WUNRN
UNECE includes
the European Union, non-EU Western and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe and
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and North America.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE NGO ECE FORUM (Geneva, 30-31 OCTOBER 2009) IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE UN ECE PREPARATORY REGIONAL MEETING ON BEIJING +15 (2-3 Nov. 2009)
Conchita
Poncini (IFUW), President,
During the
two-day NGO Forum in Geneva in preparation for the ECE Preparatory Meeting on
the fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
(BPfA), women from throughout the region came together and negotiated
recommendations that reflected the desires and needs of women of the
region. It regrets that so little of the
12 areas of the BPFA was to be reviewed in this key regional preparation and
unfortunate that only two days have been allocated for this important
consultation.
While recognising
that specific attention must be paid to the global economic crisis at this
time, we hope that the NGO interventions yesterday and today have reflected a
broad level of concern with the economic situation of women as well as provide
suggestions on how to deal with the root causes of this situation with concrete
proposals on how to move forward.
Mr.
President, we request that the following recommendations be included in your
Chair’s agreed conclusions and that the report and recommendations of the caucuses
and sub-regions be incorporated in the official documents as an annex. The NGO
ECE forum recommends that:
Measures undertaken should take into account gender differentiated impact and set a direction that addresses long-term structural problems of the economy. This requires tackling labour market segregation and creating decent work for women across rural and urban settings and different social groups, and eliminating sexual exploitation in conditions of work at the workplace and violence against women at the workplace exacerbated in times of financial and economic crisis.
Economic recovery and stimulus packages should place a priority on job creation and/or retention of women through employment guarantee programmes both in the private and public sectors. Enforcement of minimum wage regulations and implementation of equal pay for equal work or equal value policies should be part of the response which should include gender and age statistically based quality employment methodology that fill in gender gaps, especially of unrecognised, invisible, unpaid and undervalued work, just as Georgia has thoughtfully added.
Public spending measures should support sensitive gender-equality investments in both physical and social infrastructures, particularly in education and health sectors, to support vulnerable groups such as minority and migrant women of all ages.
Agriculture and trade policies should be formulated and implemented aimed at assuring food security. Ownership of land and productive assets by both men and women needs to be protected to prevent deepening of poverty especially the feminisation of poverty. In countries where agriculture is a major source of employment notably for women, special social protection from a gender perspective should be given to this undervalued and often unrecognised work.
We urge governments of the ECE region to give priority to the centrality of a gender-equal rights based approach to economic and financial policies to international migration. In this regard, proper documentation and a full range of social and legal protection must be ensured to migrant and displaced women.
We urge action to fully implement legislation in accordance with the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings and to promote its adoption as a minimum standard worldwide.
Given the current financial and economic crisis and the disproportionate impact on all women, the swift creation of a composite UN entity combining policy and operational activities focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment, that is well-resourced and led by an Under Secretary-General is critical. The new gender equality entity is necessary to ensure that gender equality issues are addressed and women’s voices heard at every decision-making level, including in the UN and the Bretton Woods institutions, regionally and at country level.
Governments in the region need to support the existence of women’s permanent machineries to advance the economic independence and empowerment of women as called for in the BPfA and the Millennium Development Goals.
Bilateral and multilateral donor agencies must increase their commitments to development assistance in collaboration with civil society organisations, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment through gender mainstreaming and women targeted activities. Strengthen mechanisms to effectively measure resources allocated to incorporating equality perspectives in all areas of development assistance, with indicators that need to be developed, tracked and monitored for quantitative and qualitative activities in MDGs on poverty reduction strategies.
Governments must develop and implement preliminary impact assessment with real weights of inputs of minority women populations before putting in place any new economic program and with the participation of women and girls.
Although women are disproportionately affected by environment and climate changes due to their overrepresentation among the poor and their critical livelihood and food security, they are not adequately represented in macro economic decision-making bodies. We therefore urge governments and business and industry to include women’s voices and experiences especially relating to access to clean water and food and to act as environment agents of change.
Corporations
must be responsible actors and address their social, cultural and ethical
obligations in the communities in which they operate, through programmes and
human resources management that enhance women’s education and economic
advancement. Governments and
corporations must offer skills training including knowledge in micro-financing,
use of new communications and information technologies, literacy and numeracy
to girls and women of all ages and at all levels to improve their standard of
living. We urge governments to implement
policies to require corporations to comply with all labour and employment
legislation from a gender-equal rights perspective.
Finally, we strongly recommend implementation of a coordinated and multisectoral approach to ending all forms of violence against women at Europian level as well as in other countries to ensure a uniform protection of women’s rights. This approach must include the role of men and boys in addressing the root causes of male violence and include measures and resources for the prevention of VAW, non-sexist education and support, and protection of victims and their rehabilitation. The elimination of violence against women should include measures tackling trafficking and prostitution, phenomena which are directly linked to economic hardship.
Last but
not least, governments must address and develop economic and social policies
that identify the needs and help reduce poverty of an emerging phenomenon of an
ever-increasing number of widows of all ages and single-headed household
victims of armed conflicts and ethnic violence, in the context of pensions,
social protection and services, inheritance, property and land rights.
Thank you
Mr. President.
03.11.09
UN ECE
Conclusions on the Interactive Caucus on Care Economy, Unpaid Work and
Decent Work, Macroeconomics and Gender Budgeting
Speakers: Tatiana Isoo
(ANFDUR-Romania)
DanielaTerzi-Barbặroṣie
(Center”Partnership for Development”-
1. European-wide study to determine quantitative and qualitative economic value of unpaid work, especially in transition economies, including girls working domestically in care economy.
2. Develop special quantitative methodology to determine gender equality based on a multitude of indicators that take into account the lack of recognition of unpaid work and undervaluing of care economy.
3. Access to education is not sufficient to gender equality, must evaluate content of the textbook materials and curriculum, to build attitude and behaviour to empower young girls to become future leaders and eradicate the male paradigm.
4. Create a workplace environment of equality that promotes paternal leave and changes the male breadwinner model.
5. Workplace must have effective punitive mechanism that prevent sexual harassment and human resources management that prevents exploitation of women’s care giving responsibilities.
6. Qualify employment statistics by noting significant gender gap in part time and lower level jobs.
7. Quantify cost of domestic violence and enact legislation to stop violence against women.
8. Use gender mainstreaming as a consideration in government policy that protects social services and social security and provides decent work to decrease and prevent the feminization of poverty.
9. Raise awareness in governments about the Beijing Platform and CEDAW and significance of the interdependence of economic, social and cultural rights with civil and political rights focused on the economic and financial impact.
10. Provide social services and protect all human rights for gay and lesbian families that suffer from multiple forms of discrimination.
11. Continue to promote micro-credit to start-up enterprises to empower women and encourage entrepreneurship development.
12. Promote the pursuit of employment outside of “traditional” female professions and safeguard decent work for women.
13. We call on governments to be aware of and avoid the protection of so-called “traditional values and customs” as a societal concept that could be used to justify the oppression of women and exclusion from the active labour force and reinforces the unpaid care responsibilities for women.
14. Create a Europe-wide Equal Pay Day to protest the gender pay gap and demand legislation for income equality.
15. Reduce military expenditures and reallocate tax payer money to social services and education for a more sustainable future.
16. Mandate a 50-50 gender balance in government decision making on all levels and increased gender sensitivity within civil workplaces.
17. Use gender budgeting to raise awareness of the plight of poor and marginalized women in transitional governments and conflict areas.
18. Use gender budgeting as a means to highlight the economic contributions of women in macroeconomics and make visible their roles in paid and unpaid work as smart business practice and not a welfare concept.
19. Educate rural women and girls in new forms of technology including agriculture sciences, communication, computer sciences, etc.
20. Provide preferential credit to increase female entrepreneurship and ownership, including the women from rural areas.
21. Create national campaigns to eliminate alcoholism and domestic violence.
22. Reduce government agricultural subsidies to benefit the livelihood of female field workers in poorer countries.
23. Use international networks o create mentor partnerships for girls to learn from the experiences of successful women in “non-traditional” careers.
UNECE
Conclusions of the Interactive Caucus on Migrant and Displaced Women and Trafficking
Given that the current economic/financial crisis increased women’s poverty, we demand that the governments of the region promote the economic empowerment of all women and urge governments to consider the following points;
·
The
ECE should take measures to eliminate the economic exploitation of developing
countries.
