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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Registration for UNGASS on ICPD beyond 2015 deadline 15 June

We have been informed by UNFPA that all civil society organizations (CSOs), with or without ECOSOC accreditation, wishing to attend the 22 September Special Session of the General Assembly on ICPD beyond 2014 must now register by JUNE 15 at http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/other/4/special_session.html#ngo

This includes those who previously filled out the google document.

Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and the SDGs

As pointed out in a posting on the Post 2015 Development Agenda digest written by Alvin Leong (LLM, JD), Fellow at Pace Center for Environmental Legal Studies, the Group of 77 and China (G-77 & China) have advocated for the inclusion of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) as an “overarching principle” of the SDGs.

However, many developed countries object to such inclusion and take the position that CBDR is a principle that is limited to the field of environmental protection, and thus cannot be an “overarching principle” for goals that seek to integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. This will, undoubtedly, continue to be a contentious area moving forward in the process. 

World Health Assembly resolution on “Health in the post-2015 development agenda”

The 67^th World Assembly had before it in its final plenary a resolution on “Health in the post-2015 development agenda” (A67/A/CONF/4 Rev.2) While the previous version included a reference to sexual and reproductive health in its preambular paragraphs, it now refers only to ICPD and Beijing and their review conferences.  

The resolution, as revised, urges Members States in operative paragraph 1(3):

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Sustainable Development Solutions Network revised working draft of “Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals”

The revised working draft of the “Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals” of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) is now available on their revised website. It includes goals, targets and indicators.

On sexual and reproductive health and rights: It should be noted that the language has been standardized to refer to “health and rights”. In response to some comments (including those from various civil society networks and organizations) that have called for strengthening the focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights over the discussion of fertility rates and to avoid any misunderstandings about the need for voluntary approaches to reducing fertility rates, the SDSN Leadership Council has simplified the language of target 2c and rearranged the indicators.

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Goals and targets for health in the post-2015 Health Agenda

Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization was the first speaker at the Technical Briefing on “Goals and targets for health in the post-2015 development agenda” at the 67th Session of the World Health Assembly.

Dr Chan spoke about the background for the discussions on the agenda that are now taking place in the Open Working Group  (OWG) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as being part of the outcome of Rio + 20 process. She said that in the first draft of the Rio outcome document, health was “anaemic”, “on a respirator” and “in ICU.” She later clarified that the inclusion of health was much better in the final version of the outcome document, “The Future We Want.”

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Organizational modalities for the September 2015 UN Summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda

While there are two sessions of the Open Working Group  (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still to go, plans are already underway for the UN Summit that will be held in September 2015 to adopt the post-2015 development agenda. The President of the UN General Assembly has appointed HE Mr Robert Guba Aisi, Permanent Representative of Papua New Guinea and HE Mr Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark as co-facilitators of the intergovernmental consultations to achieve agreement on the organizational modalities for the summit that will take place in September 2015 at the level of Heads of State and Government for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 68/6.

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Parliamentarians make strongest ever call to implement the ICPD Programme of Action and for the full integration of its principles in the post-2015 development agenda

The Stockholm Statement of Commitment, which was agreed upon unanimously by all the parliamentarians present at  the 6thInternational Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (IPCI 2014), represents the strongest call ever to implement the Cairo Programme of Action. Parliamentarians committed to mobilize their constituencies and governments to ensure that the Cairo principles are fully integrated in the post-2015 global development agenda and that human rights, gender equality, women and young people are at its heart.

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