WO=MEN in New York

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 ...

Yesterday Stefan Hennis, Board Member of CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality   and youth representative in the Dutch delegation presented his statement in the Plenary of the 47 th session of the CPD. Stefan spoke very passionately about his personal experience on agenda item 4, which dealt with the national experience in population matters. Delegates and CSO representatives in conference room 1 were fascinated and listened carefully to Stefan’s statement. After his final words, the cheer and round of applause   was overwhelming!   Below you can find the transcript of Stefan’s statement: Honorable chair, esteemed delegates, My name is Stefan Hennis and I am a youth representative on the Dutch delegation. When my delegation asked me to relate our national experience to you through this statement I felt honored. This is a unique chance, not only to highlight our best practices and challenges as a country, but also to share these with you from a youth perspective. ...