·
We
demand that the governments of the ECE region condemn all forms of violence
against women worldwide, including under the pretext of: tradition, customs,
religion or culture.
·
Governments
of the region should put in place legislation that criminalizes the clients and
completely decriminalizes women in prostitution. We further call for
governments to establish, implement, and adequately fund services to enable
women to leave prostitution.
·
Governments
of the ECE should recognize that prostitution is a violation of women`s human
rights.
·
Legislation
in accordance with the Council of
·
Member
states of the ECE region should give priority to the centrality of a
rights-based approach to international migration. The humanity and dignity of
200 million migrants in the world must be the primary concern of all State’s
and other actors. We urge that the governments of the region ensure that
migrant and displaced women have access to:
- Proper
documentation (such as birth registration, marriage documents, working permits)
- Adequate
housing
- The
right to equal work for equal pay
- Education
- Health
services
- Social
protection (including proper information service in a language they can
understand)
- Unemployment
insurance
- Services
protecting their human rights and delivered with respect
- Free
legal assistance
In addition, we request that
governments implement support evaluation mechanisms of the before mentioned
measures and provide regular reports on these evaluations.
We insist that the governments of
the region take proactive steps to sanction racist and discriminatory practices
against migrant and displaced women.
Finally, we would like to recall
that in the
Take appropriate measures to ensure
that refugee and displaced women migrant women and women migrant workers are
made aware of their human rights and of the recourse mechanisms available to
them.
Presented on behalf of the Caucus by Miriam Freudenberg – WAVE Network office
Minorities:
Speaker:
Hélène Sackstein
For
the implementation of the
ONE
SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
Contribution
from the NGO caucus on minority women in the ECE region
Item 5 – Gender-sensitive economic policies in the
context of the economic crisis
Rapporteur Hélène Sackstein – International
NGOs participating in the caucus began by including in the category of
minority women all those who are different in some way from the majority of
women in their country because of their ethnicity, their religion, their
culture, their extreme poverty, their real or perceived disabilities, their
sexual orientation and gender identity, their marital status or their life
style. The list is far from exhaustive, but the recommendations made are
relevant to most minorities women victim of marginalization and/or social
exclusion in the UNECE Member States.
Lack of access to education, health and status, an absence of legal rights
along with the inability to have their voices heard has marginalized these
women and girls and resulted in the inter-generational transmission of lives in
poverty - a vicious cycle that can only be broken through an effort to
develop anti-poverty policies and programmes that reach all members of society.
This state of affairs is exacerbated by the financial crisis.
It has been shown over and over that gender roles are key in either
hindering or facilitating the integration of minority communities and it would
prove cost-effective to invest in their women and girls
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action provides a road map and already
15 years ago identified some of the
shortcomings of economic policies.
In addition to acknowledging the need for social justice and noting the
structural causes of poverty, Point 4 of the Declaration, among others,
specifically invokes the need to listen to voices of women everywhere taking
note of their diversity, their roles and circumstances.
Again, among many others, Point 18 of the Global framework of the Platform
for Action in a specially relevant passage acknowledges that economic
programmes are not designed to minimize their negative effects on vulnerable
and disadvantaged groups or women, nor have they been designed to assure
positive effect on them by preventing their further marginalization in economic
and social activities but point 45 of the Strategic objectives emphasizes
that the Platform of Action is intended to improve the situation of all
women without exception while special attention should be paid to groups
that are most disadvantaged.
15 years after The Women’s World Conference in
As a simple example of lack of progress in this area, there are some 8
million Roma in European region and, although they have been identified in
every country, they are likely to be more prevalent in Central and
Most are poorer than their non-Roma neighbours; their children die twice as
fast as the children of their neighbours; Maternal mortality statistics are
equally dismal. Along with many other poor people, the Roma have difficulties
maintaining property, paying rent, mortgages or utility bills and this has led
to increasing homelessness, displacement, tensions with local authorities. They
suffer conspicuous disadvantages in relation to the criminal justice system,
are grossly over-represented among the region’s prison population and are often
the main victims of racial violence and discrimination.
These problems are partially related to declines in the quality and
accessibility of public services - exacerbated by the financial crisis. In
Eastern and
We can assume that these problems have grown exponentially with the
financial crisis.
We can also assume that they share them with many other minorities.
Minority women are further victimized by multiple disadvantages and
discrimination, often within their own community as well as outside of it, by
their female status.
