WO=MEN in New York

A briefing on the 57 th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 57), 4 – 15 March 2013, was held at the UN on Monday 17 December 2012. The Permanent Representative of Liberia to the United Nations and Chair of CSW 57 H.E. Ms. Marjon V. Kamara (see photo) outlined the meetings of the Session, which will begin with an Introductory Statement, followed by the General Discussion on the topic of the Priority theme of the “Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.” These meetings will be held in the mornings (Monday – Thursday). During the afternoons there will be inter-active dialogues including the High Level Roundtable and two Expert Panels on Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls and Multi-sectoral Responses. There will also be two Expert meetings on the Review Theme -- The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS. Agreed Conclusions The work on the ...

My preparation for CSW 2013 is slowly getting started. On the 6th of December the Dutch civil society met to discuss our asks towards the Dutch government. Together with WOREC, Women's Rehabilitation Centre, Nepal; Masimanyane, South Africa, and the Women’s Support Centre, Kyrgyzstan, I managed to submit a proposal for a workshop at the NGO side events two days before the deadline. We hope to share our experiences on " Making our Domestic Violence laws and policies work in practice." The selection committee let us know that they will announce who will get a time slot before Christmas. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope for success. And I am finding there are almost too many opportunities to share information about the preparation. For example there is the LinkedIn group Supporting International Women's Rights were many people have been commenting on the following question that I posted: " Are people preparing to come to the UN Commission on the Stat...

Wat willen we de Nederlandse regeringsdelegatie meegeven als ze naar de Commission on the Status of Women in New York gaan?   Dat was de hoofdvraag tijdens de maatschappelijk middenveld consultatie op 6 december in Den Haag die WO=MEN samen met Aletta-Equality en de Nederlandse Vrouwen Raad (NVR) organiseerde. Elk jaar geven we de regeringsdelegatie die Nederland vertegenwoordigt in de Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) bij de Verenigde Naties aanbevelingen mee. Dit jaar gaat het hoofdthema over geweld tegen vrouwen. Wat vindt het netwerk van WO=MEN goede methoden om geweld tegen vrouwen te voorkomen? En waar moet Nederland voor strijden bij de VN? Nederland wordt internationaal gewaardeerd en is een speler die gevoelige onderwerpen durft aan te snijden, zoals seksuele en reproductieve gezondheid en rechten (SRGR). De 40 organisaties/individuen die aanwezig waren bij de maatschappelijk middenveld consultatie hebben flink wat input gegeven die worden verwerkt in ...

Even though the negotiations had been extended beyond the date that was scheduled to have concluded the session in the end no agreed conclusions have been adopted at the 19 th meeting of the fifty-sixth session of the CSW (March 15 2012). To my knowledge it is the first time in history that the CSW did not adopt agreed conclusions to (formally) submit to the Ecosoc Council. Embarrassment all around the diplomatic community in New York! Diplomats rightfully fear to be seen as incapable of flexibility and compromise. In words of Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Women: ‘ a disappointing inability to reach consensus. ’ There are some rumours that after another nightly session the informal negotiations in the end stuck especially around the wording of issues of sexuality and reproduction. But other subjects too were far from resolved. The statement on behalf of the African Group (AG) hints for instance at disagreements about the ter...

Vanuit de zaal waar de onderhandelingen plaatsvinden hebben we het laatste nieuws over de onderhandelingen gehoord: Vanavond om 6 uur hield de voorzitter van de CSW een pleidooi aan alle aanwezigen om zich te richten op de groep om wie het deze CSW ging: rural women. Hij riep op de eigen strijdpunten in dat perspectief te zien en om tot een eindresultaat te komen. De informals vervolgden tot 8 uur, op welk tijdstip de balans werd opgemaakt. Er waren slechts 7 paragrafen extra overeengekomen, en nog tientallen para's pending. De voorzitter legde voor hoe/of nog verder te gaan. De EU gaf aan te willen doorgaan, evenals Zwitserland. De African Group (die al had aangegeven enkele para's mee terug te willen nemen naar de groep) en Rusland wilden stoppen, vervolgens bleek uit de zaal dat de wil om verder te gaan ontbrak. De voorzitter gaf aan dat men dinsdag of woensdag de informals zal voortzetten. Joni van de Sand, WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform

A proposal to held a 5th Women’s World Conference in 2015 will be put forward to the General Assembly of the UN on behalf of Secretary Seneral mr. Ban Ki-moon and on behalf of President of the General Assembly, mr Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. Early this morning at the last NGO Briefing Ms. Ana Marie Hernando (Philippines), Vice-Chair of the Bureau of CSW 56, confirmed that the chef of the Secretary General’s Cabinet yesterday indeed made an intervention under Agenda item 5 of the CSW. Both gentlemen will embark on a process of consultation as the member states note only have to agree in the General Assembly), but also have to provide the funding to organise the conference. The official statement is to be found on the UN-Website. Possiby this link does not work - inthat case one should try to search at the UN-website: latest statements of the gs, date March 8 (http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=5904). The 5 th Women’s World Conference is to take place in the...