WUNRN
GEAR - UN Gender Equality
Architecture Reform
UN
May Postpone Creation of New Women's Body
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 5 (IPS) - A coalition of over 300
international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is "outraged"
that an impending decision to create a new women's entity at the United Nations
is being postponed once again.
"If the General Assembly fails to act, it will send a
very negative signal to women around the world who are now beginning to engage
in national and regional reviews of the 1995 Bejing Platform for Action for
Women," says Charlotte Bunch, executive director of the Centre for Women's
Global Leadership at Rutgers University.
The proposal to set up a new gender entity, to be headed by
an under-secretary-general, was expected to be approved by the 192-member
General Assembly before it concludes its current sessions on Sep. 14.
But the longstanding proposal is now expected to be passed
onto the next session of the General Assembly beginning Sep.15 through
September 2010.
"NGOs are outraged that this would continue to be postponed,"
Bunch told IPS. "No further delay is justified when no government has said
they are opposed to taking this step."
The international coalition is pursuing a global campaign
for Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) in the U.N. system.
The coalition includes Women's Environment and Development
Organisation (WEDO), Center for Women's Global Leadership, International
Planned Parenthood Association, Asia Pacific Women's Watch, African Women's
Development and Communication Network and Development Alternatives with Women
for a New Era, among others.
As part of its campaign, the coalition has been calling for
the consolidation of four existing women's U.N. entities into a single body:
the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); the Office of the Special Adviser
on Gender Issues; the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women; and the
International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women
(INSTRAW).
As a result, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admits the
"U.N. gender architecture lacks a recognised driver"- and is probably
in danger of heading in different directions.
"It is fragmented. It is inadequately funded, and
insufficiently focused on country-driven demands," he complained last
year.
Stephen Lewis, a co-director of AIDS-Free World and one of
the strongest advocates of the gender proposal, told IPS: "I have been
following this story with much intensity over the last 48 hours, and I myself
have spoken to several ambassadors (both from the South and the North), to impress
upon them the fact that under no circumstances can this resolution be
postponed".
He said that it would be "a terrible slap in the face
to the women of the world, a dreadful rejection of the views of the
secretary-general, and a deep blow to the credibility of the United
Nations."
As things now stand, the consensus that had emerged is being
sabotaged by a consortium of countries, belligerently disruptive and
destructive, led by Cuba, Sudan, Iran and Egypt, he said.
The nation states of the U.N. overwhelmingly want to approve
the creation of the women's agency by resolution on Sep. 14, and begin the
process of a global search for an under-secretary-general, "but this
little group of malcontents is holding the world to ransom".
"They're using women as a bargaining chip in the effort
to exact concessions on governance and finance, the other prongs of the
System-Wide Coherence process. They care not one whit for the rights and needs
of the women of the world," Lewis charged.
The co-chairs of the 'UN System-Wide Coherence' process
overseeing wider changes in the world body - Ambassadors Juan Antonio
Yez-Barnuevo of Spain and Kaire M. Mbuende of Namibia - have already
recommended "that the General Assembly take action during the current
session and decide on the establishment of a composite [women's] entity."
But its recommendation has apparently been ignored by some
member states which are pushing for the postponement.
In an appeal to member states Friday, the London-based
Amnesty International, which is part of the coalition, said it strongly
supports "the creation of the new U.N. women's organisation which we
believe could better protect women's human rights".
"But we have just heard that some U.N. member states
are 'holding hostage' the creation of this new women's organisation in exchange
for other, unrelated, U.N. reforms that also need to be agreed by the General
Assembly".
And some other states which are in favour are keeping
silent, AI said.
"AI and other women's human rights defenders are
outraged that the creation of this important U.N. women's organization is part
of political horse-trading," the group said.
"We appeal to your government to instruct your
diplomatic missions at the U.N. in New York to champion the establishment next
week of a new strong U.N. organisation for women".
Bunch told IPS that this decision has been pending since
consultations in June "when we were assured that virtually all governments
were ready to move on it - and that the resolution would as usual come at the
very end of the current General Assembly session on Sep. 14."
Asked where Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stands on this
issue, she said: "The secretary-general has repeatedly said that he
supports this move." But she said that Ban "needs to put some pressure
on governments".
"The only government that we know for sure has said it
should be delayed is Egypt," she said, but pointed out that none of the
others will openly say they oppose it.
"But it's gotten bogged down as part of the System-Wide
Coherence Process (which is part of a wider reform of the U.N. system)",
she added.
Lewis told IPS, "What we have here is a direct
challenge to the authority and influence of the secretary-general and the
deputy secretary-general (Asha-Rose Migiro)."
Their reputations are directly on the line. A defeat for the
resolution would mean a defeat for the leadership of the United Nations, he
pointed out.
"It can't be allowed to happen. We know that the secretary
general and his deputy are working round the clock to rally the majority of the
General Assembly against this dismal little group of pariah states."
"They must not fail. If worse comes to worst, the
resolution should be put to a vote, and passed by an overwhelming margin,"
said Lewis, a former deputy executive director of the U.N. children's agency
UNICEF.
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