European SRHR Community calls upon European Member States to take leadership on the following key points for the OWG ‘zero-draft’ on SDGs

This week, from Monday 16 June to Friday 20 June, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals will convene for its 12th session (OWG-12) and formal negotiations around the goals and targets will begin. 

European organizations, particularly those working on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender issues have therefore, contacted their national governments to urge them to ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights are addressed both under both goal 3 on Health and 5 on Gender.

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Beyond 2015 Reaction to Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals Zero Draft

Beyond 2015 has submitted its reaction to the 'zero draft' of post-2015 sustainable development goals and targets, issued by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) Co-Chairs on June 2, in the form of a two page letter, setting out Beyond 2015's overall reaction to the document, and an annex detailing textual suggestions on the focus areas and targets. The PDF is available here.

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Letter to Open Working Group on behalf of a coalition of civil society organisations delivering programmes and advocacy on health priorities, including HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and youth living with and vulnerable to HIV

Organizations are invited to sign on to the attached letter (available in English and French) to the Open Working Group on issues related to health, particularly under Goal 3 Attain healthy life for all at all ages by sending their endorsement to Post2015MDG@Icaso.org by 12 noon (EST) Monday 16 June.

Partnerships with Civil Society – join the e-Discussion

One of the topics subject under discussion during the second meeting of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Means of Implementation for Sustainable Development will be: 

"What can trigger new partnerships and voluntary commitments, and what can make them successful in advancing economic, social and environmental progress?"

You are invited to make inputs on this question via an e-Discussion on "Partnerships with Civil Society".

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High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) Second Meeting, New York 30 June – 9 July

As reported on the NGLS website, the second meeting of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) which is being held under the auspices of ECOSOC, will take place in New York from 30 June to 9 July with evening meetings on 30 June and 1 July. The ministerial meeting of the Forum will be held from 7 - 9 July 2014. The theme will be “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and charting the way for an ambitious post-2015 development agenda, including the sustainable development goals.” It will be followed by the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) from 8 - 9 July, for which the theme is “Addressing on-going and emerging challenges for meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future.” The Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) will be held from 10 - 11 July.

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Civil Society Organizations express their concern over CSO participation in Post-2015 Summit at Seventieth Session of the General Assembly

Major Groups and civil society coalitions have written to Ambassadors Guba Aisi and Ib Peterson, as Co-facilitators to express their concern about the proposed civil society involvement in the Post-2015 Summit at the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly.

In addition to the proposed Civil Society Hearings, in their preliminary response they encouraged the Co-facilitators to include “specific opportunities and modalities for Major Groups and civil society to participate in the entire process, similar to the modalities in the High-level Political Forum (A/RES/67/290) and the Open Working Group processes.” 

Including adolescent and young people and particularly adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health in the sustainable development goals

Sarah Gold, a Program Associate with IWHC, who participated in both the World Conference on Youth and the UN Economic and Social Council Youth Forum writes:

The Zero Draft of the “Introduction and Proposed Goals and Targets on Sustainable Development for the Post2015 Development Agenda” for the 12^th session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG-12) is very weak on adolescents and youth, with no mention of adolescents and only a handful of references to young people under the focus areas on education and employment. The document does not include a target on comprehensive sexuality education, a critical omission that must be addressed.  Furthermore, there are no references to adolescent girls or adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights. It is imperative that governments take urgent action to integrate the needs and rights of young people into the SDGs.

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29th Special Session of the Generally Assembly on the Follow-up to the ICPD beyond 2014 and civil society participation

Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, met with representatives of civil society on Wednesday 4 July 2014 at which he briefed them on arrangements for the forthcoming 29th Special Session of the Generally Assembly on the Follow-up to the ICPD beyond 2014, which will be held in New York on 22 September 2014 from 1-9 PM in the General Assembly Hall.  

As he said, UNFPA has been working with the Office of the President of the General Assembly (PGA) and the UN Secretariat to ensure that civil society organizations (CSOs) can effectively participate in the Special Session. Registration is open until 15 June for both ECOSOC and non-ECOSOC accredited CSOs on the United Nations web site. Non-ECOSOC accredited CSOs will have to be approved by the General Assembly on a non-objection basis.  It is foreseen that NGOs will be notified of their selection by the end of July.

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Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Co-Chairs release the Zero draft for OWG-12

Zero draft  

The Co-Chairs have now released the “zero draft” of goals and targets, in preparation for the 12^th Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG-12), which takes place 16-20 June at the United Nations in New York.

Accompanying letter from Co-Chairs

In their accompanying letter they refer to the draft chapeau that has now been incorporated into the zero draft. They also reconfirm the dates for the informal-informals (informal discussions), which will take place from Monday to Wednesday, 9-11 June.

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Beijing+20 — review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action

UN Women is making available information on the preparations for the review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action which will culminate in a summit or high-level commitment meeting in New York in September 2015.

The process has already begun with a request being sent from UN Women to Governments to prepare a national review. This should already be completed, or at least underway. Governments have been asked to involve civil society organizations in the review. As a first step, if you have not already done so, please contact your government and ask the status of the report and how civil society is to be included. 

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