Even a minority of 8 million people in the European region – over 4 million
women and girls - with the problems we have just outlined receives little
attention in the states reviews or in this regional review agenda.
In an attempt to provide some remedies, we urge governments to, at the very least,
• Develop and implement
impact assessments on minority populations, particularly women and girls before putting in place any
new economic programme
• Review existing European
and national legislation and socio-economic policies in the light of their
impact on reducing gender inequalities, by addressing all forms of
discrimination and social exclusion
• Ensure the participation
of minority women in the development of more effective economic and social
policies and programmes, giving real weight to their inputs; they are, after
all the ones who know best the obstacles that they face and the type of support
they need.
• Ensure that poverty
reduction policies and programmes reach disadvantaged and vulnerable
populations who may have few qualifications and little formal work experience
• Develop campaigns against
violence, including homophobia, in business and industry as it has a negative
impact on the physical and mental health of employees and their
productivity
• Ensure equality of social
protection for lesbian families, including in cases of immigration linked to
employment
• In view of the increased
numbers of widows of all ages, ensure that policies address not just their
needs but also acknowledge and support their positive roles in society
• Ensure adequate funding
for minority women organizations to enhance their collective voice and
participation at all levels of decision-making regarding their status and needs
• Pay special attention to
the situation of minority women during the 2010 European year to combat poverty
and social exclusion
Finally, we reaffirm that, in spite of the financial crisis, woman’s rights
remain human rights as contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and need to be mainstreamed throughout all socio-economic policies and
programmes of the region.
Item 6- Gender and the
Corporate Sector
Speaker: Ariane Wagenknecht
Environment and Climate Change
Although climate change affects the whole population, women and men, and its consequences will be disastrous for the economic crisis and will increase poverty and mass migration, it can be devised that women are disproportionately affected by it due to their gender role in protecting the livelihood of the family. Women are not equally represented in all decision making bodies, yet they are still powerful agents of change. The ecological footprints of women are significantly lighter than those of men. Therefore, strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change must recognize women’s abilities and include them in the research, development and implementation process.
We want to recall the forthcoming meeting of CPCCC in
Pursuant to this, we demand the member states:
· Include the woman perspective in the Treaty on Climate Change
· Include women in all phases of negotiating, planning, and implementation of policies to stop global warming
· Empower women on local, regional and national levels in all decision making bodies to ensure that women’s voices are heard strongly in the incorporation of gender aspects in climate change
· Transparency in budgeting and policies which could have negative effects on climate change, including the Member States’ military operations
· Budgetary priorities to face the effect of climate change on women and children’s health and to guarantee access to clean water
· Reallocation of financial, technical and human resources from the military budget to increase funding for gender-sensitive disaster preparedness and adaptation programs and the awareness and knowledge of the gender perspective in the effects of climate change.
Employability, Education and Training
Education
is fundamental to sound economic development, peaceful societies and public
health.
The current
economic and financial crisis has caused governments to cut duets and change
priorities. Unfortunately many of these
cuts, as in education, have affected women disproportionately. We urge that education at all levels- formal,
informal and non-formal, must be excluded from financial cuts as governments
try to manage their debt.
Education
at all levels, whether single sex or co-educational, must, from the beginning,
have a gender aware curriculum, to enable women’ full participation in the
economy and men’s’ participation in the household.
Formal
education should prepare women and girls for responsible and informed
citizenship as well as academic preparation for the career of their choice.
Governments
and corporations must offer skills training including knowledge in
micro-financing, use of new technologies, literacy and numeracy to women at all
levels to improve their standard of living.
Corporation must be responsible actors and address the social and ethical obligations in the communities in which they operate, through programmes that enhance women’s’ education and economic advancement.
Item 7: New partnerships, networks, and alliances for
gender equality
Human Rights and Responsibilities
Speaker: Elly Pradervand
NGO CSW Caucus No. 4. Human Rights & Government Responsibilities
Final Draft - Recommendations presented at the plenary
NGO CSW session on 31.10.09
Introduction
The implementation
of Human Rights principles is the core responsibility of all governments; they
must underpin the development of all legislation and policy and ensure its
implementation, as well as being accountable to civil society.
Women’s
rights as human rights are not bargaining terms. Evidence shows that ensuring
women’s rights through policies enables a stronger impact on employment,
economic growth, and the development of democratic societies and the lives of
families.
If governments fail to adopt human rights legislation
then their inaction is perpetuating all forms of violence against women. Since
the
Women must not be seen as a homogenous group. We, the
women of their world, urge the ECE governments to work in partnership with
women’s groups, humans rights groups, trade unions and international agencies
to:
1. Adopt policies addressing traditional
customs and religious practices that will not impede upon human rights core
values, particularly those in relation to women and reproductive health.
2. Impose stronger legislation and adopt
relevant policies with regards to the private sector, who continue to ignore
the rights of women around the world by not complying with international
employment legislation or exploiting the lack of legislation.
3. Assist governments within a limited
time frame to develop relevant policies for the emerging issue of the older
world population that are mostly women. This should include protection through
the adoption of a UN convention for older people.
4. Collect, analyze and publish data for government gender
budgeting to comply with human rights obligations under the various
international human rights treaties, conventions, etc…
5. Ensure full implementation of the UNSCR
1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 by all UN member states along with national action
plans, which are measurable and time bound. The development of
legislation and policy to implement these conventions needs to include women in
the decision-making and implementation processes to foster the emergence of a
culture of peace.
6. All ECE
governments should ratify, and put
pressure on other states that have not yet ratified, treaties and conventions
that comply with universal human rights standards.
Conclusion
It is the responsibility of governments to be accountable for their obligations and shortcomings under UN conventions and treaties. It should be the policy of all states to support and encourage human rights through education and particularly women’s rights through education and implementation in legislation and policy. This should be the embodiment of their responsibilities. Through the acceptance of responsibilities, states therefore empower their citizens to regard women’s rights as a right to dignity.
A Partnership between the United Nations and the
Women’s Movement
On 14 September 2009, the United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted resolution A/63/L.103 on System-wide
Coherence which supports the creation of a new UN gender equality entity,
headed by an Under Secretary-General.
The GEAR Campaign considers the UNGA resolution a historic moment, which
has the potential to start a new era for women’s rights globally. The ECE Regional consultation at the
fifteen-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA)
will discuss, under Agenda Item 7 “New partnerships, networks, and alliances
for gender equality”. These recommendations
are targeted towards that discussion, as well as the overall review of the BPfA
especially in regards to Critical Area H- Institutional Mechanisms.
Women around the world have
waited for the United Nations and member states to fulfill the promises made
since the first International Women’s Year in 1975, the adoption of the
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) thirty
years ago, as well as the UN World Conferences in
Overall Recommendation
Given the current economic and financial crisis and the disproportionate impact it is having on women, especially lower income women in every part of the world, the swift creation of a strong composite UN entity (combining policy and operational activities) focused on gender equality and women's empowerment that is well-resourced and led by an Under Secretary-General is critical. The new gender equality entity with its higher level leadership is necessary to ensure that gender equality issues are addressed and women's voices are heard at every decision making level, including globally at UN headquarters and the Bretton Woods institutions, regionally and at country level. While the crisis is having negative impacts on women’s situation and the existing women’s machineries, the creation of the new UN women’s rights entity is critical as it will advance the economic empowerment of women as called for in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals.
Key points
The resolution’s provisions on the new UN women’s rights entity need to be implemented swiftly and effectively. In order to make this happen, the UN Secretary General has put a process in place that calls for a comprehensive report specifying the mission statement and organizational arrangement for the new gender entity by the end of the year 2009. We urge the SG to stay committed to this timetable.
UN member states still face a number of key issues concerning the mandate, mission, organizational structure, governance and funding which need to be addressed during the 64th General Assembly session. We call on UN Member States to stay committed to this process and ensure that the establishment of the much needed single women’s UN agency is moving ahead without any further delay.
The President of the UN General Assembly (PGA) needs to ensure that the formal intergovernmental process is ready to begin expeditiously once the report is finalized.
The new UN women’s rights entity must play a transformative role
The current UN women’s agencies must be consolidated to establish a transformative and visionary new gender equality entity. Combining and enhancing the normative and operational functions that will enhance synergies and promote an expanded field presence is essential to the success of the new entity. The entity must hold all countries, including countries in ECE regions, accountable for women’s rights.
