An association to Defend, Promote and Spread the women’s rights
NGO with consultant status to UN
President: Gisèle HALIMI

The context of its creation

The association Choisir la cause des femmes was created in July 1971 by such personalities as Gisèle Halimi (lawyer), Simone de Beauvoir (philosopher, writer and 1st president of the association), Jean Rostand (Academy member), Christiane Rochefort (writer) and Jacques Monod (Nobel prize of Medicine).
Its original objectives were:
• Abolition of the repressive law of 1920 which forbade abortion
• Free defence for women sued for of illegal abortion
• Legal sales of contraception free of charge

In 1972, choisir la cause des femmes took on the famous Bobigny lawsuit. Then started in France an irreversible movement of opinion which was to lead later to the revision of the law of 1920 (in 1975, the Veil law legalized abortion).

As from 1974, objectives of the movement were aimed to cover the general status of women in society such as:
• Struggle against rape, physical and moral violence and cultural sexist schemes
• Struggle for equal professional rights
• Struggle for a better representation in public life

Choisir today

Choisir today is always active on national and international levels. The association intervenes in all debates that interfere with women’s rights and participates regularly in international meetings. Fame and reputation of its founding members, and especially Gisèle Halimi, presently president (renown international lawyer and writer) as well as all actions taken since 1971 give it an authority and credibility when dealing with public authorities.

Every three months, choisir publishes a magazine dispatched to its members in politics, trade unions, associative organizations and medias as well as abroad.

Several actions taken:

Judiciary action
Choisir takes the defence in several lawsuits:
• The right to have access to abortion
• Struggle against rape
• Struggle against discrimination at work

Political action
Choisir acts for better representation of women in politics:
• Presentation of women candidates in the general election of 1978 and European election of 1999
• Propositions of law by Gisèle Halimi, elected member of Parliament in 1981 (part refund of abortion is adopted)
• Political parity: in 1995, President Jacques Chirac puts into place the parity-observatory. Gisèle Halimi is its president; she prepares a report on why women are excluded from politics and how to alleviate this.

In 2000, at long last, a law is voted to put right rights for men and women to political mandates. But still a lot remains to be done...

Social action
Choisir exercises an action of vigilance and makes the following propositions:
• Republic and secularism
Choisir takes position about religious insignia in school in November 2003.
• Women’s pension
Choisir, via Gisèle Halimi, warms Members of Parliament in July 2003 of consequences regarding the reform for women’s pension.
• Women statute in the EU:
Choisir along with other associations in France and Europe demands that notion of equality between men and women is quoted in the second article of the future European Constitution.

Meeting and media
Choisir organizes meetings, debates and intervenes regularly in the media (television, radio, papers) by the voice of its President.

 

Contact: Choisir la cause des femmes
102, rue Saint-Dominique
75007 Paris FRANCE
Tel: +33 0(1) 47 05 21 48
Fax: +33 0(1) 45 51 56 10