Gender
- Mon Feb 12 2007
Source:
Choike
Feminist networks, articulations and campaigns of Latin America and the Caribbean will be meeting in March 2007 to discuss, strengthen and decide strategies and positions on a future new United Nations (UN) agency devoted to women.
The Marcosur Feminist Articulation (AFM) and the Network for Popular Education between Women (REPEM) are organising a regional meeting to be held in Montevideo on March 29-31. The meeting is aimed at discussing with representatives of regional networks, articulations and campaigns of Latin America and the Caribbean, the position and strategies to be followed as regards the United Nations reform and the possible creation of a new UN agency devoted to women. This body would be included among debate proposals on UN reform and gender equality. During the meeting, information will also be provided about the process of the 10th Conference on Women, ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), to be held in Quito, Ecuador, in August 2007.
In February 2006, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, announced the appointment of a new High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment. This panel, made up of 12 men and only 3 women, is tasked with recommending changes to the UN within a broad range of structural, operational and policy issues related to these areas. Cross-cutting gender and women’s rights issues had not been included among the Panel’s responsibilities until national and international women groups lobbied Kofi Annan. (1)
Thus, the proposal for a new UN Agency devoted to women sprang up, opening up a debate on its characteristics within the women’s movement across the world.
In July 2006, Caribbean women’s organisations and women’s rights advocates submitted a statement to the High-level Panel regarding this issue, in which they express their support to “statements calling for the strengthening of mechanisms within the UN system for addressing gender equality and women’s rights” and refer to “the experience of the UN system within CARICOM, especially within the past 10 years. We note the effective functioning of UNDP and UNIFEM in promoting a system-wide approach that incorporates a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment in this region. What have been missing are the resources (including additional staff) to enhance this work”.
Then, five items were highlighted with regards to the prevailing economic model, considerations about necessary aspects for the effectiveness of the United Nations, the responsibility in addressing gender issues, a fourth item devoted to UN architecture and its policy on gender equality, and finally a consideration about the role of UNIFEM. See full text (“Statement of Caribbean Women Organizations and Women's Rights Advocates”, pdf format).
Also in July 2006, Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, made important remarks to the High-level Panel on UN Reform. He referred to the need for an international agency for women, based on the existing evidence across the spectrum of gender inequality. “The great dreams of the international conferences in Vienna, Cairo and Beijing have never come to pass. It matters not the issue: whether it's levels of sexual violence, or HIV/AIDS, or maternal mortality, or armed conflict, or economic empowerment, or parliamentary representation, women are in terrible trouble. And things are getting no better”.
“This Panel can create such an agency and show fundamental courage by doing so, or it can tinker at the edges of 'gender architecture' and consign the world of women, yet again, to perpetual second-rate status”. See Stephen Lewis's:
·Gender equality forgotten in UN reform process" and
"Remarks by Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, to a high-level panel on UN Reform"
In May 2006, Charlotte Bunch (Center for Women's Global Leadership) stated when referring to this issue that “whether it should be a whole new outfit or achieved by combining the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is still open to debate, but whatever agency is created should receive adequate resources otherwise the problem that UNIFEM has been facing will be perpetuated”.
"Engagement with the UN reform process is about having space for women's rights at an international level, and we will lose a lot if we do not keep the space open. I would therefore encourage women's groups to get actively involved in the process". (full interview)
In November 2006, African women from diverse women’s organisations and networks across the continent made a statement on the Un Reform. In one of the statement's paragraphes they stablished that "We believe that women’s rights are not optional, and that all efforts to create mechanisms within the UN system for the empowerment of women must be enabled with the necessary resources both human and financial, and with the requisite authority to effect the desired change at all levels including decision making levels".
As it was mentioned above, feminist organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean have decided to open a space in March 2007 to discuss their position on the UN Reform and the High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence, its cross-cutting gender-related issues and eventually the creation of a new United Nations Agency devoted to women issues.
(1) "Delivering as One", Report of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel., pdf format. The chapter "Gender equality and women’s empowerment" is found from number 46-50. - "Reference reports and materials on the U.N. Reform"
MORE RESOURCES
-->> women & U.N. Reform
-->> U.N. Reform: what does it mean for women's rights?
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