The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association and Stockholm Feminist Film Festival has conducted an evaluation of gender (in)equality in films screened in Icelandic cinemas and on RÚV – the Icelandic Broadcasting Service in 2016. The evaluation shows that of all the films screened in Icelandic cinemas in 2016 (187 films) : 93% were directed by men...Read More

Welcome to a panel discussion on the gender gap on the big screen, Friday February 24th, at 5 p.m. in Bíó Paradís. The reason for the panel is the shocking gender gap of the directors of the films screened in cinemas as shown in a new study that STIFF conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The February 2017 issue of the IAW newsletter discusses the Women’s March on Washington and sister marches around the world. It gives news about the upcoming CSW61 which takes place in NY on March 15-25, and provides...Read More

Calling on people of all genders and nationalities to join our sisters in solidarity with the historic Women’s March on Washington. Saturday, January 21 at 2 p.m. Route: Arnarhóll to Austurvöllur. Speakers: Xárene Eskandar, Brynhildur Heiðar- og Ómarsdóttir, Hilmar Bjarni Hilmarsson, Guðrún Inga Ingólfsdóttir, Paul Fontaine, Randi W. Stebbins. THIS MARCH IS ALL INCLUSIVE. MISSION:...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The December 2016 issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The newsletter gives information to members who wish to participate in the next IAW Congress in Zimbabwe and who wish to participate at CSW61 in...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has opened a web portal with links to articles, reports, videos and other material on women’s rights in Iceland, written in the English language. The list covers several aspects of the Icelandic society: gender equality, the equal pay standard, the labor market, parental leave, prostitution and human trafficking, gender-based violence,...Read More

Income Equality Now! Let‘s Walk Out on Monday, October 24th, at 2:38 p.m.! Women are encouraged to leave their work at 2:38 p.m. on Monday, October 24th, and join us in demanding income equality on Austurvöllur, in front of Alþingi. The demonstrations will begin at 3:15 p.m. The average wages of women in Iceland are...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The October 2016 issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The newsletter gives information to members who wish to participate in the next IAW Congress in Zimbabwe, news about CEDAW and the Istanbul convention, and...Read More

200 people demonstrated outside Althingi, the Icelandic parliament, on October 3rd 2016, to protest the proposed ban on abortion in Poland. Women all over the world demonstrated against this proposed ban, with tens of thousands of people participating in demonstrations in Polish cities. Brynhildur Heiðar- og Ómarsdóttir, the managing director of the Icelandic Women’s Rights...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The August 2016 issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The newsletter gives information to members who wish to participate in the next IAW Congress in Zimbabwe, news about BREXIT and about the campaign for...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The June issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. Our hostess in Zimbabwe presents herself in this Newsletter and there is a new deadline for registration for Congress: July 1. IAW has joined an international...Read More

Amnesty International now endorses the decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry. It is therefore the official policy of Amnesty that the buying and selling of sex should be decriminalized, as well as the intermediation of prostitution, i.e. pimping and brothels. Amnesty International claims that this proposal protects the human rights of those involved in...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The April issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The newsletter gives information to members who wish to participate in the next IAW Congress in Zimbabwe. We have reports from CSW 60, where Agreed Conclusions...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Assocation has, in cooperation with the Icelandic Human Rights Office, Stígamót, the Women’s Legal Aid, and Amnesty in Iceland, submitted a shadow report to the UN in preparation for the 26th UPR session in October 2016. The report lists the concerns of the reporting group with the Icelandic government’s adherence to...Read More

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the CEDAW committee, just published its concluding observations on the Icelandic state’s gender equality work. Iceland is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The state signed the CEDAW convention in Copenhagen in 1980, and Althingi, the Icelandic...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The February issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The newsletter focuses primarily on IAW at CSW 60 and on other IAW activities. Read the IAW newsletter for February 2016 here.Read More

Brynhildur Heiðar- og Ómarsdóttir, the executive manager of the Icelandic Women’s Rights Assocation, had a private meeting with members of the UN CEDAW committee today, answering any questions they might have reading the shadow report the organization submitted earlier this year in cooperation with the Icelandic Human Rights Centre. Margrét Steinarsdóttir, the executive manager of...Read More

The 63rd session of CEDAW, the  Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, was formally opened at the UN building in Geneva this morning. Iceland’s compliance with the CEDAW Convention is on the agenda. The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association submitted a shadow report to the committee in cooperation with the Icelandic Human Rights Centre....Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association and Icelandic Human Rights Office have submitted a shadow report to the UN CEDAW Committee, on Iceland’s implementation of the Convention. Iceland ratified CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, in 1985. On 17 February 2016, Iceland will be formally reviewed as to its...Read More

In 2015 we celebrated the 100 year anniversary of women’s suffrage in Iceland. In honor of this anniversary, the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association commissioned an exhibition about the history of the struggle for women’s rights in the 20th century. The exhibition is bilingual, with text in Icelandic and English. This exhibition travelled around the country...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The December issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. President Joanna Manganara in cooperation with EWL has sent a letter to the EU Commission about the urgent need for an EU strategy on equality. Preparations...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has submitted a report to the internationa journal Global Information Society Watch. GISWatch is published annually, and its articles reflect perspectives on implementation of international and national commitments made by governments towards the creation of an inclusive information society. This year, the theme of GISWatch was “Sexual Rights and the...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The October issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. This issue of the Newsletter focuses mainly on the International Meeting of the IAW in Paris October 6-11. There are two invitations for events at the...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. Their IAW journal has been published since 1906. The newest edition was just published online, and focuses on the different regions of the world and selects an issue that is of particular relevance to each region and...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association attended a conference discussing women’s rights in the small states of Europe. Representatives from Andorra, Iceland, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco og San Marino delivered reports on the status of women in their states and women’s participation in decision making. The conference was organized by the National Council of Women of Luxembourg (CNFL) and...Read More

