WO=MEN in New York

In a rather chaotic way , the CPD started off on Monday. Delegates and civil society alike had to wait for almost two hours to get their UN groundspass. Space for civil society representatives was very little. They were sent to the ‘overflow room’. However in that room, the sound didn’t match with the screen play! The negotiations had started already before the weekend, and would resume on Monday afternoon. But again a too small room was provided: even with the regulation that just one person per delegation could join, not all countries attending could fit. The Chair suspended the negotiations until Tuesday morning. With everyone geared up to get started, this was kind of a deception. Civil society participation turned out to be difficult. The rules were changed after the game had already started. The pass participants from civil society had received was only valid for two days. From Wednesday onwards, they would not be able to enter the UN building. This regulation was of cour...

It’s 9 pm, our fellow advocates just managed to get food into the UN to feed the hardworking advocates, and we are still on! As we lost one day yesterday with the suspension of the negotiations, we have to continue till late today. The delegates gathered this morning at 10 am in the General Assembly, a big enough room to house all the delegates including their NGO representatives on the delegation. Negotiations started about the 14-page text that was laid on the table after the informals last week Thursday and Friday. As it is now 9 pm, the delegates discussed eight Preambular Paragraphs, and have now reached the third Operation Paragraph. A short update, at a very general level, that does no right to all the complex dynamics in the different regions: Unfortunately, several African countries have continued to resist the negotiated outcome document with substantive content. Their idea is that the document should only be a Procedural Resolution and should not include new com...

Yesterday, 7th of April, which was the first day of the 47 th Commission on Population and Development, the official negotiations took off. However, governments delegations as well as CSO representatives have not been sitting still over the weekend. Even before the weekend, ‘the informals’ had already started: these informal-but-in-reality-not-so-informal negotiations provide countries (and country groups) the opportunity to give their first input for the Zero Draft. The Zero Draft is a document written by the chair of the Commission, and forms the first draft for the final outcome document of the week. The informal negotiations usually set the tone for the rest of the Commission: who will be in favor and who will be against certain population issues. This is not as simple as it sounds, as there are many terms related to population and development that are considered controversial: access to safe abortion, sexual orientation & gender identity, sexuality education, gende...

Today, Nur Hidayati Handayani, presented the following oral statement on behalf of members of the Sexual and Reproductive Rights Youth Caucus at CPD47 . “I am speaking to you today on behalf of members of the Sexual and Reproductive Rights Youth Caucus at CPD47. We represent young people from across the globe and demand our voices be heard. In the last twenty years, there has been significant progress in the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. But, major gaps in implementation remain. Despite the ICPD Programme of Action and repeated calls from governments, civil society and young people for a sexual and reproductive rights based approach, services remain inaccessible. For young people, and especially young people who belong to the most marginalized and stigmatized populations, many barriers continue to impede the full realization of our sexual and reproductive health and rights. We as young people are regularly denied our right to comprehensive sexuali...

A short introduction Welcome to the series of blog posts about the 47 th CPD in New York, that will take place between 7 th and 11 th of April. Let me start by introducing the Dutch representation from Civil Society. In the coming week, we will use this blog to keep you posted on the latest developments concerning the negotiations, the side events they are organizing and other developments worth sharing. The Netherlands is well represented with six organizations and their partners. These include RutgersWPF, CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, dance4life, Simavi and STOP AIDS NOW!. Before departure to New York, we prepared our common Dutch CSO position, which we shared and discussed with the Dutch delegation. The Dutch delegation is headed by Lambert Grijns, our ambassador for SRHR and hiv/aids, and includes a youth representative from CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, Stefan Hennis as well as other greatly experienced delegates. A delegation to be proud of! The start before the o...

Here you can find the Agreed Conclusions of CSW58! It was the first time governments agreed to a gender stand-alone goal in the Post-2015 agenda, in combination with integration in ALL the other goals: Para 43. "The Commission urges States to build on the lessons from the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals as the new post-2015 development agenda is being shaped. It urges States to tackle critical remaining challenges through a transformative and comprehensive approach and calls for gender equality, the empowerment of women and human rights of women and girls to be reflected as a stand-alone goal and to be integrated through targets and indicators into all goals of any new development framework." Thanks to all for reading this blog, and for your active contributions and sharing it through your own social media. WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform