies, gender equality has always been at the thread that guide my professional, political and NGO actions. Phd in Law, I am a barrister, bar of Versailles, France, specialized in labour law and discriminations, formed in an office near the Supreme Court, ombudswoman,
I teach at University “Paris 1 – Panthéon – Sorbonne”. At the same time, I have also been leading a number of INGOs that promote gender equality at a national, european and international level.
Past president and still board member of the “Association Française des Femmes Diplômées des Universités”, AFFDU, founded in 1920 to be the French branch of an international federation named now” Graduate Women International, GWI”, organization that I directed, accredited wih UN Agency, I used to represent GWI at UNESCO in Paris.
In 1980, have been created, University Women of Europe, UWE, coming member of the Conference of INGO. UWE is a member of the board of European Women’s Lobby, EWL, 4000 women’s associations in Europe.
Working in networks, we have pushed to introduce constitutional change in France to enforce « parity » and have lobbied for the inclusion of Equality as a fundamental value of European Constitution and not a simple objective. With the Foundation of Mediterranean Women, with UNESCO at the Commission of the Status of Women, UN, we have built partnerships and have been working on CEDAW.
For nearly 18 years , I am a member of the Board of the non profit organization, called « Safeguard of Children, Adolescent, Adult » Yvelines, France , dedicated to helping the most vulnerable through education, prevention , disability and theater , exclusion (800 salaries).
As an elected town councilor and a political leader of a French centrist party in which I was in charge of gender equality for more than 12 years, I worked to implemante equality in the legislation, the gendermeanstreaming in the political programmation and actions.
Today, I am the UWE Gender Equality Advisor and Coordinator to promote Woman participation on corporate boards and position making. I have worked on this topic with the European task force set up by the European Commission. Our NGOs play a critical role to ensure that this humanist vision can translate into the law and be actually implemented. After a 3-year term as Expert Equality between Women and Men, with you, we can continue this mission to make Equality effective and concrete.
MY WORKS ON THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL CHARTER
The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees fundamental social and economic rights as a counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to civil and political rights. It guarantees a broad range of everyday human rights related to employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare.
The Charter lays specific emphasis on the protection of vulnerable persons such as elderly people, children, people with disabilities and migrants. It requires that enjoyment of the above mentioned rights be guaranteed without discrimination. No other legal instrument at pan-European level can provide such an extensive and complete protection of social rights as that provided by the Charter, which also serves as a point of reference in European Union law; most of the social rights in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights are based on the relevant articles of the Charter.
The Charter is therefore seen as the Social Constitution of Europe and represents an essential component of the continent’s human rights architecture. The European Social Charter of the Council of Europe allows organizations entitled to file collective complaints since 1995. Of the 47 member States of the CoE, 15 accept the collective complaints. No organization has filed any complaint for violation of the Social Charter for no respect of an equal pay between women and men for an equal job or for under representation of women in decision making. I have proposed this action to UWE, accepted unanimously, then I launched the 15 collective complaints as an attorney at law. It has been never done before against all the 15 Members States. On July 4, 2017, we have obtained 15 decisions of admissibility. Now, we are in the phases on the merit. The States concerned are: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, France, Finland, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Portugal, Cyprus, Ireland, Norway.
WHICH ACTIONS FOR A VICE PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF EQUALITY OF THE CONFERENCE OF INGO’S OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE ?
• Liaising with the Conference and its members
• Work with the different pillars of the Council of Europe
• Be active in the different networks
• Promoting the Convention on Elimination and Discriminations against Women, CEDAW • Promoting the application of Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestics violence and other international treaties
• Work on the media, to highlight models of European women
• Promote education, encourage girls to into scientific and management positions, the
training throughout the life to empower women
• Promote the revision of the history taught and the real place of women in the past
• Promote the feminization of the languages, to impose the feminization of titles, functions and official naming particularly in the working languages of the Council of Europe
• Promote gender equality, parity, in all legislations, in all elected assemblies, facilitate the inclusion of women in decision-making position, in companies including there boards
• Prohibiting inequal pay for equal job
• Encourage the most favored European Woman Clause
• Encourage an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspectives in all policies and programmes so that before any decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, inclusive and transversal.
Anne Nègre anne.negre orange.fr and personal BLOG httpwww.annenegre.com
UWE Chair : Edith LOMMERSE
E-mail : edith.lommerse gmail.com and https://uweboard.wordpress.com
Graduate Women International
48, Chemin du Grand Montfleury, CH-1290, Versoix, Geneva, Switzerland
(+41) 22 731 23 80 gwi graduatewomen.org – and – Website
You can download these documents: ANNE NEGRE 2018.en
4th March 2019
Women united to better our world 