WO=MEN in New York

CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality was present at the Regional Consultation on 'Inclusive and Sustainable Development: Perspectives from Europe and Central Asia on the Post-2015 Development Agenda'. Youth Advocates Michiel Andeweg and Timo Bravo Rebolledo provided more information of the event and the presented Youth Statement, made in consultation of a broad range of youth representatives. The regional consultations are targeted to capture ideas and feelings on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the different global regions. The SDGs are a new set of goals agreed up on by member states during Rio+20 (the UN conference on Sustainable development). The outcome of the regional consultations will culminate in a report which will be used at the General Assembly of 2014. As the title of the event suggests, this event was a regional consultation on the perspectives from Europe and Central Asia. However, the structure of the programme had the outline of a seminar and less ...

Close WO=MEN partner CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality is attending the UN General Assembly Special Event (UNGASE) on the Millennium Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Framework. Youth Advocate Jolien Oosterheerd and General Board Member Michiel Andeweg give you a heads up about the process. MDGs, SDGs and Post-2015 Let’s start off with the brief basics. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were signed in 2000 and created a global approach and overall vision in global development. The eight goals include promoting gender equality (3), improving maternal health and achieving universal access to reproductive health (5A&B) and combating HIV/AIDS (6). With the deadline of 2015 drawing near, it is time for Member States, UN agencies and CSOs to evaluate the achievements and challenges of the MDGs and see how to move forward from 2015 onwards. This General Assembly is marked as a start of this process. And then we have the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). D...

Think tanks in various countries have worked double shifts lately: the international power map has thoroughly shifted in the past 6 months. The 68 th General Assembly (UNGA) reflects the new reality. To name a few: ·          Will there be a resolution on Syria and if so, how will it look like? ·          On Tuesday 24 th September State Secretary Kerry meets with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif to talk about the Iranian nuclear program: the first meeting in many years. Even more surprising: Ashton just announced that Zarif will talk with the 6 members of the Security Council on Wednesday 25 th September. ·          Will the G77 agree with the draft statement of Ban Ki-moon? ·          The post-2015 agenda: the follow-up of the MDG's. ​ A heated debate   These topics create enough elements for a heat...

This is it. The delegates have finally reached consensus, after a long week of confusing and often tedious negotiations. Maybe we should be a little more excited about this, but, to be very frank, we did not have much influence on what went on in the negotiation room. Every progressive statement on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) was subsequently met with much opposition of the Arab group and the African group. Especially the latter was very insistent on not having any references to anything  ‘sexual’, whatever that might mean. The most frustrating part for us was that, even though we know there are progressive African countries, conservative countries like Nigeria did the talking on behalf of the African group, without opposition. Only South Africa stood up to protect SOGI and SRHR, like they have done in the past, and we thank them for that. But, all disappointment a...

It’s the final day of the CPD and we’re far behind. To give you sense of exactly how behind we are, the commission traditionally goes through at least three readings of the text before a consensus is reached. As of this morning, the second reading has not even been completed. Furthermore, the ‘operational paragraphs’ which contain the important legislative clauses, have barely been touched. Yesterday night the negotiations lasted until 10:30pm and the delegates left the hall with a tangible sense of frustration. The problem is two-fold. The facilitator of the negotiations from the Philippines is being incredibly inefficient. The negotiations are moving forward at a snail’s pace and tolerating long irrelevant soliloquies discussing, for instance, the exact definition of internal migration. A Brazilian delegate posed the question if her personal move from downtown to uptown Rio would be considered internal migration. Unfortunately, it was not uncommon to see such personal, or irrel...

Time is flying here at the Commission of Population and Development. Yesterday was an important day for the host of progressive youth organizations here at the CPD because the speaker’s list opened for NGOs to give oral statements. CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality was given a speaking slot via RutgersWPF and we contributed to writing a strong statement about migration and SRHR from a youth perspective. We invite you to read it at   here . Today (Thursday) will prove to be an extremely important day in the negations room. Including language on sexuality and reproductive health rights is proving to be an uphill battle in the midst of debate largely focused on population dynamics. Whi le a few key countries continue to strongly support this language, as expected, traditional progressive allies have become unpredictable and are positing their own migration issues higher than our fundamental human rights.   We are currently reviewing the second round of amendments to the z...

Today is day one of the 46 th session  of the Commission on Population & Development (CPD) in New York . The CPD is an important conference that has taken place every year since the 1994 International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) in Cairo . The ICPD was a milestone in the history of population development, adopting a rights based approach. 179 governments committed to providing universal access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health services and reproductive rights (SRHR) as well as delivering gender equality. During the past 19 years, the global SRHR alliance has made a series of significant victories. For instance, during last year’s CPD conference themed ‘Youth and Adolescents’ governments agreed to provide “youth-friendly” SRHR services “free of discrimination.” Step by step, governments are broadening their human rights promises and we can expect an exciting review process next year in 2014. This year, however, we have one more challenging hu...

