The North-South Centre of the Council of Europe organised its second regional workshop for the Empowerment of Women to encourage the realisation of women’s rights from law to practices in the Euro-Mediterranean region, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria and with the support of the Government of the Portuguese Republic. 140 participants, members of governments and parliaments and civil society from the Southern Mediterranean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Council of Europe member States attended the Workshop with structured and international cooperation and dialogue through peer exchanges and networking at the core of the discussions.

Ms Ghania Eddalia, the Algerian Minister of National Solidarity, Family and Women, Ambassador Ali Mokrani, Director of the European Union and European Institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria, Ms Fafa Sid Lakhdar Benzerrouki, President of the Algerian National Human Rights Council, and Mr Daniele Cangemi, Council of Europe’s Head of the Human Dignity and Equality Department opened the Workshop. Based on the exchange of good practices, representatives of the Algerian Senat and Parliament and of the Government of Sweden, Tunisia and Portugal presented their respective national experiences in implementing women’s rights and gender equality.

Civil society experts from Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain and Palestine* presented good practices and promising initiatives to make gender equality a reality and combat violence against women. National, local and regional experiences will be part of the workshop’s operational conclusions as a compendium of good practices for consolidating regional cooperation and encouraging multi-sectoral partnerships. The workshop gave also youth representatives of the region an opportunity to share their own challenges and recommendations among quadrilogue representatives.

Representatives of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the North-South Centre and the United Nations Population Fund in Algeria concluded the session with a call for the need to reinforce international cooperation.

^{*This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of Council of Europe member States on this issue.}