In addition, the new gender entity should take the lead in promoting gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and women in decision-making in the entire UN system, and should hold other agencies accountable to their commitments to women (UNICEF serves as a model for this in how they hold other agencies accountable to their responsibilities for children).
The new UN women’s rights entity has to be ambitiously funded
Existing funding for gender equality within the UN is completely inadequate. 1 Therefore, we believe that the new gender equality entity needs to have an initial budget of $ 1 billion USD per year with annual increases. The new entity should be funded from both voluntary and assessed contributions. Ensuring ambitious funding requires a broad donor basis involving all UN member states and countries that may not be part of the usual group of donors with the largest contributions coming from the ECE region.
The new women’s
rights entity needs the participation of civil society
The systematic and meaningful participation of civil society, especially women’s organizations, needs to be part of the governance and the accountability structures of the new entity. This means that civil society should be represented on the Executive Board of the new entity. Of equal importance is a strong formal CSO involvement with the entity at country and regional level. The role of NGOs on the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS is a precedent that should be a model in the governance board of this new entity.
Select the Under-Secretary General to lead the new entity by March
2010
The UN Secretary-General should immediately initiate a transparent global recruitment process for the Under Secretary-General who will lead the new entity. We urge that the USG should be appointed by March 2010.
Candidates for this important
post that includes securing funding and leading the transition towards the
creation of the composite entity must have a vision for and demonstrated
commitment to achieving gender equality and securing women’s human rights. (See the selection criteria of the GEAR
Campaign).
Item 4- Regional Review of
Progress
REGIONAL STATEMENT BY NGOS
OF EASTERN AND SOUTH
AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES
FOR UN ECE
2-3 NOVEMBER 2009,
Speaker: Aida Jamangulova, NGO "Community Development
Gender
equality and women’s empowerment are essential in order to achieve equitable
and effective development and to foster a vibrant economy. The financial and
economic crisis should not be an excuse for countries to backtrack on
commitments made to gender equality and poverty reduction. Once undone,
progress on development goals cannot easily be recovered without considerable
re-investment and political re-commitment.
Measures undertaken should take into account gender
differentiated impacts and be not only consistent with short-term measures but
also set a direction that addresses long-term structural problems of the
economy. This requires tackling labour market segregation and creating decent
work for women across rural and urban settings and different social groups.
ð
Expansionary fiscal policy must be countercyclical. Progressive taxation
systems that compensate for gender biases in revenue-collection should be
developed along with measures to enhance tax revenues, including more efficient
and broader-based tax collection.
ð
Economic stimulus packages should place a priority on job creation
and/or retention through employment guarantee programmes both in the
private and the public sector where so many women are still employed.
Enforcement of minimum-wage regulations and implementation of equal
pay for equal work policies should be part of the policy response.
ð
Public spending measures should support gender-sensitive investments in
both physical and social infrastructure to support vulnerable groups, such as
migrant women.
ð
Support to individuals should especially target those in low-income
households, support formal, informal and unpaid care givers, such as including
them in high enough unemployment benefits that cover the living cost; and ensure that women-owned SMEs and small
producers are able to access credit and microcredit from formal institutions.
ð For countries with a heavy economic
concentration in the rural sector, long term planning means a re-balancing
of the sectors and investment, especially private and foreign direct
investments, in industrial policy to reduce the commodity dependence and
broaden the employment base for women by providing incentives to sectors which
majority of the jobs are occupied by women.
ð Agricultural and trade policies
should be formulated and implemented with the goal of assuring food
security. Ownership of land and productive assets by both men and women
needs to be protected to prevent deepening of poverty. In countries where agriculture is a major
source of employment (especially for women) special attention should be
given to the classification of unemployment and the eligibility for support to
take into account of female farmers and agricultural workers.
ð Rising unemployment
rates particularly affect migrant workers, half of whom are women. Joint
initiatives between countries of origin and destination are necessary to
assure protection of the rights of migrant workers internally displaced people
and their families: protection of human rights specifically right to personal
safety, decent work, social security, including social insurance. Unemployment
schemes in countries of origin and destination should extend to migrants
and return migrants who have lost their jobs. Regional coordinated responses
are necessary where migration and trade routes are interdependent.
