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and sharing through lived experiences

Congratulations Sarah Rennie!

A bit late but we would like to congratulate Sarah on her new role!

Sarah Rennie

Sarah Rennie, from the West Midlands, is the new President of the Access Association.

Having been a qualified property litigation solicitor, she founded a disability and access consultancy company, which provides access advice, training and disabled consumer feedback programmes for nationwide companies. At the moment she is pursuing an MSc in Accessibility and Inclusive Design.

We are in for an exciting year as in her statement of intention Sarah stated ‘ Now is the time to be bold. We have nothing to lose, much to claw back and an awful lot to gain.’

Michelle Daley interviewed on disability and ethnicity on Vox Africa

We are very proud that one of the Sisters of Frida, Michelle Daley, was interviewed on STM (SHoot the Messenger) Vox Africa.

She spoke on being a disabled black woman in her community.

Michelle Daley

Michelle Daley (click on image for video)

We apologise for the lack of a transcript. If anybody can help with that please let us know.

UN raises important questions about women’s rights in the UK – what response will they get from the Government?

Sisters of Frida have been involved in the CEDAW working group and Armineh Soorenian has contributed to the report on disabled women.

From The Women Resource

The UN CEDAW Committee have sent their first list of issues and questions to the UK Government ahead of their full examination in July 2013.

This is a response to the Government’s report submitted in June 2011 and has also been heavily influenced by the suggested lists of issues and questions sent by women’s organisations and others, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), and by the presentations given by a delegation of women from the UK at the Committee’s Pre-session Working Group meeting on October 22nd.

It is very encouraging to see this connection and to feel that engagement in these high-level processes is able to influence the outcomes and can lead to the Government being held to account on the issues that we know affect women in the UK every day. We hope that ultimately this will lead to strong recommendations from the UN next year and to the Government changing policy and ensuring that women’s rights are fully realised here.

Questions relating specifically to disabled women:

On the media representation of women (Article 5):
Provide information on measures taken to project a positive image of women in the media, in particular ethnic and minority women, elderly women and women with disabilities.

On social and economic benefits (Article 13):

  • Provide information about actions envisaged to assess the impact of the introduction of the Universal Credit on women’s economic independence.
  • Indicate the impact of the changes in the welfare system and the pension reform (2008) on older women, women with disabilities and ethnic minorities.

Read the rest of the article at The Women Resource site