WOMEN'S GROUPS MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD IN UN REFORM

Details
Over the last two years, womens groups have been monitoring and participating in the UN reform process and campaigning to ensure the inclusion of gender equality and womens empowerment in the UNs reform agenda. Strategically, womens groups have been working to influence the UN System-wide Coherence Panel which was formed in February 2006 to make recommendations about how the UN should be restructured, address emerging challenges which were mostly drawn from the 2005 UN World Summit, and discuss new strategies for meeting internationally agreed goals.
Influencing the Coherence Panel

In an Open Letter to the UN Secretary General (SG) and members states in the March 2006 Commission on the Status of Women meeting, womens groups deplored the lack of a gender balance on the Panel (only three of the 15 members are women) and the absence of gender equality concerns in the Panels mandate. Due partly to persistent advocacy of womens groups, the UN Secretary general mandated the Panel to take gender mainstreaming as a cross-cutting issue. In addition, the Panels official work was redrawn to include review of both gender architecture of, and gender mainstreaming within, the UN system.

The Centre for Womens Global Leadership, Womens Environment and Development Organization, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom, BahaI International Community UN Office, and International Planned Parenthood Federation-Western Hemisphere have jointly released an update on the work of the Coherence Panel. The update discusses the Panels consultation with civil society that will take place in Geneva last July 2, including a brief overview of the process. It also calls on womens groups and the rest of civil society to make the UN reform work for women by:
  1. engaging with the Coherence Panel, and individual members of the Panel in the series of scheduled thematic and regional      consultations and field visits (see <http://www.wedo.org/files/coherence%20panel%20regional%20mtgs.doc> for a list of the regional meetings);
  2. making written submissions to the panel either by a) responding to the UN NGLS (Non-Government Liaison Service) Call for Comments, particularly on the topic of Gender Equality: Mainstreaming and Institution Architecture, a parallel process to the July consultation between the Panel and civil society organisations deadline for sending responses is on July 14 (see http://www.un-ngls.org/site/article.php3?id_article=73 for more onthis); or b) submitting comments directly to Ken Davidse, the panels research director (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). To keep track of womens groups inputs, respondents are requested to copy their submissions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., andThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Call for a more effective UN womens rights agency

The process for the UN reform has been under way for a few years now and it has gained intensity in the previous months. A bid that is generating a lot of interest among womens rights advocates is the support for an autonomous, well-resourced, and more effective agency for the promotion of womens rights within the UN system. Among the circulating proposals on how to do this are:
  • Merging UNIFEM into UNDP (Netherlands proposal);
  • Merging UNIFEM/INSTRAW/DAW/OSAGI into one or possibly two agencies, one operational and the other policymaking; 
Womens groups have strongly opposed these first two proposals. The first proposal is seen as a further marginalisation of womens concerns. And because a merger alone may be insufficient in bringing more stature or resources to womens issues, the second proposal is seen as an inadequate initiative.

Some womens groups believe that this third proposal has the greatest potential:
  • Creating a new independent womens agency with a broad mandate, led by a director with Under-Secretary-General (USG) status, and with greatly enhanced resources (by the SGs Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa). This agency could be built by initially combining UNIFEM and UNFPA field and headquarters staff, by significantly scaling up UNIFEM, or by creating a new independent agency entirely

Scaling up of UNIFEM as a womens rights machinery in the UN is strongly supported by the Southeast Asian Womens Watch (SEAWWatch), as well as a number of South Asian women activists. SEAWWatch, a network of women NGOs in the South-east Asian region, has initiated a signature campaign to support the strengthening of UNIFEM. South Asian women activists, on the other hand, have met with the Pakistan Prime Minister, co-chair of the UN Coherence Panel, to put forth their demands of making UNIFEM a high-powered nodal agency to forward the agenda for gender equality within the UN.

Meanwhile, rather than endorsing any particular approach, a group of international womens NGOs consisting of the African Democracy Forum, Association for Womens Rights in Development, BahaI International Community, BAOBAB for Womens Human Rights, Centre for Womens Global Leadership, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, International Centre for Research on Women, International Planned Parenthood FederationWestern Hemisphere, International Womens Tribune Centre, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Womens Environment and Development Organisation, and the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom are advocating for a serious and comprehensive assessment by the UN and member states of gender equality architecture and womens machineries in the UN system.

For these NGOs, what could make the gender equality architecture effective are the following characteristics:
  • Autonomous UN agency with a comprehensive mandate dedicated to the full range of womens rights and concerns, derived from the Beijing Platform for Action, Cairo Programme of Work, CEDAW, etc.
  • Under Secretary General leading agency to guarantee a voice for women and a seat at the UN decision making table
  • Substantial, regularised and predictable resources adequate to implement the mandate
  • Headquarters and in-country presence with sufficient and well-trained personnel and resources
  • Accountability mechanism that includes regionally-diverse independent womens rights advocates as part of its governing body
  • Commitment to an effective gender mainstreaming strategy that addresses the lack of effective leadership and accountability for gender equity in the UN

Sources:

African Democracy Forum, Association for Womens Rights in Development, BahaI International Community, BAOBAB for Womens Human Rights, Centre for Womens Global Leadership, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, International Centre for Research on Women, International Planned Parenthood FederationWestern Hemisphere, International Womens Tribune Centre, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Womens Environment and Development Organisation, and the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom. /Briefing Note on Womens Rights and the Coherence Panel in the UN Reform Process/. Circulated 8 May 2006.

(Message from) Cynthia Rothschild re: Coherence panel consultation with civil society: an update, posted at the isrrc e-list on 24 June 2006.

Dhakal, Sanjaya. Gender activists appeal for a resourceful and powerful nodal agency in the UN for womens empowerment and development in /Time to Empower/. Downloaded June 2006 from <http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=9344>


Zeitlin, June. /Womens Groups Influence UN Reform/. Downloaded 28 June 2006 from <http://www.wedo.org/files/mayjuneunreform.html>

SEAWWatch signature campaign, received through the APWW mailing list, June 20, 2006