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https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/lydia-alpizar
Vital Need to Defend Women Human Rights Defenders
Lydia Alpizar*
- 11 March 2015 – UN CSW 59 Opening Session Speech
We deserve that you put aside your ideological, political
and religious differences and fully recognize and affirm the human rights of
women and girls and gender justice. Nothing less. Lydia Alpizar speaking at
the UN CSW
AWID Executive Director's speech
at the opening session of the 59th Session of the Commission on the Status Of
Women
Thank you Madam Chairperson and distinguished UN and
government leaders. I would like to focus my speech on five key messages, which
have been shaped by hundreds of women from around the world:
Firstly, let’s celebrate! Today, I celebrate the women -
lesbian, black, indigenous, urban and rural women living in conditions of
poverty, workers, disabled, trans& intersex people, leaders from different
generations - the relentless and tireless work of women and girls, organized in
all our diversity, in different groups and movements, who are transforming our
world.
The achievements of the last 20 years have been
significant, and the transformation of some of the challenging conditions women
and girls face is noteworthy. The level of awareness, recognition and
visibility that several women’s rights issues currently have in society is
clearly an important achievement and represents a major opportunity to be
tapped. Such transformations were advanced by the Beijing Agenda, and by the
commitment of some governments to its implementation.
We must also commemorate the lives of thousands of
feminists and women’s rights defenders who are no longer with us - either
because they have died over the past 20 years, or because they were killed or
disappeared. And we honour all the women human rights defenders who do
their work under dangerous conditions, from the corners of Congo to the
mountains of Mexico, and those whose lands and livelihood are under threat due
to climate change in the Pacific and elsewhere.
Second, today we must acknowledge that progress achieved
has been very limited. The overwhelming lack of political commitment and
financial resources, plain old sexism and misogyny, along with increasing
religious fundamentalisms have affected the quality of the agreements produced
by governments within the UN and at other levels. All these have impeded the
fulfilment of key commitments made by governments and other actors in Beijing.
Third, current challenges to gender justice
and women’s human rights around the world demand urgent and bold actions by
governments, the UN, the private sector and civil society. Key challenges
include deepening inequalities and the ongoing structural discrimination that
exploits women in the economy, climate change, increasing power of religious
fundamentalisms across regions and religions and the violence they exercise
over women and communities, the threats posed by other non-state actors such as
growing criminal networks and the increasing power by transnational
corporations over lands and territories, deepening conflicts and
militarisation, and widespread gender-based violence in both conflict and
non-conflict situations.
Fourth, over the years, we have observed a
worrying trend of criminalisation of social dissent, repression and shrinking
democratic space in many countries. This trend is also affecting the UN and
hampers meaningful participation by civil society.
In order to be more effective, the Commission on the
Status of Women, the key body for norm setting in this field within the UN,
needs to build a more inclusive process through which civil society makes
meaningful contributions. The process of negotiations on the Political
Declaration that the CSW will adopt today – in which civil society was largely
excluded - represents a step backward. twenty years after Beijing we cannot
afford to go back.
Fifth, the text of the Political Declaration is
weak and does not go far enough towards the transformative change that is
needed for gender equality. We, women of the world in all our diversity,
deserve much better than this. We deserve that you put aside your ideological,
political and religious differences and fully recognize and affirm the human
rights of women and girls and gender justice. Nothing less. We need full
reaffirmation of the Beijing Platform of Action, but also a strong commitment
to ensure the following:
§ Allocation of the financial resources needed to implement
all agreements on gender equality, gender justice and women’s human rights.
This includes meaningful resources to support the really crucial work done by
feminist and women’s rights organizations at all levels. The resources are
clearly there, it is a matter of reallocating them and making gender equality
and women’s rights a real priority.
The centrality of human rights, including all women’s
rights, in the achievement of gender equality, sustainable development and
peace. No cherry picking of rights should be allowed in any country.
Sexual rights and reproductive rights and health should
not be used as trade-offs among governments in negotiations. Women and girls
die as a result of this. This needs to stop.
Culture, religion and tradition, as Vienna and Beijing
clearly stated, cannot be used as the basis from which to violate,
discriminate, and justify delay on issues related to the rights of women and
girls around the world.
Appropriate mechanisms for state accountability for
commitments made.
Negotiations on Sustainable Development Goals, post-2015
and financing for development should make gender equality and women’s human
rights central to all agreements, in addition to having a gender goal.
A vital prerequisite for the continuity of the
achievements and the future progress of our work is the integrated protection
and prevention of violence against women human rights defenders in all our
diversity. It is a shame that all language on defenders was removed from the
Political Declaration.
This is the moment; there are important opportunities
before us. This is the moment when we must have all resources needed - the
political commitment and the action - to achieve real transformations.
Let’s move forward. La lucha continua!
* Lydia Alpizar is a Costa Rican/Mexican feminist
activist based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is the Executive Director of the
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), and a member of the Board
of Directors for the Global Fund for Women. She is a graduate of the Human
Rights Advocacy Training Program at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at
Columbia University in New York.