ð States should
develop and enforce appropriate national standards for the sectors of health
and education, including child care and social services, supported by adequate
state budgets, and ensure quality, accessibility and reach to all parts of
the country, ensuring coverage for vulnerable groups and citizens outside of
main population centres. Some services
could be delegated to the private sector and civil society organizations as
long as quality control is ensured.
ð
Bilateral and multilateral donor agencies must increase commitments
to development assistance in collaboration with civil society organizations to
promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, through gender mainstreaming
and targeted activities, and strengthen mechanisms to effectively measure
resources allocated to incorporating gender perspectives in all areas of
development assistance. Indicators for gender sensitive stimulus packages need
to be developed, tracked and monitored.
ð
It is important to ensure that the International Financial
Institutions take gender perspectives into account in loan approvals, debt
servicing and debt relief equality. All onerous debts should be reviewed
and cancelled as they burden national economies and their capacity to overcome
the crisis.
Rights
based gender responsive policies and their implementation can only be assured
when decisions are made in a transparent and inclusive manner, with monitoring
mechanisms in place. Nationally owned initiatives are essential to assure
that policies respond to the real needs of the country and the most vulnerable
within them. This requires sustained advocacy and informed demands by gender
equality advocates and women’s participation in all levels of policy and decision-making. Support to women’s organizing should
be matched by strengthened gender machineries to assure policies are gendered
and monitored. In addition, the women’s machineries need to be better
positioned in policy and budget formulation and crisis response processes as
well as public finance management to assure that needs of women are adequately
addressed.
Speaker: Margot Baruch, Center for Women’s Global Leadership
The following statement from the North American sub region developed at
the NGO forum reflects the fact that the participants present were primarily
from the
- We call
on the US to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on the occasion of the 15th
anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and the 30th
anniversary of CEDAW. The
- We are
very pleased that the General Assembly adopted a resolution that supports
the creation of a new gender entity on gender equality and women’s
empowerment.
- In
reference to the institutional mechanisms in the
- Governments
must also demonstrate leadership in resourcing the new gender entity. In
order to meet the funding goal of $1 billion, we urge that all governments
in the region should triple their funding by next year and increase
funding annually in subsequent years considering that the UN women’s
agencies currently have a budget of approximately $221 million.
- Globally
there must be a redirection of resources and reallocation of the way money
is spent to reduce excessive military expenditures and control the
availability of armaments.
- Given
the financial crisis resources could be shifted to these other funding
issues.
- The
financial crisis has disproportionately impacted poor and rural women. In
order to address this issue effectively, economic stimulus money needs to
be supportive of public sector positions, which will have long term
impacts on social functions such as in health and education.
- The
- The US
must support the ratification of Optional Protocol of International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) for
the establishment of a mechanism to access justice at an international
level for people whose economic, social and cultural rights are violated.
- Finally,
we call the North American governments to take action to achieve 50/50
participation of women in political decision making and on corporate
boards.
- We look
forward to reviewing the
European
including CIS Women’s NGOs Statement
Speaker:
Brigette Triems
Women’s NGOs from the European region including the CIS acknowledge the
significance of the impact of the current economic and financial crisis and
hereby wish to stress the importance of the multilayered and complex gender
dimension pertaining to this recession. In this regard, we draw attention to
the fact that the recovery packages proposed to overcome this crisis must pay
due attention to addressing existing deep inequalities between women and men.
Beyond economic-dominated solutions, in order to be effective future policies
and legislation must notably address all forms of violence against women,
ensure the equal participation of women and men in decision-making in all
areas, ensure the protection of women’s sexual health and reproductive rights
and acknowledge and address the existing inequalities between various groups of
women.
Pursuant
to this, Women’s NGOs from the European region and CIS advance the following recommendations
for the attention of national, European and international-level policy-makers:
1.
Guarantee
continuous support and resourcing (financial and human) of existing
institutional mechanisms, policies and programmes for gender equality and
women’s rights at all levels, including in ODA and international
cooperation and support for women’s organizations. Further, ensure the swift
creation of a strong new United Nations gender equality entity. The current
cuts faced by gender equality institutions in several countries need to be
addressed with strong political engagement on the part of decision-makers,
especially in the context of the financial and economic crisis. Bilateral and
multilateral donor agencies must increase commitments to development
assistance that promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment, through both
gender mainstreaming and targeted activities, and strengthen mechanisms to effectively
measure resources allocated to incorporating gender perspectives in all
areas of development assistance. Indicators for gender sensitive stimulus
packages need to be developed, tracked and monitored.
