65th Annual DPI/NGO Conference “2015 and Beyond: Our Action Agenda”

“2015 and Beyond: Our Action Agenda” was the theme for this year’s UN DPI/NGO Conference, which brought together some 4,000 civil society participants from 2,000 organizations globally. Participants discussed key issues on the post-2015 development agenda and agreed an action agenda, the Conference Declaration, to feed into the Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report on the post-2015 development agenda.

The conference was hosted by the UN Department of Public Information and the NGO/DPI Executive Committee, and was chaired by Jeffery Huffines, UN Representatives of CIVCUS. It was organized around four components:

• A high level opening session, with remarks from 14 speakers from UN agencies, Permanent Representation to the UN, UN Secretariat and civil society representatives.
• Eight parallel thematic roundtables on four themes: poverty eradication, sustainable development, human rights and climate change. 
• Four parallel feedback sessions on Conference Declaration.
• A high level closing session, with final remarks from 13 speakers from the UN and civil society organisations and the reading and adoption of the Conference Declaration.

Conference Declaration 

 A draft Conference declaration based on the joint statements of Major Groups and Other Stakeholders during the Open Working Group (OWG) sessions was posted online before the Conference began. It was then opened for comments during the three-day meeting, with the final Declaration being read and adopted by acclamation at the closing session. 

The Declaration is divided in three parts:  

Section I: vision

Section  II: monitoring and accountability

Section III: recommendations around the SDGs, which goes goal-by-goal through the SDGs as set out in the report of the OWG. It includes some strong language on sexual and reproductive health and rights: 

Section I: vision:

There are several references to sexual and reproductive health and rights in this section. Universal access to reproductive health is included in the list of those MDGs for which progress has been “far from what we need and must collectively achieve.” Participants also “reaffirm human rights, including sexual rights, as well as the rights of children, are not controversial and cannot be compromised; they are not up for negotiation…” Furthermore they renew their “commitment to and call on governments to ensure a notion of “all groups" that refers to all populations, subgroups, and minorities as identified by geography, urban or rural status, income and wealth, gender, racial or ethnic group, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, language, physical and mental health, persons with disabilities, age, legal and migration status, and any other categories of human characteristics or identities including crosscutting or multiple categories.”

Section II: monitoring and accountability

In calling for “rigorous accountability systems that are firmly rooted in human rights norms, standards and mechanisms”, participants “underscore that particular attention should be given to gender equality and women’s empowerment, so as to ensure realization of all women's human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights.” Furthermore, they recommend that a “‘multiple accountability’ approach should be applied to track development actors’ performance with regard to gender equality and girls’ and women’s rights, including sexual and reproductive rights.”

Section III: Recommendations around the SDGs

There are very specific recommendations that impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights under Goals 4 and 5. 

Goal 4 on education, includes:

“1. National curricula must be transformed in order to incorporate the tenets of education for sustainable development, human rights education, and comprehensive sexuality education, while also taking into account and promoting the inherent value of non-formal education for students in and out of school.”

Goal 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment says:

“1. All targets must be time-bound, free of qualifications, and guarantee women's human rights. This includes adding "by 2030" to each target and removing "as nationally appropriate" from Target 5.5 and "in accordance with national laws" for Target 5.a. This also requires the reformulation of Target 5.6 to "by 2030 ensure the respect, promotion, and protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, especially women and girls to guarantee sexual, bodily, and reproductive autonomy free from stigma, violence, coercion, and discrimination.”

Goal 3 on health, however, is rather general and while it addresses the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and wellbeing, achieving universal health coverage and mainstreaming health in all dimensions of the SDGs, does not include any reference to sexual and reproductive health and rights.