Attachments: WILPF Statement CSW 50.pdf
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WILPF
STATEMENT ON THE 50TH
SESSION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION
ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN –
2006
On
the historic occasion of the 50th
Session
of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom (WILPF) takes this opportunity to again express its full and
unequivocal support for the full and effective implementation of the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) and the outcomes of the
23rd
Special
Session of the General Assembly (Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and
Peace for the Twenty- First Century). WILPF has, since its inception in 1915,
worked to prevent armed conflicts and to establish the conditions for
sustainable peace on a global scale. As an NGO with ECOSOC consultative status,
WILPF has participated in all of the United Nations sponsored World Conferences
on Women and Sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women. WILPF marks its
commitment and continued affirmation of the struggle for full recognition and
fulfillment of women’s human rights and security in all spheres and continues to
work to ensure the participation of women in achieving these goals.
WILPF recognizes and applauds the efforts prior to and
beyond the BPFA to ensure and enhance women’s equal participation in decision
making processes. This extends from the recognition in Article 21 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the right of equal political
participation, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the basis provided in Articles 4, 7 and
8 thereof for initiatives to enhance women’s equal participation in all areas of
public life, to the urging in Security Council Resolution 1325 for Member States
to ensure increased representation of women in the prevention, management and
resolution of conflict, the 2003 General Assembly Resolution 58/142 on Women and
Political Participation and the reiteration in the BPFA and the reviews thereof
that “women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality
in all spheres of society, are fundamental for the achievement of equality,
development and peace.”
WILPF
notes, with some regret, that even in this historic 50th
Session
of the Commission, the successful achievement of the Commission’s object of
equal rights between men and women remains elusive. We hope that in designing
its future program and methods of work the Commission will ensure the rapid and
effective fulfillment of its mandate and that all Member States provide the
necessary commitment and resources to make the achievement of gender equality a
reality. WILPF encourages the adoption of specific, time-bound measurable
targets to achieve the goal of equal participation.
To
ensure the achievement of the goal of gender equality and to set a positive
example, it is vital that it be pursued within the UN System itself. WILPF
reiterates the call made by NGOs at the 49th
Session
of the Commission to more effectively pursue gender mainstreaming and to upgrade
and better resource the gender architecture and related mechanisms within the
UN. At the very least, the UN should set an example of gender balance and also
urge and assist Member States to realize the as yet unattained BPFA goal of at
least 30% women in decision making positions.
The
themes under review by the Commission in this 50th
Session
are ones which are, in WILPF’s view, interrelated, mutually reinforcing and
vital to achieving gender equality. The Outcome of the 2005 World Summit
illustrates the laudable recognition by States of this crucial link between
participation, equality and development and that the full and effective
implementation of the BPFA and outcome of the 23rd
Special
Session of the General Assembly “is an essential contribution to achieving the
internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the
Millennium Declaration.”
WILPF calls on Member States to implement the Millennium
Development Goals and broader development goals in a gender-centered manner,
without which, eleven years beyond the BPFA, women’s full and effective
participation remains severely restricted.
We find it unacceptable that access to opportunities to
work under humane and fair conditions and access to clean water and sanitation,
health services and education remain beyond the reach of most women. We do not
agree with the commodification and privatization of these essential services,
especially in light of the resultant disproportionate negative impact on women
of such policies. Unequal access to resources and the resultant unequal economic
power and persistent and pervasive under development is a form of violence in
and of itself and, further, makes women particularly vulnerable to violence both
during conflict and so called times of peace. Without inclusive and sustainable
development based on a system of gender equality, true and sustainable peace is
impossible.
WILPF calls upon all states to therefore include a
holistic gender perspective when allocating resources and developing programs to
implement the MDGs and any other development practices or projects and insists
that the CSW urge them to do so. WILPF calls on Member States urgently to act to
ensure that women and men have fair and equal access to natural, economic and
political resources so as to ensure equal participation in decision making in
the various areas of public and private life including participation in
development. We call on governments to ensure that marginalized women, including
widows, indigenous, disabled and minority women, are included in programs and
processes designed to improve and enhance the access of women to these
resources.
Furthermore, WILPF urges Member States to recognize the
importance of women’s participation in the policy decisions of government to
achieve the goals of equitable distribution of resources and to facilitate this
participation, including through gender mainstreaming and the adoption of
temporary special measures to ensure women’s participation in political and
public life provided for in CEDAW and encouraged by that Committee’s general
recommendation 23 of 1997.
The challenges which remain in implementing the
internationally agreed commitments on gender equality and empowerment highlight
the importance of creating and ensuring an enabling environment for this and we
call on national governments to take positive measures to institute policies,
strategies and mechanisms to increase women’s capabilities, assets and agency in
the essential areas of education, health and work.
WILPF recognizes that the participation of women in
decision making at all levels includes participation in economic and trade
decisions and that the disproportionate negative effects of globalization on
women makes their input in the decision making of supra-national institutions,
such as the World Trade Organization and the other Bretton Woods Institutions,
vital. WILPF calls on Member States to provide mechanisms by which women are
guaranteed an opportunity to input into the decision-making processes of these
institutions at a local level and that these processes take into account the
particular needs of women.
We support and commend the recent establishment of the
Peacebuilding Commission and recognize the important role it can play in
ensuring lasting and sustainable peace.
E urge the Peacebuilding Commission to take seriously the call in the
resolution establishing the Commission (A/60/L.40) to integrate a gender
perspective in all its work (Article 20) and to involve women’s organizations in
its activities (Article 21) both in the immediate post conflict stage of the
Commission’s operation and as it moves into the development stage in
post-conflict reconstruction, keeping in mind always the call in UNSCR 1325 “to
ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in
national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the
prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.”
WILPF emphazises the need for the UN system and Member
States to recognize that violence against women, including sexual and
gender-based violence and continuing impunity for such violence creates serious
obstacles and challenges to the full and active participation of women in these
and all other decision making processes. We urge all relevant actors, including
those within the UN system, Member States and parties to armed conflict, to take
special measures to protect women from all such forms of violence and for
parties to armed conflict to respect fully international law as set out in
Article 9 of UNSCR 1325 and to this end, support international and national
courts (including the International Criminal Court) truth and reconciliation
commissions and all other transitional justice mechanisms that pursue the goal
of ending impunity.
commitment to work for collective human security and sustainable peace in
collaboration with civil society, governmental and international actors,
including within the United Nations system. We look forward to working with
others around the world to dismantle the prevailing culture of militarism and
create a culture of peace in which racism and discrimination, economic
injustice, violence and every form of oppression are absent and in which women
are full and equal participants.
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