2. Ensure that financial and economic recovery plans at all levels include a gender equality perspective both in relation to analysis and to policy proposals. Economic recovery packages should place a priority on job creation and/or retention through employment guarantee programmes, not only in the private sector but also in the public sector where many women are employed. The reconstruction of the current financial and economic architecture must involve structural transformations, take into account the legal responsibilities for gender equality, introduce gender budgeting strategies and include a strong focus on sustainable development. Binding measures for the equal representation of women with men in high-level economic and financial decision-making must be central to the process of institutional restructuring.
3. Ensure a consistent gender equality dimension to economic, employment and social policies in order for them to contribute to gender equality, including equal pay and equality in pensions, and to the fight against women’s poverty especially for older women. Governments should introduce and support policies and services for equality in training, equal access to lifelong learning, the reconciliation of work and private life, recognize the value of unpaid work and take measures to ensure the equal sharing of unpaid work between women and men.
4. Implement a coordinated and multisectoral approach to ending all forms of violence against women specifically at European Union level as well as in other countries in order to ensure a uniform protection of women's rights in the region. The framework of this approach should be the recognition of all forms of violence against women as a manifestation of the patriarchal system and of unequal power relations between women and men in public and private life. This approach must address specifically the root causes of male violence and include measures and resources for the prevention of violence against women, non sexist education and support and protection of victims and for their rehabilitation. The fight against violence against women should include measures tackling trafficking and prostitution, phenomena which are also directly linked to economic hardship.
5. In the framework of human security, decisions on the disarmament of all weapons should be carried out. Consistent with the provision of UNSC resolutions 1325, 1820 and 1880, a gender analysis of armed conflicts should be performed.
6.
Guarantee
sexual and reproductive health and rights as a strategic priority for achieving gender equality and the empowerment
of women, both in internal and external policies. All States should be
accountable and ensure the establishment and implementation of a legislative
framework to provide, universal access to information, education and services
pertaining to sexual and reproductive health including prevention of sexually transmitted diseases,
for both women and men, girls and boys.
7.
Take
strong action against the use of arguments based on religious, cultural,
customary or traditional values, beliefs or practices to justify any violation of women’s human rights.
Member States should invest in transforming these institutions for them to
support women’s human rights.
8.
Develop and implement an intersectional approach,
given that women are not a homogeneous group, to include women’s multiple identities within
policies and actions which are gender specific and addressed to various groups
of women. These policies must pay particular attention to those women in
vulnerable situations.
9.
Ensure that migration,
integration and asylum policies are based on a human rights approach and take into account a gender
perspective. Joint initiatives between countries of origin and
destination are necessary to ensure the protection of the
rights of migrant, refugee and internally displaced women and their families:
the protection of these human rights include the right to an individual legal
status, to personal safety, decent work, an individual right to social
security, including social insurance. Unemployment schemes in countries
of origin and destination should extend to migrant women and return migrant
women who have lost their jobs. Regional coordinated responses are
necessary, where migration and trade routes underlie the interdependence of the
countries.
10.
In
countries that are predominantly rural and where agriculture is a major
source of employment (especially for women) special attention should be
given to the classification of unemployment and the eligibility for support
that take into account of female farmers and agricultural workers. For
countries with high farmer indebtedness, special funds and financing mechanisms
need to be put in place to address the problem of agricultural debt. Financial sector reform should ensure that small producers
can access credit and microcredit from formal institutions. Agricultural
and trade policies should be formulated and implemented with the goal of
assuring food security. Ownership of land and productive assets by both
men and women needs to be protected to prevent deepening of poverty.
Rights based gender responsive policies and their implementation can only be assured when decisions are made in a transparent and inclusive manner, with monitoring mechanisms in place. Nationally owned and driven initiatives are essential to assure that policies respond to the real needs of the country and the most vulnerable populations within them. This requires sustained advocacy and informed demands by gender equality and women’s groups. Support to women’s organizing should be matched by strengthened investments in national institutions including national women’s machineries to assure policies are gendered and monitored. In addition, the women’s machineries need to be better positioned in policy and budget formulation and crisis response processes as well as public finance management to assure that needs of women are adequately addressed.
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