Icelandic Women’s Rights Association / Icelandic Teachers’ Union Equality Committee Hallveigarstaðir, Túngata 14, 101 Reykjavík Wednesday, 21 October 2015, 3 p.m. This Nordic panel will focus on teaching feminism and gender studies at the secondary level. The panelists discuss the challenges and opportunities of teaching gender studies in high schools, teaching materials, pedagogy and target...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The August issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The issue discusses the International Meeting which will be held in Paris this year and provides information about registration. It also includes reports and messages from...Read More

This year, we celebrate the 100 year anniversary of women‘s suffrage in Iceland. To mark the occasion, the Icelandic Women‘s Rights Association invites you to view an English exhibition on the history of the women‘s movement in Iceland. Join us at Hallveigarstaðir, Túngata 14 for coffee and waffles, on Reykjavík Culture Night, Saturday 22 August,...Read More

Amnesty International has for over half a century worked tirelessly to create a world free of violence, a society based justice and human rights. The organization is both highly trusted and respected, a reputation we are hopeful will continue to support their work in the future. This weekend, on 7–11 August 2015, the International Council...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The June issue of the IAW newsletter has just been published. The International Meeting in Kuwait has been cancelled for security reasons. The Union of Kuwaiti Women regrets that they cannot host the next IAW meeting, but...Read More

Mitsuko Shino, the Japanese ambassador to Iceland, will give a lecture on the status of women and feminism in Japan, at Hallveigarstaðir, Túngata 14, on Friday the May 22nd, at 12 p.m. The lecture will be in English, and Ambassador Shino will answer questions from the audience at the end of her talk. The Icelandic Women’s Rights...Read More

Three years ago, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, then the prime minister of Iceland, introduced a radical new tool in the fight against gender inequality. The Equal Pay Standard, ÍST 85:2012, is a national standard, conceived and composed in Iceland. The Equal Pay Standard is the culmination of years of intense negotiations between representatives from labor unions and employers‘...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association has been a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1907. The April 2015 issue of the IAW newsletter introduces the next international meeting of the IAW, which will be held in Kuwait November 5 to 14 2015. Participants in the meetings are presidents of IAW member organizations, board,...Read More

In June 2014, 30 thousand women from 51 countries gathered together in Malmö, Sweden, to discuss future challenges to women and girls in the world. The conference, Nordic Forum – New Action on Women‘s Rights, was organized by women‘s organizations from all over the Nordic region, and goal of the conference was two promote and...Read More

[youtube height=”360″ width=”640″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez75Ws4EgAM[/youtube] One can‘t simply order a revolution, neither how it begins nor its trajectory once in motion. Revolutions are by their very nature spontaneous affairs; disorderly, sustained by people who unite in a common cause, demanding that society itself change. Kvenréttindafélag Íslands, the Icelandic Women‘s Rights Association, is born of one such revolution,...Read More

Non-governmental organizations around the world have signed a statement to protest that the political declaration on women’s rights adopted at the opening session of the 59th meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women lacks inclusion of LBTI people. This “Political declaration on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth...Read More

Around 1000 women’s organizations around the world have signed a statement to protest the bland declarations on women’s rights adopted at the opening session of the 59th meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. This “Political declaration on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women”...Read More

Kvenréttindafélag Íslands, along with other women’s organizations in Iceland, will host a a side event at the 59 session of the Commission on the Status of Women that will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 20 March 2015. Cool Feminism: Exploring Ideas from the North introduces feminist activism in...Read More

The February 2015 issue of the IAW newsletter introduces the declaration which will be adopted on the first day of the CSW 59, the 2015 meeting of the Commission for the Status of Women, which will take place in New York March 9-20 2015. IAW will host three side events at the CSW, “Lessons Learnt...Read More

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association (IWRA) was founded on January 27th 1907, at the home of Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir. IWRA was the first formal organization of Icelandic women focusing its efforts on the struggle for political equality between men and women, as well as equal opportunities in education and profession. For more than a century, the...Read More

The December 2014 issue of the IAW newsletter includes an update on the discussion on prostitution in  Canada and Ireland; news flashes from Egypt, Pakistan, India and the UK, and information about the session hosted by IAW at the CSW 59, the 2015 meeting of the Commission for the Status of Women, which will take...Read More

On December 8, Brynhildur Heiðar- og Ómarsdóttir and Þórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir met with Slovenian academics and politicians and participated in a panel discussing women in politics. A video recording of the panel is now online. Enjoy! [youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://youtu.be/KulBnChBu4Y[/youtube]  Read More

You are cordially invited to attend the international conference “WHAT CAN ICELAND TEACH US”, which will be held on Monday, December 8th, 2014 at 11am at the Faculty of Arts (Blue Room). Latest research from the World Economic Forum which quantifies the magnitude of gender-based disparities through the Global Gender Gap Index shows the difference...Read More

A working group at the Ministry of Welfare presented a draft of a new legislation legalizing non profit surrogacy in Iceland at the end of November 2014. Non-governmental organizations and civil societies were invited to comment on this legislation before it goes up before Althingi. The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association sent a brief to the...Read More

The latest issue of the IAW newsletter includes information how NGO’s can register for the CSW 59, the 2015 meeting of the Commission for the Status of Women, which will take place in New York March 9-20 2015. The main focus of CSW 59 will be the Beijing Platform for Action and the progress made...Read More

International Alliance of Women has begun publishing its newsletters online. This first online issue includes an article by Gudrun Haupter on child marriage and an introduction to a landmark resolution on the Situation of Women and Children agreed upon at the 55th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The newsletter...Read More