Julie Ward is a Labour MEP for the North West of England. She is also a writer, theatre-maker and cultural activist who began her working life on the factory floor before becoming a community arts worker.

She is a member of the parliament’s committees on Culture and Education, Regional Development as well as the Women rights’ and Gender Equality Committee. She’s a board member of the European Internet Forum, and a founding member of the European Caucus of Women in Parliament – a global forum. Julie has been a women’s rights campaigner before being elected, and continues to work for gender equality as an MEP.

Julie is also a children’s rights champion, having co-founded the European Parliament cross-party and cross-committee intergroup on Children’s Rights. She is also active on a number of other intergroups including Disability, Youth, Common Goods & Public Services, Creative Industries, LGBTI, Anti-Poverty, Trade Unions and Social Economy. She is now on the Labour Party’s Children and Education Policy Commission as a European Parliament Labour Party representative, as well a Culture and Education committee representative to the inter-committee network on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).