Wanda Nowicka, Poland

Photo by Madeline Djerejian

“The Polish women's movement is still quite new. We use international standards to show the Polish people what our government should be doing. Poland should be on board with human rights, with democracy, with gender equality. I am a founder of ASTRA, the Central and Eastern European Women's Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Its members use the achievements of HERA and other networks for their own national and regional work. It's important that these networks support each other and push an international agenda in order to work efficiently in our own countries and to gain government commitments. When an international conference results in a good document, we can use that for lobbying and advocacy. Currently, our biggest challenge is the right-wing backlash at all levels. It's a constant battle. We need to attend international conferences and to maintain a focus on implementation of agreements, because the Cairo and Beijing gains can be easily taken away.”

About Wanda

Wanda Nowicka, a classicist by profession, first became active in the nascent movement of nongovernmental organizations in Poland in response to the Church's growing involvement in the public sphere. When women's rights came under attack and criminalization of abortion began to be discussed in Poland in the early 1990s, Wanda cofounded the Federation for Women and Family Planning. She has run the organization since its inception, first as president and now as its executive director. The Federation was active in the campaign to change Poland's 1993 anti-abortion law, and continues to monitor and publicize the status of reproductive health and rights of Polish women. In 1999 Wanda, with others, created ASTRA, a new network of activist organizations promoting women's sexual and reproductive health and rights throughout the region. Since 1996, Wanda has been an advisor to both the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization.

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