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http://www.eldis.org/go/latest-news/news/is-it-make-or-break-time-for-gender-equality#.VToN3XkfrmI
Is It
Make-or-Break Time for Gender Equality?
The Commission on the
Status of Women is over for another year and feminists are demanding stronger
political commitment.
“The year 2015 is the
start of a make-or-break period for gender equality and women’s empowerment. We
have to complete the work of the last 20 years. There is a great deal of
unfinished business.
These were the words
of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women at the 59th session
of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59).
The annual event took
place in New York City from 9-20 March 2015 and marked the 20 year anniversary
of the Fourth World Conference on Women. More than 17,000 advocates for women’s
rights from around the world gathered in Beijing, China for the 1995 event.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which came out of the Fourth World Conference called on governments, the
international community and civil society to take strategic action on 12 areas
of concern, including women and health, violence, the economy, the environment
and decision-making.
CSW59 took stock of
progress and remaining challenges for the implementation of the Declaration and
Platform for Action, as well as addressing opportunities for gender equality
progress and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda.
Popular topics of
discussion included sexual and gender-based violence, sexual and
reproductive health and rights, the engagement men and boys for gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, conflict and
political participation.
Over 8,000 people
attended CSW59 and the hundreds of side events which took place around the
United Nations headquarters. But many civil society representatives felt short changed, especially as the CSW political declaration was drafted weeks before
the event even started, shutting them out of the decision making
process.
The CSW59 declaration
“is weak and general, and does not go far enough towards the kind of
transformative change necessary to truly achieve the promises made in Beijing
two decades ago…”
Another area of
contention at CSW59 was discussions about how the Commission works. It was argued
that most of the negotiations around the working methods resolution took place before
the event. However, activists lobbied hard during the event in an attempt to
influence the resolution and gain more civil society representation in CSW’s
processes before it was finalised in the second week, many staying up late into
the night, waiting outside as the negotiations rumbled on.
“No reference to
women’s and feminist group’s involvement in negotiations at the CSW was left in
the resolution, and there are real fears that this resolution, along with the
pre-negotiated Declaration, increase the risk that women’s rights activists
will be systematically excluded from real involvement in the outcomes of the
Commission moving forward,“ wrote Shameem.
The disappointment in
the CSW59 processes was reflected in a statement reflecting anger at the increasingly
limited space for feminist and women's organisations to influence the outcomes
of the session: “In a context of increasing attacks on the human rights of
women and girls and closing space for civil society at all levels, from the
national to the global, we had held up the CSW as a place where we could
express our views and influence the development of critical policies that
affect our lives and futures. Instead, it seems that governments are intent on
closing even that door by trying to limit the robust participation of
non-governmental organizations, restrict recognition of the human rights of
women and girls and the norm-setting role of the CSW in this regard and skirt
responsibility for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. It seems
they are intent on discussing everything about us, without us.”
“If the CSW no longer
provides us with a forum for policy change and accountability that fully
involves us, we will stay at home,” the statement warned.
The Sustainable
Development Goals will be finalised later in 2015 and women’s rights advocates
will be working hard to influence this process and hold their national
governments to account in its implementation. Some are also pushing for a Fifth World Conference on women, hoping to
build on the legendary Beijing event and push for the progress some felt CSW59
was lacking.