Today afternoon a
briefing was organised at the permanent mission of the EU for European NGOs.
Regarding the 3rd
reading of the draft agreed conclusions, the general feeling is that time is
becoming a problem. The reading is going slow, and more paragraphs should have
been adopted by now. As long as there are difficult paragraphs still on the
table, delegations are hesitant to conclude on other paragraphs.
It is the EU’s
analysis that, in line with the first draft, there is a lot of “right” language
there. The EU wants to
look at the text in totality, and from that perspective “there are good things
in the text”. As it stands out, the document does not go back to pre-Beijing,
according to the EU. The Beijing Platform for Action has been reaffirmed (in
spite of the Holy See’s amendment to the first draft to only “recall” it) and “on
some issues the text goes further.” But it was also said that at this stage it will
be difficult to include issues that Beijing
There are a number of difficult paragraphs, including those on SRHR, sexual orientation and gender
identity (SOGI), sovereignty and cultural and religious customs vs. the law.
Intimate partner violence
Reference to violence
in intimate relations is important to the EU. Domestic violence doesn’t cover
all violence in close relations.
Femicide
The EU is willing to
accommodate the group of countries (Latin American ones such as Mexico , Brazil
SRHR
The EU was not willing
to share much about the negotiations on SRHR, since the EU is divided on the
issue. As we know, a group of 16 likeminded countries proposed a strong
paragraph including sexual and reproductive rights. However, Malta , Poland
and newcomer Hungary
I have raised the
issue that it would be a set-back if a qualifier – meaning a reference to a
specific document – would be included to all reproductive health and rights
paragraphs. Possible qualifiers that might be added are ICPD and Beijing
Early and forced marriage
is an important issue
for the EU, it was referred to as a “priority”. Currently there are 3
paragraphs referring to it (p bis; p alt bis; p alt). “It needs
to be there in order to address all the issues that take place in the world.
And we want to avoid qualifications to what we mean by that.”
Women human rights defenders
k ter) Reformulated, proposed by EU [Support and protect those who defend the
rights of women and women human rights defenders,
who face particular risks both because of their gender and because of the
nature of their work, and ensure that they are enabled to act without fear of
reprisals, coercion, intimidation or attacks, including through integration of
a gender perspective in all relevant policies and programmes];
EU works together with
Switzerland
Listing
The EU is not a big
fan of summing up (listing) different categories of women and girls in the text,
reasoning that this list could never be complete. Thus it would only be in
favour of this if the list is “balanced and complete”.
Comprehensive sexuality education
is an important issue
to the EU. The EU welcomes the work done by the chair:
t cleaned up para: Develop
and implement, in coordination with women’s, youth and specialized
non-governmental organizations, and with the involvement of children,
adolescents, youth, parents and communities and religious leaders, age-appropriate educational programmes and
teaching materials that integrate a gender perspective, and teacher education and training
programmes for both formal and
non-formal education, including comprehensive
evidence-based sexuality education, that
promote and build decision-making, communication and risk reduction skills for
respectful relationships, based on gender equality and human rights, for all
adolescents and youth;
The EU spokesperson
explained that they were asked to make clear what the relevance is related to
violence against women and girls, since this is the topic of this year’s CSW. She
explained that it is crucial to prevent violence, as “It addresses the issue of
harmful perceptions”. However it remains a difficult issue in the text.
Sovereignty
There has been more
push to the sovereignty paragraphs versus universality than was expected. The EU
considers this extremely unhelpful language since it is a human rights text,
and the soveriegnty paragraph undermines the unversality of human rights. It was said that “we can not accept 12 quin” This is a human rights text and human rights are universal.
Suggestion from one of
the NGOs was to consider take away 3 quat and 6 ter, because can be replaced by
7 ter, which refers to universality.
3 quat. [The Commission
reaffirms intersectionality as a basic concept for understanding that the
discrimination of women based on sex and gender is inextricably linked with
other factors such as race, ethnicity, religion or belief, health, status, age,
class, caste, and sexual orientation and gender identity.]
6 ter (moved from former 7 alt). [The
Commission urges States to take action to strengthen, promote and encourage
positive cultural, religious and traditional values and practices of respect
and non-violent relationships in families, schools, communities and public
institutions.]
7 ter. [Recognizes that all human
rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated and
that the international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and
equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis, and stresses
that, while the significance of national and regional particularities and
various historical, cultural and
religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States
regardless of their political, economic
and cultural systems to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.]
= Joni van de Sand =
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