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About Margaret Owen

Margaret Owen is a barrister and the founder and president of Widows for Peace through Democracy

Articles by Margaret Owen

Tuesday 1st March

Egypt: from equality of purpose to equality on the ground

Margaret Owen, 1 March 2011
"We acted together and we all adhere to the same values: justice, compassion, and unity, and these values are engraved in our souls. It is our unwritten constitution – the ethics inside all of us. Women died with men, and men protected us as women". Nora Rafeh Refa Tahtawy, 23 year old student protestor
Thursday 11th November

Turkey's judgement day: the trial of the Kurds

Margaret Owen, 11 November 2010
Margaret Owen, a member of the UK Independent Observer delegation, reports on the KCK trial in Diyarbakir before today's ruling
Monday 8th March

New York: no place for women in action

Margaret Owen, 8 March 2010
In an open letter to the United Nations Secretary General, the European Women's Lobby declares that "The 54th Session of the CSW...represents a step backwards by its failure to offer a new vision and mechanisms for implementation"
Wednesday 3rd March

Disillusionment, Anger and Protest.

Margaret Owen, 3 March 2010
At this Tuesday morning’s NGO consultation we women from the NGOs, attempting to participate in the 54th CSW, finally collectively erupted, en masse

The mother of all widows

Margaret Owen, 2 March 2010
So yesterday CSW formally opened and we NGOs, thousands of us,queue, crowd, jostle to get a seat either in the gallery of Conference Room A where the delegates are or to watch on the big screen the proceedings from Conference Room B. Although we are there by 9 am nothing gets going until after 10. Delegates are warned that colour blindness will not be accepted as an excuse if they ignore the orange light which tells them they have 30 seconds to stop speaking. Speakers for a group of countries have 10 minutes; mere single nations only 5...
Sunday 28th February

Widowhood: invisible for how much longer?

Margaret Owen, 28 February 2010
Margaret Owen has been trying to get the CSW to address the poverty of widows for 12 years. This is her last attempt. She describes going from despair to growling with anger to hope - all in a day
Tuesday 17th March

CSW and the Brief History of One Word......

Margaret Owen, 17 March 2009

After eight days  and evenings of effort, meetings, draftings, lobbying, talking, to all and sundry (Senior UN officials, government, NGOs) at the 53rd Session of the CSW and a fortune spent on getting to New York and paying for our incredibly overpriced hotel beds ( as the £ dived)  in order to get WIDOWS and WIDOWHOOD at least referenced in the Agreed Conclusions on the priority theme " Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between women and men, including care-giving in the context of HIV/AIDS", today I am gob smacked by our defeat. 

Friday 13th March

Fighting for the very poorest of the poor

Margaret Owen, 13 March 2009

Now in Washington DC, am trying to recover from last week's circus at the UN.. Rethinking surviving that first week of the 53rd session of the UN CSW, I have changed my mind. I am now, for probably the first time in the 11 years since I've been coming to New York, glad I made it there.

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