Skip to main content

Silence before the storm

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 Malawi: “Our country has a very progressive Gender Equality Act adopted in 2013, which contains references to safe and legal abortion, banning harmful traditional practices such as child marriage, and it strongly recognizes Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. It is frustrating to see my delegates align with the regressive African stance”. Unfortunately, countries such as Malawi do not speak up during the CPD. Ghana, who on Tuesday did speak out and introduced progressive paragraphs was forced back into the African Group position and had to withdraw their progressive paragraphs on Wednesday. A culture of domination seems to keep the African continent in a grappling deadlock.


On Thursday morning, the delegates received a ‘compilation text’ with all the suggestions made up to Wednesday evening. A 28-page document!! As this is impossible to negotiate (we would need a year), the chair was asked to make a streamlined text. At 2 pm this text was finally shared. Negotiations will reconvene at 6 pm… which we are waiting for now.

The streamlined text contains a lot of good references including SRHR and specifically for young people, comprehensive sexuality education, human rights, link with post-2015, gender equality and abortion (where not against the law). This document will now be on the table tonight and tomorrow, probably heavily attacked by amongst others the Holy See, Arab Group, African Group and Russia. While we and a great number of progressive countries from all over the world push for further advancements, including reference to ‘safe and legal abortion’.


It promises to be become a long day… we are ready for it, awaiting the delegates just outside the room.

by Rineke van Dam, Public Affairs Officer SRHR at Simavi
Labels:

Comments

obat pelangsing alami said…
hi,, just visit this site,, have a nice day :)
August 14, 2014 at 9:43 AM
obat pelangsing alami said…
hi,, just visit this site,, have a nice day :)
August 14, 2014 at 9:45 AM
obat kista said…
just blogwalking.. Nice post and have a nice day :)
January 12, 2015 at 7:51 AM
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