I am now speaking to you as the past convenor of the United Nations Committee with Pamela Tankersley taking over the role from the end of July. However, we are very much in transition at the moment so I am still involved with the United Nations work at the moment. Pamela will do a marvellous job of representing Presbyterian Women at the Commission on the Status of Woman and in all other areas of the UN committee’s work. She has experience and skills that will bring great strength to the job and already knows a number of women involved in the work in New York through her global connections in PCANZ.
When representatives first attended the CSW, where possible, more than one person travelled to the session due to representatives paying some or all of their own way. I don’t see a personal payment as a realistic option and for a number of years now only 1 representative has attended. I have been very aware that this means that there is no cross over of experience from one convenor to the next but for a second person to attend would mean the availability of external funds. I am delighted to tell you that an application made to the Council of World Mission has been successful and this next year, the Council will fund a second representative from Presbyterian Women to New York. The money was actually granted early this year but was too late to organise a second representative then and so it has been paid out this month for use towards costs of the CSW session in March 2011. This will make a great difference to the transition of convenors as the New York experience is a huge one and a guiding hand and someone to discuss things with will be marvellous.
I have circulated my report from the Commission on the Status of Women session this past March and if anyone would like a further copy of that report, please do let me know. This next year the Priority Theme will be
Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.
This will involve.
Following these interactive events in the first week of the Commission, Member States will negotiate agreed conclusions (new policy recommendations) to accelerate implementation of existing commitments, including those in the Beijing Platform for Action.
Other panels
Parallel events
A programme of parallel events or activities which will be organized outside the formal programme of the fifty-fifth session of the Commission provides an excellent opportunity for Member States, UN entities and NGOs to discuss themes of the Commission and other critical gender equality issues.
Review theme
The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child (agreed conclusions from the fifty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women)
Despite 15 years of national policies and international agreements to advance women’s rights, the goals of the Beijing Platform for Action developed in 1995 still have large areas that are unfulfilled. In many areas, implementation has failed to recognise the full diversity of women’s situations and conditions and the particular ways different women are disadvantaged.
However, there have been some very real achievements since Beijing. Noeleen Heyzer, Under Secretary General of the United Nations, spoke at the Asia Pacific Beijing +15 forum last year and highlighted some of these.
These changes happen because of an unswerving commitment of millions of women and men who share a vision of more equitable societies, where daughters have the same chances as sons, where women live safe from violence, poverty and discrimination.
Other recent positive developments at the United Nations are a Network of Men Leaders launched by Ban Ki Moon in December 2009, and the development of a single United Nations entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women.
As part of a growing effort to include men as part of the solution to ending violence against women, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, launched his Network of Men Leaders. This network supports the work of women around the world to defy destructive stereotypes, embrace equality, and inspire men and boys everywhere to speak out against violence. See attachment.
On Friday July 2, 2010, the General Assembly voted unanimously to create a dynamic new entity — the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women. Its work will be framed by the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The new body will merge four of the world body’s agencies and offices focusing on gender equality: UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).
One of the main goals of UN Women will be to support the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and other inter-governmental bodies in devising policies. The new body will also aim to help Member States implement standards, provide technical and financial support to countries which request it, and forge partnerships with civil society. UN Women is also mandated to monitor and hold the UN accountable in its own system-wide progress in gender main-streaming and gender equality.
“Grounded on the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, UN Women will work for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security,” the UN Women’s website notes.
Set to be based in New York, UN Women will be headed by an Under-Secretary-General, Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile. Michelle is a top notch choice and has long been one of GEAR’s dream candidates. An effective leader of great integrity, Bachelet has demonstrated strong commitment to women’s empowerment and the ability to shape gender equality policies in a variety of areas. She also has the stature to mobilize the resources crucial to make UN Women a success,”
As Noeleen Heyzer said in Manila, changes have only come about by an unswerving commitment by millions of men and women who have a vision of a more equitable world. We are some of those millions and, as you have heard me say on a number of previous occasions, we need to continue to support our work through our Consultative Status at the UN and continue to address inequalities.
In the words of Martin Luther King. “In this generation we must acknowledge not only the wickedness of some bad people but the appalling silence of so many good people.”
We have a voice that can be used and an opportunity to use it.
Southern Gathering 14.11.10