#NWEC_entire_continuance @Change.org

We are the Association for the Valuable Continuance of the National Women's Education Center.
On July 30, 2024, the Cabinet Office announced that regarding the National Women's Education Center (NWEC) in Ranzan-machi, Saitama Prefecture, they are going to demolish its accommodation building, training building, and gymnasium, and return the cleared land to Saitama Prefecture by 2030.
The main building will remain and be positioned as a “command post” to strengthen support for women's empowerment. We believe that this policy has the following problems.

1. Removing the universal-designed accommodation and training building from NWEC, which has advocated the elimination of discrimination, means taking away the place and denying the right to learn for diverse people including women, men, children, people with disabilities, people with foreign roots, and so on.

2. Removing a place for self-directed learning and communication and making it just a “command post” means depriving diverse people of opportunities to be heard, and will lead to receding the elimination of discrimination.

3. The government's plan as “function strengthening” after FY2025 such as online courses and lecturer dispatching to local gender equality centers cannot replace the training and accommodation buildings that guarantee a place for self-directed learning, and therefore it effectively means functional reduction.

4. Strengthening the policy under "women's empowerment" just to honor a select group of women who contribute to economic development leaves behind the difficulties of living due to discrimination. It ignores the reality of gender inequality in Japanese society. 

We suppose there are a lot that we could strengthen utilizing the current NWEC, such as trainings relevant to the "Act on Support for Women Facing Difficulties" that has been in effect since April 2024, newly established women's counseling and support officers, and so on. And relatively inexpensive and safe accomodation and training facilities such as the current one are required for interaction and learning between organizations and individuals who work together on gender equality policies. 

We call for the continuance and utilization of the current NWEC facility as a whole. NWEC received the 21st Library Fair & Forum Steering Committee Special Award as a "specialized library that you can stay overnight". Only by retaining the accommodation and training buildings can we guarantee the right to learn for diverse people.

We call for #NWEC_entire_continuance

https://chng.it/t9djSytGwf