Women's rights worldwide
Commission on the Status of Women 2012
Say NO to safeguarding “traditional values” over women’s human rights
STATEMENT OF FEMINIST AND WOMEN’S ORGANISATIONS
ON THE VERY LIMITED AND CONCERNING RESULTS OF THE
56TH SESSION OF THE UN COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
On behalf of IAW President Lyda Verstegen signed the declaration saying "no' to traditional values at the expense of women's rights.
On: http://www.apwld.org/uncategorized/say-no-to-safeguarding-traditional-values-over-womens-human-rights
We, the undersigned organisations and individuals across the globe, are alarmed and disappointed that the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) failed to adopt agreed conclusions at its 56th session. This failure has diminished the considerable work, energy, time and costs that women all over the world invested on the 56th session of the CSW.
The advancement of women’s human rights should not be put on hold because of political battles between states.
We say NO to any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.
We are particularly concerned to learn that our governments failed to reach a consensus on the basis of safeguarding “traditional values” at the expense of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.
We remind governments that all Member States of the United Nations (UN) have accepted that “the human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and individual part of universal human rights” as adopted by the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.
Governments must not condone any tradition, cultural or religious arguments which deny human rights and fundamental freedoms of any person. After more than 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was embraced and adopted by the UN, the relationship between traditional values and human rights remains highly contested.
We affirm the UDHR as not only ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations’ but a common standard of assessment for all traditional values.
The UDHR is an embodiment of positive traditional values that are universally held by this community of nations and are consistent with the inherent dignity of all human beings. 
We remind governments that under the Charter of the United Nations, gender equality has been proclaimed as a fundamental human right. States cannot contravene the UN Charter by enacting or enforcing discriminatory laws directly or through religious courts nor can allow any other private actors or groups imposing their religious fundamentalist agenda in violation of the UN Charter.
“No one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor limit their scope.
Not all cultural practices accord with international human rights law and, although it is not always easy to identify exactly which cultural practices may be contrary to human rights, the endeavour always must be to modify and/or discard all practices pursued in the name of culture that impede the enjoyment of human rights by any individual.” (Statement by Ms. Farida Shaheed, the Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights, to the Human Rights Council at its 14th session 31 May 2010)
Amongst other things, it is alarming that some governments have evoked so-called “moral” values to deny women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Sexual and reproductive rights are a crucial and fundamental part of women’s full enjoyment of all rights as well as integral to gender equality, development and social justice.
Social and religious morals and patriarchal values have been employed to justify violations against women. Violence against women, coercion and deprivation of legal and other protections of women, marital rape, honour crimes, son preference, female genital mutilation, ‘dowry’ or ‘bride price’, forced and early marriages and ‘corrective rapes’ of lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and inter-sexed persons have all been justified by reference to ‘traditional values’.
We remind governments that the CSW is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women with the sole aim of promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields.
Its mandate is to ensure the full implementation of existing international agreements on women’s human rights and gender equality as enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action as well as other international humanitarian and human rights law.
We strongly demand all governments and the international community to reject any attempt to invoke traditional values or morals to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor to limit their scope. Customs, tradition or religious considerations must not be tolerated to justify discrimination and violence against women and girls whether committed by State authorities or by non-state actors.
In particular, we urge governments to ensure that the health and human rights of girls and women are secured and reaffirmed at the coming Commission on Population and Development and the International Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Any future international negotiations must move forward implementation of policies and programmes that secure the human rights of girls and women.
We call upon the member states of the UN and the various UN human rights and development entities to recognise and support the important role of women’s groups and organisations working at the forefront of challenging traditional values and practices that are intolerant to fundamental human rights norms, standards and principles.
ASIA PACIFIC FORUM ON WOMEN, LAW AND DEVELOPMENT (APWLD) ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN DEVELOPMENT (AWID) INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S HEALTH COALITION (IWHC)
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTION WATCH ASIA PACIFIC (IWRAW ASIA PACIFIC)
WOMEN LIVING UNDER MUSLIM LAWS (WLUML) / VIOLENCE IS NOT OUR CULTURE CAMPAIGN
Note: See also paragraph 5a of CEDAW
CSW56 - Norway's statement on final day
3/15/2012 // As negotiations at the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women ended, Norway's UN Ambassador Morten Wetland delivered a strong statement in defence of gender equality and women's rights. Ambassador Wetland warned against the use of religious, cultural and certain so-called moral arguments to block decisions and avoid obligations that would save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
"Madame Chair, fellow delegates,
The term - "Moral Hazard" is often used when someone takes a risky decision - because they know that someone else will pay if the decision is wrong. I am sad to say, this is precisely what we have witnessed at this year's meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women:
In statements and in speeches - and in negotiations - we have seen how moral values have been evoked, to deprive women of their Human Rights, their opportunities - and ultimately, for some - their life!
