WUNRN
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WOMEN'S ENVIRONMENT
& DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION Volume 1 Number 3 March/April
2006 | |
In UN reform, Where Are the Women?
By June
Zeitlin
Last year at the 10-year Review session of the Beijing
Platform for Action in March and in the lead up to the September World Summit,
WEDO working with other women’s organizations, urged UN Member States and the
Secretary General to significantly strengthen, upgrade and better resource the
U.N. women’s machineries at the international and national level.
The
response has been under-whelming, to say the least.
At this year’s CSW
(February 27-March 10), WEDO and the other groups expressed their disappointment
and outrage that gender equality and strengthening the women’s machineries
within the U.N. system are still not being addressed as a central part of the
U.N. reform agenda.
WEDO, Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom made their views known in an
Open Letter
to the Secretary General and Member States endorsed by more than 300 women from
over 50 countries and by numerous international and regional
organizations.
The disregard by the Secretary General and governments for
women’s rights issues and women’s participation in critical UN reform decisions
was evident in the composition and terms of reference of a new High-Level Panel
focusing on the implementation of system-wide coherence. Established by the SG,
the panel includes only three women out of 15 members and its three-person
secretariat comprises all men. Furthermore the terms of reference—covering
development, the environment and humanitarian activities—never mention gender
equality.
The Open Letter was released just before the Secretary
General’s office announced that his Chief of Staff, Mark Malloch Brown would
replace the UN’s top ranking women, Louise Frechette as Deputy Secretary
General. Highly qualified women had already been passed over for the top post at
the United Nations Development Programme with the appointment of Kemal Dervis in
August 2005. And women again lost out when Achim Steiner, head of the World
Conservation Union, was recently appointed Director General of the United
Nations Environment Programme.
More than 10 years after the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Bejing, the number of women in top posts at the UN
continues to lag and now seems to be sliding downwards. “(P)rogress towards
gender parity in the UN is nowhere near what it should be,” the Secretary
General admitted in his message for
International Women’s Day. Yet despite this poor record on gender equity
from the institution he heads, Mr. Annan’s message was nonetheless full of fine
words and solidarity—“(T)he role of women in decision-making is central…to the
progress of humankind as a whole…”; “In the UN, we need to do much more to
attract talented women to decision-making posts…”; and even, “(T)he world is
ready for a woman Secretary General,” to great applause.
Frankly, women
have had enough of these kind words and promises. WEDO and others are not
letting the issues of women’s empowerment and gender equality fall off the UN
Reform agenda.
Following up on our Open Letter WEDO, CWGL WILPF are
seeking a meeting with Mr. Annan on incorporating gender equality as a central
aspect of the reform agenda, and the need for an institutional mechanism with
stature, authority and resources equal to the task. We have suggested several
qualified women who could be immediately added to the High-Level Panel and we
are reaching out to Panel members as well.
Meanwhile WEDO and other
groups have joined the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy’s
UNSGselection.com that aims
to promote a more effective, transparent and democratic selection process for
the next UN Secretary-General, which includes gender sensitivity in the proposed
candidate qualifications and a stipulation that the selection process be guided
by the principles of gender equality and geographical balance.
In
addition, advocates have gained an outspoken champion in Stephen Lewis, the UN’s
Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, on the matter of establishing an agency
focused on gender equality with enough resources and clout to make a difference.
In recent speeches, Lewis has argued for a new agency with a new name and a
broad mandate to be headed by an Under Secretary-General.
ENDNOTE: Human Rights Council Update
The resolution
to establish a new Human Rights Council was passed in March by an
overwhelming majority, with only four countries voting No—U.S, Israel, Marshall
Islands and Palau. The General Assembly will elect the 47-nation membership on
May 9 and the Council is set to begin its work on June 19 in Geneva where it
will be based.
The resolution creating the Council preserves NGO
participation and the system of special procedures (independent experts called
special rapporteurs who focus on specific countries or themes, and working
groups on specific topics), although both will be reviewed in the first year of
the Council's work. This has been one of the concerns of women's NGOs, which
have increasingly utilized these mechanisms to advance women's rights. It is
important, therefore, that advocates pay close attention to this review process
to ensure the continuation (and on-going evolution) of the work of independent
experts and that the participation of NGOs in the Council remains at the levels
currently allowed in CHR processes, which are greater than those of the General
Assembly.
Human Rights and women rights advocates, including WEDO
endorsed the creation of the new Council as a positive step, while recognizing
it doesn’t embody all of the reforms advocates sought. (See: Center for
Women’s Global Leadership, Statement
on passage of Human Rights Council resolution.)
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