Nicole Lampert posts that Filia has reported itself to the Charity Commission.
https://x.com/nicolelampert/status/1979449142754607236?s=61
Letter to Nicole as per Nicole’s X Post
“Dear Nicole,
The FiLiA Trustees have been reflecting since our conference finished six days ago, listening to the many Women affected and looking after our team, who have worked exceptionally hard over the last two years in preparation for our largest and 10th conference. It is clear there are multiple perspectives and experiences and we want to start by acknowledging that this statement won’t satisfy everyone but we hope it reassures Women that we have listened, will continue to listen and are responding to the issues that occurred last weekend.
We are glad to have put on our 10th conference, despite the many setbacks that we experienced before it even began. We have received lots of positive feedback about the majority of the conference and we thank our volunteers, speakers, facilitators and attendees for their contributions and commitment to the weekend.
However, we are devastated by some of the events and issues that occurred, particularly that a place for building sisterhood and solidarity has ended up with Women, including within the FiLiA team, feeling so hurt. Our priority now is to understand what has happened, take responsibility for all that we need to, and put in place the changes needed to prevent these issues happening again. We have already started work in several areas, as set out below.
Reporting to the Charity Commission
We want to make it clear that FiLiA completely distances itself from religious fundamentalism and extremism in all its forms, including Hamas and support for Hamas, and we condemn all violence against Women, in all its forms, everywhere. We are firmly anti-racist and condemn all forms of racism (whether based on real or perceived race and/or religion), harassment, prejudice and discrimination. We acknowledge that we missed some very important elements of due diligence, and we take this extremely seriously. We have contacted the Charity Commission and, with their guidance, will be reviewing our processes, including our due diligence process to ensure all future speakers, stallholders and materials are in line with FiLiA’s mission, reflect FiLiA’s values and are within the law.
Commissioning an independent investigation into our security and safeguarding processes
We are aware of the upset and anger caused by multiple issues at the Saturday nightparty.
The safety of attendees was our priority and this was central to our decision-making processes in assessing and addressing risk over the rest of the conference. We would like to invite anyone who wants to share their experience regarding specific behaviour towards them to please contact us by email to [email protected]. We are commissioning an independent, internal investigation into our security and safeguarding processes, plan and implementation for the Saturday night party. We are committed to learning and putting in place the changes required.
Convening a series of meetings to listen to Women and feminist organisations
FiLiA works with our speakers to agree on the framing of their topic of discussion within FiLiA’s existing stances and values. In most topics, our speakers are the experts but we try to ensure they understand FiLiA’s positions and trust them to deliver in line with those. We will be reviewing our communications and agreements with speakers and ensuring that everyone involved will come to FiLiA in the spirit of sisterhood and solidarity.
We recognise that underlying tensions were inflamed at the conference and have played out beyond it, and we apologise for our lack of foresight and preparation for this. We condemn the vile racist and misogynistic abuse that women have faced for speaking out.
FiLiA wants the spaces we create to be places where Women with differing opinions and beliefs can come together, learn from each other, disagree respectfully and unite in our shared vision of Women's liberation, everywhere. FiLiA is a place where Women come first, where Women are the priority.
We must stand up for all Women who are subjugated by men, in all the ways that they are, irrespective of geography, religion or ideology.
It is clear that some Women didn’t and don’t feel heard by and at FiLiA. We will be reaching out to Women and feminist organisations to actively listen to their perspectives, to learn lessons and guide the changes we need to make. It is our hope that we will be able to open dialogue between those with different views and forge a way forward for FiLiA that those committed to Women’s liberation can support.
Next steps
For the last 13 years, FiLiA has provided a space for Women all over the world to gather, learn and discuss. We are proud of the work we have done to amplify voices, particularly those less often heard, highlight new topics and challenge viewpoints respectfully, share campaigns and build solidarity – all to advance the global Women’s liberation movement.
Many Women have told us that it was an incredible conference – learning about campaigns and issues that were unknown to them, making new connections and revisiting old ones, and being part of a movement for change. We are extremely grateful and heartened to read these messages and hear these stories, and they have sustained us at an incredibly difficult time.
We are proud of the many successes achieved together with our sisters, but we also know this is a moment to pause, listen, reflect, review, and learn.
We have work to do, relationships to build and strengthen, and processes to fix. We are going to take the time and focus now to do that work carefully and well, to enable us to be stronger, clearer and more accountable as an organisation. This will mean that we are better able to deliver on our mission to build sisterhood and solidarity, defend Women’s human rights and amplify the voices of Women across the world, and contribute to building a Women’s liberation movement.
We will provide updates on the relevant outcomes of the investigations and other work if and when we are able to do so.
Thank you to those who came to FiLiA in the spirit of sisterhood and solidarity and for your continued support.
Sisterhood and Solidarity,”