Yesterday the Acting Head of UN Women, Ms. Lakshmi Puri organized an informal discussion in Brussels on the outcome of and follow-up to the 57 th session of the CSW and around the post-2015 MDG framework, post-Rio+20 . About CSW , Ms. Lakshmi highlighted the preparation before the event, including the UN System (e.g. working together with UNESCO about Comprehensive Sexuality Education), Member States (e.g. regional meetings with ministerial national machineries before CSW that allowed working not only with the vision of FA ministries but also with Gender ministries) and CSOs (that helped with conceptualizations that were successfully included in the agreed conclusions like Women’s rights defenders and survivors). About the Conclusions, she highlighted the comprehensive definition of VAW, the inclusion of vulnerable groups and intersectionality, and the emphasis on prevention that includes equal systems and empowerment, and SRHR. UN Women wanted to include CSE and awa...

The resolution on ‘Protection of the Family’ was NOT adopted at the Human Rights Council on Monday. It was withdrawn by the sponsors. The sponsors framed their withdrawal as postponing consideration to a later stage. It is telling that the fear of introduction of language on the existence of “various forms of the family” into the text during action on the resolution caused this withdrawal/postponment. The language that would have formed the introduced amendment is agreed consensus UN language which has been used again and again. The EU and GRULAC groups and a number of States including Switzerland, the US, Australia and New Zealand stood firm in insisting that this language be included in the text. A number of other States from different regions stood ready to support the introduction previously mentioned. Egypt took the floor to introduce the resolution and announce its withdrawal on behalf of the core group, comprising of Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Mauritani...

One week after the adoption of the agreed conclusions at CSW57, Daniela Rosche from WO=MEN member OxfamNovib shares her views. Read the full article in the Huffingtonpost . Last Friday, governments at the UN adopted an outcome document at the conclusion of the 2 weeks session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 57). Following last year's collapse of the meeting and the huge pressure from conservative forces who tried to derail the process, the adoption of an outcome text condemning violence against women in strong terms is celebrated as a success.  But is it? The concerted attempt at rolling back women's rights, by bringing national level strife on the position of women and abortion, religion, culture and custom into the global arena, is not a new development. The pressure on the CSW meetings and its role in upholding basic rights for women has gradually increased each year since 2009. And this trend has long spilled over to other UN forums s...

Click here for the final version of the agreed conclusions. It still includes the references to those paragraphs that were previously agreed, and the ones that were redrafted by the chair and then agreed to in the final round of statements. = Joni van de Sand =

Press release by the CSW57 Women's Rights Caucus, in which WO=MEN has actively taken part. On Friday March 15 2013, the UN Member States resoundingly committed to ending violence against women and girls, including strong agreements on promoting gender equality, women’s empowerment, and ensuring reproductive rights and access to sexual and reproductive health services. The Agreed Conclusions of the 57 th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women represent another important step forward, building on the global momentum of the past twenty years, which has created a strong framework by which to end all forms of violence against women, young women, and girls. Women’s health and rights organizations congratulated the governments who have defended the human right of women and girls to live free from all forms of violence. We have seen two weeks of intense negotiations, in which culture, tradition, and religion have been used to try to deny women their rights. In ...

Right before 8 ‘o clock this evening New York time, the CSW57 adopted agreed conclusions! Around 6 everyone was still awaiting what the next step would be. The delegations were still negotiating text in the room, and the information coming out was often contradictory. Suddenly a 6 th draft of the text was distributed. The chair had prepared this text, including all the agreed paragraphs, amendments to those that were kept in and not yet agreed upon, and with some paragraphs removed altogether.  Dozens of civil society representatives lined up along the windows of the conference room, to show the delegations our support and send out a message: do not let go of progress made for women’s rights! After about half an hour to read the text, during which everyone quickly scanned through to see what happened to their most crucial issues, the chair decided to ask delegation by delegation whether they could endorse the text or not. We still did not know what would hap...

At 9 this morning there was an ambassadors meeting where a select group of countries came together to discuss the agreements. Though it is encouraging to see such high-level involvement in the CSW, problem with this procedure was that countries as varied as The Netherlands, South Africa and Iran , and the Holy See  (note the subtle difference of comma's placing in this sentence ;) had to come together to discuss strategy. Unfortunately no real solution came out. The   fifth version   of the agreed conclusions was released. It does not really include anything new, just a better overview than the version of the day before. There was a small victory today, when a paragraph to " support and protect those who are committed to eliminating violence against women, including women's human rights defenders" was agreed. We cheered loudly. However, still none of the contested issues has really been discussed, thus they remain open. And it has been confusing to hear how ...

By Loeky Droesen During the CSW this year, the member states of the UN are negotiating to reach Agreed Conclusions on what states/governments should do to end Violence Against Women. And today we find out if they are even able to reach agreement. But unfortunately even if promises and commitments are made at the UN, they are often are not translated in action at the national level. On Thursday the 7 th of March between 14.30 and 16.00, about 60 people squeezed into the Drew room (official capacity 35 seats) at the church center to participate in the workshop: “Making our Domestic Violence laws work in practice. A short survey of the participants showed all the continents of the globe were represented, with the exception of the Pacific, and more than half the participants worked in practice providing services to victims/survivors of Domestic Violence [i] . Most of the participants also did lobby and advocacy at the national level and a slightly lower number at the internation...