This is the real Moral Hazard of our time!
Fellow delegates,
Norway fully respects and protects religious freedom and cultural diversity.
But we cannot accept that religious, cultural and certain so-called moral arguments are being used to block decisions and avoid obligations we all know would give millions of women freedom and save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
All countries and cultures have their traditions and hold them dear.
But in 2012, with the knowledge we now have with regard to women's rights, opportunities and health, we also know that certain perspectives and practices are harmful and dangerous to women.
This means we have to compromise. Many will have to let go of some traditional convictions, also when they are based on religious belief or culture.
After all, every country, every culture and every society undergo permanent change. That's what's called development.
Norway will therefore continue to insist that the United Nations, including the Commission on the Status of Women, should take rational decisions for a better world for all including all women.
Thank you Madame Chair."
From the statement by the EU
We emphasise that the prolongation of the negotiations on this text beyond the scheduled CSW session cannot be considered a precedent.
Negotiations on agreed conclusions should be concluded while the session is still ongoing, allowing for the participation and input from the delegates from the capitals, one the main assets of the Commission.
Extending the meeting time also raises the question about the efficient use of the UN resources, important for all Member States.
International Women's Day
Pictures from the march on International Women's Day organised by NGO/CSW are to be found on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22969723@N02/6819070462/in/set-72157629542348949
A fifth World Conference for Women?
A proposal to held a 5th Women’s World Conference in 2015 will be put forward to the General Assembly of the UN on behalf of Secretary Seneral mr. Ban Ki-moon and on behalf of President of the General Assembly, mr Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. At the last NGO Briefing Ms. Ana Marie Hernando (Philippines), Vice-Chair of the Bureau of CSW 56, confirmed that the chef of the Secretary General’s Cabinet yesterday indeed made an intervention under Agenda item 5 of the CSW.
Both gentlemen will embark on a process of consultation as the member states note only have to agree in the General Assembly), but also have to provide the funding to organise the conference. The official statement is to be found on the UN-website.
Accessibility to negotiations and documents
International Alliance of Women
Thursday March 7 2012 - IAW secretary Lene Pind writes:
At the morning briefing there was a discussion about the question of accessibility. One primary concern was accessibility to the negotiations.
NGOs have not been allowed to sit in and observe the official negotiations.
A representative of the Bureau of the Commission put it, " Some countries are not comfortable with having NGOs observe the negotiations."
This of course is not acceptable to us, and in the European and North American caucus it was discussed to raise this issue at a higher level.
There was also the issue of accessibility to documents. It has been difficult to get access to the different versions of the "agreed conclusions". This has been better at other CSWs.
The good news, however, is that twice during the negotiations the agreed conclusions were made available. NGOs produced 12 statements, and as a result of negotiations with the Bureau it became possible to get all statements into the negotiations and all 12 NGO - representatives were allowed to speak. The chair of the meeting extended the time for the meeting to close to make that possible. So perhaps there is a new kind of openness towards NGOs on the way.
Soon-Yoon and the representative of UN Women were of the opinion that the governments really take the negotiations seriously. They are anxious that the language is what they want, as they know that they will be held a accountable by civil society.
2004 NGOs were registered from 420 organizations. Some national delegations are trying to reverse the language of the agreed conclusions, i.e. make it less binding, weaker. We as women's organizations want to use already agreed language, language which is consistent with CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action, and language to move forward.
IAW did very well at this CSW. We had three side events and many of our members are active in caucuses, working groups, and not least in the CSW NGO/NY committee. And we had a good time together at our IAW dinner and at the final lunch hosted by Soon-Young Yoon.
Thanks to both Soon-Young Yoon and Lene Pind!
