WIDE: Final Statement: Beijing +15 process Review at Commission on the Status of Women

Women’s organizations have been the driving force behind the Beijing process. We note the Secretary General’s repeated emphasis on the importance of civil society to the work of the UN, particularly in relation to the achievement of women’s rights. As representatives of such organizations we are deeply concerned that the spaces for influencing decision making by women’s organizations at the Beijing+15
Review have been significantly reduced. This is manifested by:

• The Declaration on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women having been agreed ahead of time and adopted without consultations with civil society.
• The absence of information on opportunities for civil society to influence the conduct and outcome of the CSW meetings and the Declaration.
• Poor logistics and facilities that have prevented women from participating effectively.

The presence of such a huge gathering of women has been used instrumentally to legitimise an empty Declaration. This is another example of the reduction of the space for critical engagement between governments and civil society.

The 54th Session of CSW was intended to be the opportunity to review progress and promote the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. However, in its failure to strongly reaffirm and commit to renewed and concrete actions and resources to implement the BPfA, the Declaration represents a backward step.

The Declaration appears to overstate the progress made, and to ignore the slow and partial nature of implementation. It underestimates the degree and types of challenges that remain for women in their multiple identities, including the persistence of all forms of violence against women. It fails to take into account changes in the global and local contexts. The current context of multiple crises--such as the food, energy, climate change, care , economic and financial crises-- new forms of insecurity, new aid modalities, internationalization of conflicts, perpetuation of the feminization of poverty and the ongoing struggle around women’s health issues, including Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV/AIDS, have created challenges not present 15 years ago.

For this reason, we call upon the Secretary General, the Chairperson of the CSW and Member States to take all opportunities associated with the forthcoming global negotiations in relation to Special High Level Meeting of ECOSOC with the Bretton Woods Institutions, World Trade Organization and the UNCTAD and the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit in order to recover the transformative nature of
the BPfA by:

• Reaffirming the BPfA both as a comprehensive, critical and human rights framework that requires full implementation as a matter of urgency and as integral to and a prerequisite for the implementation of the MDGs.
• Ensuring that civil society, including women’s organizations, is able to participate meaningfully and that young women are empowered to become future leaders of these processes.
• Committing to an accountability framework for the BPfA with concrete benchmarks and timetables.
• Ensuring adequate funding for gender equality policies, programmes and institutional mechanisms and for women’s rights organizations through the implementation, among others, of the 2008 Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, which has strong and concrete commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Protecting the policy space of countries so that they will have the flexibility to determine their development pathways consistently with universal women's rights and global commitments.
• Creating in 2010 a strong, well-resourced UN Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Entity with strong operational capacity and ability to hold the UN to account as well as strong mechanisms for meaningful civil society participation as supported and articulated by the GEAR (Gender Entity Architecture Reform) campaign.

Signatures:

Organizations: WIDE Network, Banúlacht- Ireland, AWID, Campana “Muevete por la Igualdad”, Coordinadora ONGD-Spain, One World Action- UK, Kulu- Denmark, Wo=Men- Netherlands, Feminist Task Force of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, ENLACE, IFOR Women Peacemakers Program, DAWN, Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Siglo XXIII/SERR, Mujeres en Zona de Conflicto-Spain; African Women`s Development and Communication Network/FEMNET; Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana, NETRIGHT; REPEM (Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres de America Latina y el Caribe); Red de Salud de las Mujeres latinoamericanas y del Caribe,

RSMLAC; Red Mujer y Habitat Latinoamerica; Red de Mujeres Afrocaribeñas, Afrolatinoamericanas y de la Diáspora; Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad (Mexico); Red Nacional de Mujeres, Colombia; Foro de Mujeres y Políticas de Población (México); Confluencia de redes de Mujeres, Colombia; Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres, Colombia; Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia A.C. (México); DDESER/ Red por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos en México ((México); GIRE, Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida, México; Centro de Estudios para la Accion Femenina (Republica Dominicana); Feministas en Marcha (Puert o Rico); Geledés - Instituto da Mulher Negra (Brasil); Articulação de ONGs de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras (Brasil); Mujeres Sonorenses en Acción MUSA (México); Milenio Feminista (México); Programa Feminista Centroamericano la Corriente (Nicaragua); Red de Observatorios de Violencia Social y de Género (México); Red de Observatorios de Violencia Social y de Género (México); Espacio Espiral, Promoción Cultural, Desarrollo Sustentable y Equidad AC (México); Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud (México); Forum de Política Feminista –Spain; PPIINA (Plataforma por Permisos Iguales e INtransferibles de Nacimiento y Adopción).- Spain, PLENT (Platform for Equal & Non-Transferable Parental Leave) – Europe; Le Monde Selon les Femmes- Belgique; Teamsters Canada; Syndicat canadien des communications, energie et du papier (SCEP); Public Service Alliance of Canada; Canadian Teachers' Federation; Canadian Union of Public Employees; Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec – FIQ; L’Alliance canadienne féministe pour l’action internationale (AFAI), Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL); Autonomous Women's Center, Belgrade; NWCI; MATCH International; Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW); Canadian Federation of University Women; Confrontations, Utopia; Human Rights in Democracy Centre (HRDC), Albania; Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND);La Diaspora Solidaria (Latinoamerican women in Europe's fund); Udruzenje''Zenski razvojni centar''/Association''Women's development center'; WomanAction; NGO Women`s Safe house Podgorica, Montenegro; Feminist Legal Studies, Queen's University (Canada); ALTERO-Association for personal training, education, development and empowerment, Serbia; Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán; HOPE Pakistan; OXFAM International; GADN – UK Gender and Development Network; ITUC – International Trade Union Confederation; Public Services International – PSI; Educational International – EI, The National Council of Women of Canada; FinnWID - Finnish Women in Development; Feminist Think Tank, Poland; Red Latinoamericana de Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (RLACDD); TIYE International; K.U.L.U. – WIDE Danish Platform; Le Monde selon les femmes ; Canadian Labour Congress - Congres du travail du Canada; Forum de Política Feminista ; PLENT (Platform for Equal & Non Transferable Parental Leave) ; Articulación de Mujeres Brasileras ; Corporación Humanas – Colombia ; Fundac – Colombia ; REPEM – Colombia ; Limpal – Colombia ; Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir – Colombia ; CIASE– Corporacion de Investigacion y Accion Social y Economica ;

Individuals: Ilse Lenz, Germany; Cindi Foreman; Brita Neuhold WIDE Austria, Mandy Macdonald, Scotland, Monica Sonia – Romania; Prof. Dr. Christa Randzio-Plath, VENRO/Marie-Schlei-Verein, Germany;