Norwegian Women's Lobby
The Norwegian Women's Lobby (NWL; ) is a feminist policy and advocacy organization in Norway and works for "the human rights of girls and women in all their diversity, to eliminate all forms of discrimination against all girls and women and to promote a gender equal society." It is described as the country's "main, national, umbrella organization" for women's rights. NWL is inclusive, understands women's human rights and discrimination in an intersectional perspective and "works to represent the interests of all those who identify as women and girls." NWL is funded by the government over the national budget. The mission of the organization is to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls on the basis of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action and other fundamental international agreements relating to women's human rights. It works to integrate women's perspectives into all political, economical and social processes. The implementation of the CEDAW convention is a major focus for NKL, and it works to enhance the implementation, visibility and relevance of CEDAW within politics and society. It states that it "brings together both the key women’s organisations and the leading experts on women’s rights in Norway" and that it has a focus on being a "cooperation partner for the government [and] to contribute to the representation of the Norwegian women's movement in international forums." NWL has stated that "NWL understands discrimination against girls and women in an intersectional perspective—in line with the legal interpretations of the CEDAW Committee and international human rights norms—and opposes racism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism." NWL has ten member organizations with a total of nearly 50,000 members and was founded in 2014 by the Norwegian women's organisations on the initiative of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights, and in accordance with the recommendations of the government-appointed Gender Equality Commission. It was inspired by the European Women's Lobby and also corresponds to comparable umbrella organizations in other countries such as the German Women's Council and the CEDAW Alliance Germany, and the National Women's Council of Ireland. Its member organizations include the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights and the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association, the oldest and largest women's organizations in Norway, respectively. History The Norwegian Women's Lobby was founded on 27 January 2014 by eight nationwide women's rights organisations and several experts on the initiative of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (NKF), Norway's oldest and preeminent women's rights NGO, founded in 1884. Its establishment was initiated by NKF Presidents Margunn Bjørnholt, Karin M. Bruzelius and Torild Skard. The establishment of NWL was in accordance with the recommendations of the government-appointed Gender Equality Commission, whose chair Hege Skjeie was actively involved with NWL. Its founding president was Margunn Bjørnholt, a professor of sociology and the NKF President at the time. In 2017 Ragnhild Hennum, a professor of public law, pro-rector of the University of Oslo and director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, was elected president