Oral Statement on 'The right to participate in the CSW,
the Case of Iran'
Madame Chairperson and distinguished delegates of the Commission on the Status of Women,
A group of Women’s rights activists from Iran who had been interested in participating in the CSW 56th session so as to share their thoughts and experience about the condition and situation of women in Iran decided instead to not attend this session of the CSW as they felt fearful for their se
curity and well – being upon returning to Iran.
Since they were uncertain about the consequences of their attendance, they decided to talk to you from a far. In a written statement they address all the Member States’ representatives as well as the worldwide women’s movement to be their voices.
They are asking all of us to “encourage the Iranian government, who is a member of the CSW, to comply with its international obligations to foster gender equality.
Note: After CSW 2011, two of the Iranian NGO reps were jailed.
At CSW 56 this oral statement could not be read at CSW56, because Iran, which is one of the 45 CSW boardmembers, insisted not to do so.
So the statement was read by one of the reps after the briefing of NGOs at CSW56.
This statement is supported in sister solidarity by AI, AIDOS, AWID, CWGL, FIDH, LDDHI, NWI, OMCT and WHRDs IC. For more, click here.
By Leontine Bijleveld in New York, CSW56, see picture.
International Alliance of Women
Monday March 5 - IAW secretary Lene Pind writes:
This is the beginning of the second week of the Commission.
At this morning's briefing by the NGO CSW Committee a representative of UN Women informed us that the negotiations were becoming very difficult.
The EU is pushing for stronger human rights language , whereas some African countries are going for language expressing the basic needs of rural women such as clean water, health and other basic things. Some countries are pushing for sharia language.
The Holy See is talking about equitable treatment and wants all mention of gender removed from the text. Other countries wish to weaken the language. Instead of "urging" governments to do this or that they want the word "inviting".These are just examples.
There will be little progress in the general discussions this morning. The real work will be done behind closed doors. So it will be very difficult for civil society to have any say in the agreed conclusions, unless we are able to influence our national delegations.it is also difficult to get a copy of the text as it looked at the end of Friday's discussions. Not even delegations have it.
IAW reps are working hard in caucuses, working groups etc.
February 29 - International Alliance of Women
IAW secretary Lene Pind writes: Our second side event was
" The Human Rights of Rural Women of All Ages." It was co-sponsored by the International Federation of Women Lawyer, FIDA. About 50 people attended.
Lyda Verstegen, president of IAW, talked about National Action plans (NAPs) for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 as an important human rights tool. There is a close link between poverty, scarcity among other things as a result of climate change, and conflict. It is therefore of paramount importance that women are included in conflict solutions and post-comflict work.
She gave as an example how the Dutch government had included Dutch NGOs in the working out of the NAP.
Johanna Sterbin, representative of FIDA, and also a member of IAW, gave an interesting speech on microcredit from a human rights perspective. She illustrated this by telling the story of the BALI Women's Union of Farming Groups, Cameroon.
Through microcredit the women have been able to buy land and increase production, thus helping to empowerwomen and reduce poverty. This story should have been told by Nkwah Elizabeth Ndibabongsa, coordinator of the project, but unfortunately she was denied a visa to enter the US.
Natalia Kostus, IAW representative to the UN in New York, talked about climate change. Women are the victims of climate change, but also potentially powerful agents in managing and adapting to climate change.
Judy Gordon, also a member of the IAW UN team, reminded us all of what our founders said and did about the position of women in society. Unfortunatly, but nor surprisingly, the struggle of our founders is still the struggle of the present.
Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women - Review theme
In two panels experts presented their views, often in the form of a shorter oral paper presentation and a more extensive written version.
The morning focussed on the national experiences and the afternoon was dedicated to the perspecive of international organisations an multilateral development partners.
March 2 - Lydia Alpizar (AWID) observed some trends in funding women’s rights: “What we see is kind of a paradox. On the one hand, in the last 3-5 years, there has been an increase by mainstream actors in interest in women and girls as agents of change.
You can see the examples at the WorldBank, NIKE Foundation, and GoldmanSachs. Clearly women have the increased attention of various sectors of society. On the other hand, Official Development Aid (ODA) funding is influenced by the multiple crises.
As a result, governments invest less means in development work. Especially amongst the more conservative governments in the North, there is less interest to support international solidarity through ODA. As a result, funding for women’s rights has decreased. Also, some of the processes to access grants are highly technical and complicated. This makes them difficult to access for smaller organizations. “
By Joni van de Sand of WO=MEN
International Alliance of Women
Innovative Approaches for Economic Development
for rural women
by IAW secretary Lene Pind
IAW Side event - 28 February - We have had our first side event organised by our South African affiliate the Mmabatho Foundation for Women's Development. It started at 8.30 in the morning, so we didn't expect a whole lot of people. However, many came.
