THE CONSORTIUM OF WOMEN'S NON-GOVERNMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS
A not-for-profit partnership registered in April, 1996.

THE MAIN GOALS OF THE CONSORTIUM ARE TO:

-	Implement the constitutional principle of equal rights, freedoms, and equal opportunities for women and men;
-	Increase the role of women's non-governmental organizations in building civil society;
-	Promote highly qualified women experts to the level of decision-making.

THE MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE CONSORTIUM

-	Promote and advocate interests of women;
-	Cooperate with authorities in order to improve legislation in the interests of women with the purpose of: - preventing domestic violence - protecting the reproductive health of the Russian population - supporting women's entrepreneurial initiative -  stopping women trafficking
-	Establish the system of public monitoring to control observance of the Russian and international legislation;
-	Educate and train women's organizations in developing leadership skills, promoting and advocating women's interests, and creating coalitions.

The Consortium is a coalition of 99 women's organizations from 37 regions of Russia. The Consortium is a part of the International Network of the CIS-USA Women's Consortium, established in 1993. The Network unites over 200 women's organizations, including 30 organizations in the USA, over 100 in Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine, and 99 organizations in Russia.

Member organizations of the Consortium represent interests of various professional groups of women: researchers, medics, entrepreneurs, farmers, journalists, and lawyers. Many of these groups try to solve specific women-related problems, such as violence against women, women trafficking, women's reproductive health, etc.

The Consortium supports its member organizations by providing consultations, training, and by jointly participating in various projects.

WOMEN'S INTERESTS PROMOTION AND ADVOCACY

Is aimed at creating favorable social environment for women, adopting laws ensuring equal rights, and at implementing non-discriminational policy by executive authorities. This type of activity is implemented by active participation of the Consortium members in the parliament hearings on issues of domestic violence, reproductive rights, demographic situation, labor rights, and taxation.

In close cooperation with the Consortium, the State Duma Committee on Women, Family and Youth Issues prepared a Concept paper on legislation aimed at ensuring equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women. The Concept paper was approved by the State Duma in October, 1997; and though not adopted as a law, it was sent to all subjects of the Russian Federation as an official document.

As a broad coalition of women's organizations, the Consortium prepared memorandums to the Russian President, the First Deputy Prime Minister who is the head of the Committee on improving the position of women, and to the Chair of the Central Electoral Committee.

Together with the Russian Women's Microfinance Network, its member organization, the Consortium initiated the process of amending the Law on the State Support of Small Entrepreneurship, through the Committee on Property, Economic Activity and Privatization. These amendments would allow non-governmental organizations to conduct microfinance activities without obtaining a banking license. The amendments to the Law passed the first hearing in the State Duma in October 1999.

Together with the President's Committee on Women, Family and Demography Issues, in November, 1997, the Consortium held a round table to discuss the issue of domestic violence. It was the final part of the conference entitled "Violence in the family - violence in the society". A similar event was held in February, 1997, in cooperation with the Committee on Women, Family and Youth Issues.

Women's interests promotion and advocacy work is facilitated by Elena Ershova, the Coordinator of the Consortium, who is a member of the President's Committee on Women, Family and Demography Issues. Over ten members of the Consortium work in close cooperation with the Duma Committee on Women, Family and Youth Issues.

ESTABLISHING THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC MONITORING to control the observance of the Russian and international legislation, and to monitor activity of all branches of power is one of the major objectives of women's NGOs, and that of the Consortium as well. Due to lack of resources, it is impossible to create a comprehensive system now, but the Consortium together with its members identifies most obvious cases of offence against the law and gender discrimination. The Consortium informs about such cases its members, other NGOs, mass media, and authorities.

The Consortium developed the SYSTEM OF EDUCATING AND TRAINING WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS in developing leadership skills, promoting and advocating women's interests, and creating coalitions. The Consortium holds regular conferences, seminars, and trainings.

Among the newest SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES of the Consortium, the following should be mentioned:

-	Discussions on joint strategies of participation in parliament hearings together with other women's organizations;
-	Preliminary surveys of its members on issues posed by the Consortium in its open memorandums to the President and to the federal authorities.

Involvement of member organizations in such joint projects increases their self-awareness and teaches them in practice how to cooperate with state authorities and promote interests of women.

COOPERATION WITH MASS MEDIA
The Consortium holds regular press conferences and also sends its speakers to the Russian training center 'Praktika', where staffs of regional and local TV stations are trained.

ACTIVITIES IN THE SPHERE OF INFORMATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

-	The Consortium's Internet site contains information on the coalition, member organizations, official documents and laws that are important for women, and about major events in the women's movement.
-	35 member organizations underwent special training, and received modems and access to the Internet in 1998.
-	The Consortium initiated publishing of a series of books, documents and training manuals, important not only for participants of the women's movement, but for state officials as well. Among these publications, the most notable are: "Russian Women in the Labyrinth of Equal Rights", "Crisis Centers for Women: Sharing Experience of Establishment and Management", and "International Conventions and Declarations on the Rights of Women and Children" by S.Aivazova; "Women's Rights, Human Rights" and "We Declare Our Rights (How to Use the System of the Rights Protection" by J.Mertus.
-	The Consortium and its members actively participate in international, national and regional conferences. Among those there were the Fourth World Conference on the Status of Women (Beijing, 1995); conferences in Vienna (1993 and 1994), the conference "Women and Democracy" (Vienna, 1997, and Reykjavik, 1999); forums of the Association for Women and Development (Washington, 1996 and 1999); Violence against women conference (Moscow, 1998), and in all Russian national conferences. In December, 1998 the Consortium was one of the initiators of the readings on the women's movement in the context of the Russian history, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the First Russian National Women's Congress.

HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE CONSORTIUM
Any women's not-for-profit organization can become a member of the Consortium, if it shares the following principles:

-	Equal rights, freedoms, and equal opportunities for women and men;
-	Equal respect for women's organizations involved in different activities;
-	Absolute equality and independence for all member organizations of the Consortium;
-	Willingness to cooperate with other women's organizations.

Membership in the Consortium is free. To apply for membership in the Consortium, please forward your letter of request along with copies of your charter and registration documents, and letters of recommendation from two Consortium members, to wcons@com2com.ru.