Skip to main content

5th Women’s World Conference in 2015?!

A proposal to held a 5th Women’s World Conference in 2015 will be put forward to the General Assembly of the UN on behalf of Secretary Seneral mr. Ban Ki-moon and on behalf of President of the General Assembly, mr Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. Early this morning at the last NGO Briefing Ms. Ana Marie Hernando (Philippines), Vice-Chair of the Bureau of CSW 56, confirmed that the chef of the Secretary General’s Cabinet yesterday indeed made an intervention under Agenda item 5 of the CSW. Both gentlemen will embark on a process of consultation as the member states note only have to agree in the General Assembly), but also have to provide the funding to organise the conference. The official statement is to be found on the UN-Website. Possiby this link does not work - inthat case one should try to search at the UN-website: latest statements of the gs, date March 8 (http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=5904).

The 5th Women’s World Conference is to take place in the year 2015: the target date of the Millennium Development Goals and the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

San Francisco?

No reference was being made by the Bureau nor by UN Women to the place that ought to host the World Conference. The city of San Francisco organised in collaboration with San Francisco based NGOs several site events during CSW 56 to promote their beloved city as THE place for the next Women’s World Conference. One of the strongest arguments the organisers put forward was that San Francisco not only had implemented the Beijing Platform for Action, but also CEDAW – the US is one of the few countries that did not ratify CEDAW.

We raised a few questions during these side events, amongst others to find out whether the ‘SF-committee’ did consult any international and regional women’s organisations and networks and/or the Coalition of Labour Union Women (CLUW) – the answer being NO.

Consultation with civil society organisations?

Given the timing of the announcement at the CSW the General Secretary apparently did not want to encourage the process of civil society consultations straightaway. It seems, however, imperative that women’s rights organisations discuss the pro’s, con's and preconditions, not only national and regional, but also at an international level. Hopefully the upcoming AWID Forum in Istanbul in April can provide the space for such conversations. The Forum could be used as a platform to start an inclusive collaboration of women’s organisations at regional and international level to coordinate lobby and advocacy efforts with regard to gender equality and women’s empowerment at the level of the UN.

In the discourse the suggestion of the Huairou Commission could be taken into account: do not make it a UN World Confenrence, but a UN Forum (comparable with the Habitat Forum).

In the Netherlands the NGO’s will request a dialogue on the subject with the government, to be finalised before the international consultations in the UN will start.

Leontine Bijleveld

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CSW Revitalisation conversations in the region

  Photo: Facilitation team (Liliane Nkunzimana, Lopa Banerjee, Nadia van der Linde, Ivy Koek) What do you think about when you hear countries are committed to 'revitalize' the UN Commission on the  Status of Women (CSW)? "Oh, is it dying?" is one of the responses I've gotten, as if the CSW is holding on to its last straws at the moment, in desparate need of resuscitation. The challenges ahead for the current multilateral system, as well as for many of our national governments, are huge. In order to give gender equality and the rights of all women and girls a bit more of a boost, UN Women has been encouraging countries to commit to a process to 'revitalize' the CSW. And now that this has indeed been taken on board by governments from around the world in the recent Pact for the Future, the conversation is moving to: So what does that mean? During the NGO Forum in Geneva that took place just prior to the UNECE Beijing+30 Regional Review in October 2024 I co-f...
Post a Comment
Read more

The CSW68 is a wrap!

  Met Nederlands ambassadeur en CSW Facilitator Yoka Brandt op de foto na afloop van de CSW68 “We have reservations on the text. We don’t have instructions to proceed to adoption .” After seven days of negotiations at the UN during this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Nigeria almost blocked the negotiated outcome document from being adopted. Almost, because after some formal and informal interventions in Conference Room 4, the Nigerian delegate, flanked by the Dutch Ambassador Yoka Brandt, added: “I now have instructions to support the adoption.” On the balcony filled with civil society as well as in the plenary room there was a clear sigh of relief followed by enthusiastic applause, hugging and photo taking. We have Agreed Conclusions ! Early negotiations As usual, the CSW negotiations process started early February with a Zero Draft , developed by UN Women and the CSW Bureau. And with input and inspiration taken from the Secretary General Report. For the EU...
Post a Comment
Read more

CSW68 Youth Dialogue statement by Fenna Timsi

  Dutch youth representative Fenna Timsi gives her statement in the CSW68 Youth Dialogue On Thursday afternoon, 14 March 2024, the Dutch youth representative Fenna Timsi gave her statement in the CSW68 Youth Dialogue inside the UN. The reflections from several participants of this year's Youth Dialogue - the second ever as part of the CSW - were that it has much improved compared to last year. Importantly, many more of the people who were given the floor were actually young people themselves. Many of the statements were rich and relevant in content with clear and important messages for the government delegates in the other room in the UN who had started the negotiations for the outcome document. Read Fenna's statement below or see the full Youth Dialogue here (Fenna's statement is at 1:20:10). Dear all,   As the Dutch UN Youth Representative, I thank you to speak independently on behalf of young people in the Netherlands, not on behalf of the government. I spoke to many yo...
Post a Comment
Read more