Speakers were Ms Bina Jain, president of All India Women's Conference and Mmabatho Ramagoshi, Convenor of IAW Violence against Women Commission. A third speaker, Ms Nkwah Elizabeth Ndibabonga was expected, but the US Embassy in Cameroon refused to give her a visa in spite of the fact that she had all the documents and other kinds of eveidence that she was coming for the UN meetings.
The side event went very well. The focus was "Innovative Approaches for Economic Development for Rural Women". Bina Jain stressed that economic development must go hand in hand with social and political development. AIWC have developed a strategy of adopting villages and in that way securing a holistic approach to women's development.
Mmabatho Ramagoshi underlined the importance of the involvement of governments. Rural women's businesses cannot be competitive on the rural market from the very beginning. They must be helped. Governments can support these new fragile businesses by investing in their products, buying their products.
They agreed that self-help women's groups and cooperatives are ways ahead for rural women
CSW 56 side events, websites, webcasts and twitters
are to be found on the UN website when you click here.
For all kinds of inspiring twitters from all corners of the earth klick on: https://twitter.com/#!/un_csw
The IAW newsletter with the programme of the International Alliance of Women is to be found on the IAW website.
The Dutch minister, Marja van Bijsterveld, will speak as the 21st of 111 speakers, probably on Monday the 27th.
In her three minutes statement she will talk of the importance of the concept of 'gender equality'.
The list of speakers is to be found by clicking here.
First CSW week, 27 February - 2 March 2012
The list with side events is to be found on:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/side-events.html
Second week, 5 - 9 March 2012
The list with side events of the second week is on:
On: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/side-events2.html
CSW 2012 - IAW Schedule
On Tuesday February 28 IAW will organise a side event in the morning on 'Innovative Economic Development for Rural Women'. 
Ms. Bina Jain: President van All India Women's Conference (India)
Ms. Elizabeth Nkwah: project co-ordinator Bali Women's Union of Farming Groups (Cameroon)
Hon. Ms. Mmabatho Ramagoshi: Convenor Violence Against Women IAW (South Africa, see picture)
Moderator: Ms. Mapula Ncanywa, Vice President IAW (South Africa)
Opening comments: Ms. Lyda Verstegen, IAW President
* In the afternoon all IAW reps are invited for a meeting in Lyda's hotel room.
Wednesday February 29 is a busy day.
*
In the afternoon an IAW side event on: 'The Human Rights of Rural Women' from 16.30 - 18.00 pm.
* Nearly at the same time, from 16.15 - 7.45 pm, IAW Affiliate the All India Women’s Conference has a side event on 'Empowerment of rural women in South Asia'.
* At the end of that day the IAW reps will have dinner together.
Another busy day on Monday March 5.
* In the early afternoon an IAW side event on 'How to start a mentoring programme in your own organization', from 12.30 - 14.00 pm.
* At the same time IAW Associate the Niger Delta's Rural Women has organised a side event from 12.30 to 14.00 pm on 'Stories of Perseverance in a Land on Fire, Environmental Degradation Oil Spillages: The journey of rural Women empowerment and future prospects'.
* On Tuesday March 6 the IAW reps are invited for lunch in the Staff Restaurant.
* Friday March 9 will be the last day of CSW and accepting the document.
With all our good wishes for a successful CSW56!
The priority theme for 2012 is: "The empowerment of rural women, in relation to climate change and food security."
The review theme is: "Financing for gender equality and empowerment of women", the agreed conclusions from the 2008 CSW session.
The date: 27 February to 9 March 2012.
Both IAW and Vrouwenbelangen will be sending a delegation to the 56th CSW. More than 20 IAW-members have already registered.
IAW will be represented by President Lyda Verstegen and Secretary General Lene Pind.
A strenuous affair
Voting by consensus and continuously adapting the articles of the 'agreed document' so all UN member states can accept the text of the themes, can cause a lot of tension. If there is no consensus, all the work has been done for nothing.
In the mean time a stream of e-mails are being sent home.
Picture: IAW Vice-President for Europe Joanna Manganara and IAW President Lyda Verstegen.
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