9/05/2006: Despite the good commitments from CEDAW and the
Beijing Platform for Action especially, implementation by governments and in the
UN has been far slower than we would like. With the initiatives for reforms in
the UN, there is an important opportunity now to ensure that the structural and
other obstacles to effective implementation within the UN are addressed.
In order to make effective interventions regarding UN reform to ensure
women’s rights, we need to define and communicate a number of issues to the
Secretary-General’s Coherence Panel (and other bodies concerned with the UN
reforms). First, what is required to assure women’s issues, interests,
representation and gender equity in UN structures, programming, and work.
Second, we need to document the experiences of what has worked well – and what
has not worked - within existing UN systems (from policy-making at high levels
to country operations in the field). Third, we might suggest how more effective
systems could be organized within the UN.
Most of the discussion about
gender architecture in UN will take place in New York, at UN Headquarters, which
makes it difficult for those of us who are not New York based to participate.
However, it is crucial that the wider community of women’s rights activists are
informed and enabled to participate in interventions to develop the analysis,
strategies and campaigns to define and get what it is we want, need and require
from the UN as a global women’s movement.
Hence we are sending out this
Briefing note on the context and what discussions have been underway in New York
so far, by some organizations concerned with women’s rights and gender equality
– including WLUML and BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights.
Best regards
Ayesha Imam
May 9, 2006
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Your
input – women’s human rights and gender equality activists in Muslim countries
and communities – is needed, in order to get best formulation of what we really
need and want, and, to assure more legitimacy and strength in discussions with
those who have the power to make recommendations to the UN General Assembly
(such as Coherence Panel members) and obviously with those who have the power to
make the decisions – the representatives of our governments at the
UN.
For interventions and documentation to the Coherence Panel, please
email Koen Davidse koendavidse@hotmail.com.
For
interventions to national officials, please contact (for e.g.) the women’s and
gender ministries or other machineries, and the ministries of foreign
affairs.
BACKGROUND
BRIEFING NOTE ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND
THE “COHERENCE PANEL” IN THE UN REFORM PROCESS
African Democracy
Forum, Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Baha’i International
Community, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Center for Women’s Global
Leadership, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, International
Center for Research on Women, International Planned Parenthood
Federation—Western Hemisphere, International Women’s Tribune Center, Women
Living Under Muslim Laws, Women’s Environment and Development Organization,
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
For the past
three decades, women have seen the United Nations as a galvanizing force for our
efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for peace and security, human
rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment, poverty eradication and
sustainable development. While some important advances have been made for women,
the failure overall to implement the commitments to women’s rights (in CEDAW,
the Beijing Platform for Action, the Cairo Programme of Action and other
government agreements) is well-documented. The UN reform process is important to
women because we need the organizational structures, high level leadership and
necessary resources to enable governments and the UN system to increase
significantly their efforts to fullfill their promises on women’s human rights,
gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The purpose of this briefing
note is to provide you with information so you can take action critical to
advancing gender equality at a time of fast-paced UN reform. The women’s
organizations listed above, working together on the UN reform process, focus
here on women’s architecture and machineries within the UN, especially on
developments with the “Coherence Panel” since the Commission on the Status of
Women (CSW) in March 2006.
Current Reform Process: High-Level Panel
on UN System-wide Coherence
In February of 2006, the
Secretary-General announced the formation of a High-Level Panel on UN
System-wide Coherence in the areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and
the Environment. This panel is comprised of fifteen members,[1] but only three
are women. The panel will make recommendations about how the UN should be
structured, including at the national and global levels; address new challenges,
many of which were delineated in the 2005 UN World Summit; and discuss how the
UN system can meet the various internationally agreed goals, particularly the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
During the Commission on the Status
of Women meeting in March 2006, women’s groups released an Open Letter to the
Secretary General and member states deploring the lack of gender balance on the
Panel and the absence of gender equality concerns in the initial mandate, both
in terms of gender mainstreaming and women’s machineries of the UN system.[2]
Due in part to our criticism, the Secretary General has expanded the mandate of
the Coherence Panel to include both “gender equality architecture” of the UN and
gender mainstreaming, and has made gender equality a cross-cutting issue for all
three themes.
The Panel is working very rapidly because its
recommendations are expected by the end of August 2006 in order to go to the
General Assembly in September. The Panel held its first meeting on 4-6 April
2006 in New York and will next meet in Geneva on June 2-3. In May the Panel is
expected to visit Mozambique and Pakistan to conduct consultations primarily
with UN staff and a few others knowledgeable about the UN system, with other
field visits to follow in June.
Context for Women’s Rights and Gender
Equality
It is well-documented that gender mainstreaming within the
UN has not been achieved or implemented systematically and effectively.[3]
Gender mainstreaming processes have never been adequately resourced, leadership
has not been held accountable and those charged with mainstreaming often have
not had sufficient authority to implement the policies or proper training.
In addition, we have lacked a critical element: an independent,
women-specific agency with adequate stature, resources, operational capacity,
and a mandate to drive this agenda. A lead agency is needed along with
well-resourced, effective mainstreaming efforts. Currently, we have several
under-resourced agencies focused exclusively on women’s issues (United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), International Research and Training
Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the Secretary-General’s
Special Advisor on Gender Issues (OSAGI), and the Division for the Advancement
of Women (DAW)). Other larger agencies, including UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO,
the High Commissioners for human rights and refugees and others, sometimes do
important work on gender equality, but it is only a part of their mandate, and
often receives low priority.
Proposals
Proposals to
strengthen gender architecture of the UN are circulating, including the
following: