24 January 2006

NEW YORK —

Franciscans International Position Paper for
the Commission on the Status of Women 50th Session, 27 February – 10 March 2006

The 50th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women presents an opportunity for member States to reaffirm and strengthen their commitment to promoting the participation of women in development and in decision-making processes.

In representing the concerns of Franciscan men and women at the United Nations, and in encouraging member States to fulfill commitments made through the Beijing Platform of Action and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Franciscans International urges recommendations in the following areas:

Future Programme of Work and Working Methods

Based on the outcome of the 10-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Franciscans International urges the Commission on the Status of Women to:

• Include the protection and empowerment of migrant women in achieving gender equality in the future multi-year programme of work or as an emerging issue to effectively follow-up on the General Assembly 2006 high level dialogue on international migration and development;
• Include Violence Against Women as a thematic topic in the future programme of work in order to assess and utilize the research and recommendations of the forthcoming Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Women;
• Support the Secretary General’s proposal to adopt a cycle of policy development and review after two years for topics in the CSW multi-year programme of work;
• Reform working methods to facilitate the greater inclusion and participation of relevant special mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights (or future Human Rights Council) such as the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Special Rapporteur on Trafficking, and Special Rapporteur on the human rights of Migrants.

Women and Migration

Migrant women play an increasingly important role in development, yet they are also at greater risk to experience discrimination, violence, and a denial of their human rights.

Franciscans International draws the attention of the CSW to the following points and urges governments to:

• Ratify and implement the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and ILO Conventions 97 and 143 on migrant workers;
• Implement development policies and strategies which are gender-sensitive, paying specific attention to the participation and challenges of migrant women. Migrant women’s groups should be effectively involved in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of development and integration policies;
• Incorporate a gender perspective in migration policies and programmes which must also have greater national and international coherence, capacity and cooperation;
• Inform migrant women of their rights under international and national laws and develop educational and communications programmes that take into consideration their cultural and linguistic backgrounds;
• Review and amend relevant national laws regarding migration to include a gender perspective, incorporating the particular challenges migrant women face especially when claiming status based on their relationship to men.

Women, the girl child and HIV and AIDS

As a member of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Franciscans International works together with other faith-based NGOs to strategize comprehensive policies and actions to tackle the stigma of HIV and AIDS, and specifically unique impacts on women. Our findings have shown that the HIV and AIDS pandemic is not only one of the gravest challenges to health, but also to the prospects of social and economic development as well as global security. In follow-up to CSW Resolution 49/1,

Franciscans International calls upon governments to:

• Stress the role of prevention and education in addition to healthcare services for both women and men in formal and informal education programmes;
• Intensify efforts to eliminate discrimination and stigmatization of women and girls in relation to HIV and AIDS;
• Promote the participation and significant contributions of people living with HIV and AIDS, young people, and civil society actors, in addition to the elderly and grandparents who often carry additional burdens as caregivers to AIDS orphans;
• Achieve universal access to anti-retrovirals and other life-saving medication for all children living with HIV and AIDS, regardless of gender;
• Reduce trade-barriers and improve coordination of resources in order to increase access to affordable life-prolonging therapies for both women and men, including anti-retrovirals and treatments for opportunistic infections.

Trafficking of women and girls

Trafficking in persons is a widespread, global phenomenon undertaken both for sexual and economic exploitation purposes. Women and girls comprise a majority of the victims of trafficking. Franciscans International advocates to ensure that: a) trafficked persons, regardless of their capacity or willingness to cooperate in legal proceedings, are protected from further exploitation and harm and have access to adequate physical and psychological care; b) the protection of trafficked persons is built into anti-trafficking policy, including protection from return where there are reasonable grounds to conclude that such deportation or return would represent a significant security risk to the trafficked person and/or her/his family.

During the 50th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Franciscans International will urge governments to:

• Ratify the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) and to ensure that its measures are effectively implemented at the national level;
• Incorporate the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking into domestic legislation and implement them in full;
• Cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children and present detailed information concerning the measures that they have taken to prevent and combat trafficking to the appropriate United Nations human rights mechanisms;
• Address the nexus between trafficking and migration, specifically the social and economic conditions of poverty and gender inequality which cause women to migrate and become victims of trafficking.

Background

The primary purpose of Franciscans International is to assist, together with our grassroots brothers and sisters, the poor and oppressed by voicing their concerns at the United Nations. Our advocacy efforts during the 2006 session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will focus on thematic topics that members of the Franciscan family have brought to our attention and asked us to address.

We will also use the session as an important opportunity to form and train Franciscans and other interested groups by acquainting them with UN work on women’s issues. Franciscans from the field will have opportunities to promote change nationally by networking with other women’s groups and by giving witness of their work at the CSW.

As an international, independent faith-based NGO, Franciscans International will also promote the social teachings of the Church as embodied in the Franciscan tradition, its values, and spirituality.

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