WO=MEN in New York

The second and last day of the Beijing+20 Regional Review Meeting at UNECE started with the panel-discussion on preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls. This proved to be the most popular item on the 2-day agenda, with lively responses from civil society in the room and a large number of member states waiting to make their statement. The Istanbul Convention was repeatedly brought up by member states as an important way of showing their commitment to elimination of violence against women and domestic violence. Besides progress on this issue there was a generally shared disappointed that this is still an issue that needs to be addressed, 20 years after the Beijing Platform for Action. Also, there was a general note that the increase in legislation in the different member states still lack behind on implementation. The Istanbul Convention is a convention of the Council of Europe establishing a legally binding definition that violence against women is a violation of...

This week marks two important events in the process towards the 59 th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59). The CSW59 will be held in New York from 9 th to 20 th of March 2015, and this week the regional review meeting for the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe (ECE) region takes place. This means that all member states in the ECE region (EU countries, Caucasus & Central Asia and US & Canada amongst others) come together at the UN in Geneva to review their achievements and challenges during 20 years of policy development and implementation for gender equality: Beijing+20 Declaration and Platform for Action . This week provides the opportunity to align agendas for both civil society and member states, and to get a feeling of reactionary and progressive forces as we enter the negotiations for CSW59. In preparation, the Commision has asked all member states to provide a national review. This review addresses 12 critical areas of the Beijing ...

In the week from October 27th until October 31st various WO=MEN representatives are in New York for the Women Peace & Security week around the Open Debate on Women Peace & Security UN Security Council debate. Here you will find our joint message as Dutch Civil Society working on Gender, Peace & Security:  ----- Key points Civil Society The Netherlands = Walk the Talk! As the report of the Secretary General stated: “The challenge lies at the implementation level and in sustaining progress.” (p2) Commitments to address women’s needs, ensure their protection and participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding are currently being tested in settings such as the Central African Republic, Nigeria,  Iraq, Syria and South Sudan. With the unanimous adoption of UNSCR1325 and the six successive resolutions, countries are bound by the provisions/principles in the comprehensive Women, Peace & Security (WPS) Agenda. This WPS Agenda should firmly be...

As the advocates and delegates are recovering from a very intense CPD that ended on Saturday morning 7.00 am, I finally find the energy to report about the final developments and outcome of the conference that took an interesting turn in Saturday’s early hours.  Throughout the week, many governments expressed strong support for advancing the human rights of all to control all aspects of their own sexuality, collectively known as “sexual rights.” In addition, 59 governments explicitly called for action to end discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity . The calls came from countries as diverse as the Philippines, South Africa, the Pacific Islands, Viet Nam, Nepal, Mongolia, Suriname, the United States, Australia, Norway, the European Union, and most Latin American countries. These calls build on similar agreements made during regional reviews of ICPD in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific in 2013.   Howev...

As a large group of delegates and advocates from all areas in the world are waiting for the outcome of the 47th CPD (at 3:40 am in the night!), Charles Banda from YONECO decides to write down his analysis of the situation, as related to his home country Malawi. MALAWI CSOs COMMEND MALAWI AMBASSADOR TO UN Civil Society Organizations from Malawi have commended Malawi Ambassador and Permanent Representative to United Nations in New York His Excellency Charles Msosa for his personal commitment in promoting the aspirations of Malawians. The Ambassador has been tirelessly representing Malawi in CPD day and night while attending to other side meetings as well. Earlier in the week a team of five officers from three organizations met the Malawi Ambassador on the Commission on Population and Development. These include Mac Bain Mkandawire and Charles Banda from Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO), Lucky Mbewe and Chisomo Dindi from Youth Empowerment for Civic Education (YECE) and IPAS Malawi....

It’s Thursday 5 pm, and the international SRHR NGO community is flocking the entrance of the negotiation room. Actually, negotiations will only reconvene at 6 pm so I use my time to look back with you to the past day and half: After skipping Monday due to a small negotiation room, the discussions went full force on Tuesday and Wednesday. The whole text was discussed, paragraph for paragraph, with particularly the African countries adding a lot of new text. Their intention was to delay the process to such an extent, that we can actually not reach agreed conclusions on Friday. While some countries within the African continent have very progressive national policies and laws concerning young people’s SRHR, safe and legal abortion, sexuality education amongst others, there has been a culture of domination by a few conservative African countries. Particularly amongst them Cameroon (who speaks for the continent), Egypt and Nigeria. Charles Banda, from YONECO –Simavi’s partner- in ...