Aims and activities

The campaign focused on some specific objectives, namely to explain the consequences of the ratification of the EU treaties and of the implementation of the EU body law on the citizens’ daily lives, and to promote tolerance and understanding within the enlarged EU.

The project intended to help generate and spread specific knowledge on successful implementation strategies of the Law on Equal Treatment and Equal Opportunity Law in Hungary (2003) informed, among other things, by earlier explicitly gender directives (ranging from 75/117/EEC, 76!207/EEC, 92/85/EEC, 97/80/EC, 86/613/EEC, etc), the Copenhagen criteria of accession, the 78/2000/EC directive, and the gender equality provisions of the Lisbon Strategy. 

The film series (6 twenty-minute long films) help women understand the consequences of EU accession, especially regarding the gender implications of legal harmonization and the new opportunities and rights women gained in Hungary by accessing the European Union. By presenting everyday situations, each episode describes the present state of affairs from a certain angle, highlighting notorious problems. Following the route of a few women, standing for specific target groups, and showing their efforts in enforcing their rights, acquiring better jobs, starting a political career, etc., the films contain the information necessary for improving women’s situation as individuals and groups. The films use partly documentary, fictive and narrative elements with animated parts as well. At the end of each film, human rights/women’s organizations are listed in order to give useful information for those viewers, who might need legal and other sort of help for their personal problems.

The results of the focus group research that was carried out during the project show that the films evoked thoughts, feelings and discussions, raised the attention and interest towards the topic, passed on certain basic information in an easily understandable way, they were interesting and held the attention of the viewers. In case of those focus group members who were not already strongly opposed towards the topic of “gender issues”, the films influenced the way of their thinking about the topic in a positive direction.

The project was supported by the Directorate General Enlargement of the European Commission and by the Open Society Institute Network Women's Program.

Program manager: Zsuzsa Lestál