| Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC March 7, 2001 Program for African Group: "Women and the Law"The U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Visitors, in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, will sponsor a 21-day Africa regional project, "Women and the Law," March 19 - April 6, 2001. Participants will include judges, attorneys and court officials from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. In Washington, DC (March 19-24), the program participants will learn about the U.S. judicial system and women’s issues through meetings with government agency officials, lobbying groups, and academicians. The visitors will visit Capitol Hill, the Federal Judicial Center, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Association of Women Judges, and the Supreme Court. In Minneapolis, Minnesota (March 24-28) they will explore the role of the courts in family law, domestic violence and the rehabilitation of women offenders. The group will divide into two teams, for respective travel to Little Rock, Arkansas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (March 28-31). The teams will explore the role of women in state and local government, as well as how women in rural communities mobilize in order to be heard in the political process. To conclude the program, the teams will reunite in San Francisco, California (March 31-April 6) to view non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups that work to promote the rights of women in the U.S. and abroad. The group will also observe the role of women in economics, education, and health care. Media representatives may contact Catherine L. Stearns, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, at (202) 619-5053 or cstearns@pd.state.gov. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through international educational and training programs. The bureau does so by promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and organizations in the United States and abroad, as well as by presenting U.S. history, society, art and culture in all its diversity to overseas audiences. Further information is available at http://exchanges.stategov. The Bureau administers the International Visitor Program, operating under authority of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (Fulbright-Hays Act), to increase mutual understanding through communication at the personal and professional levels. The International Visitor Program brings participants to the United States from all over the world each year to meet and confer with their professional counterparts and to experience the United States firsthand. The visitors, who are current or potential leaders in government, politics, the media, education, and other fields, are selected by American Foreign Service Officers overseas. More than 186 current and former Heads of State, 1,500 cabinet-level ministers, and many other distinguished world leaders in government [end] |
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