The IHEU International Conference “Empowering Women”, conference was held on 15th and 16th November 2003 at Conway Hall, London, at which participants from 16 countries (Slovakia, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Iraq, Syria, Iran, India, Nepal, the United Kingdom and the United States) assembled. They unanimously passed a resolution calling on the United States government to ensure that the new Constitutions for Afghanistan and Iraq conform to the standards set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The conference discussed the main global problems of women today and agreed that the empowerment of women would be the best way of achieving the United Nations Millennium Goals. At the Millennium Summit in September 200, the 189 members states of the UN pledged to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The conference also agreed that women and men needed to stand side by side to fight for the equality between the sexes.

Within the Humanist movement, the issues of women’s empowerment must be mainstreamed. All member organisations of IHEU are urged to put gender on their political agenda. They are also urged to look within the policies and practices of their own organisations to ensure that the gender imbalance is addressed, that the voices of women are both heard and listened to, and that the leadership of women is encouraged, sustained and developed.