Update on President of General Assembly’s High Level Events, including CSO briefing, Thursday 6 February No 1 -- The Contributions of Women, the Young and Civil Society to the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The President of the General Assembly John Ashe hosted a briefing on Thursday 6 February for CSOs on the three high level events and the three thematic debates that he will convene in 2014 as a contribution to the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda.

The list of events (with dates) is available along with the concept papers.

No 1 High-Level Event of the General Assembly The Contributions of Women, the Young and Civil Society to the Post-2015 Development Agenda, 6-7 of March, 2014

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Civil society responds to Global Survey for ICPD Beyond 2014 Operational Review

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have launched their responses to the Global Survey, the results of which are included in the Framework of Actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014.

While Governments were asked to involve CSOs and youth groups in the completion of the Global Survey for the ICPD Beyond 2014 Operational Review, in many cases this did not happen. It was therefore decided that a survey would be carried out addressed specifically to CSOs and youth groups.

To allow comparisons with government perceptions, the Civil Society Survey used the same areas and population groups as the Government Survey and replies were compiled using the same coding system. However, CSOs were asked to give one priority, whereas governments were asked to give up to five priorities. Where CSOs did give more than one priority, only the first one was included in the analysis. Furthermore, responses were only taken where CSOs worked on the issues concerned with the majority working on issues related to women, gender-based violence, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, youth development and LGBT issues. Although in replying CSOs were asked to identify neglected areas as well as priorities, only priorities were analyzed as both areas tended to be very similar.

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Open Working Group discusses promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment No 6

All the Women’s Major Group papers on key issues for OWG-8, including the one on gender, which sets out in a comprehensive way some of the major gender issues fo rhte post-2015 development agenda, can be found here

Open Working Group discusses promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment No 5

Co-Chairs’ Summary bullet points on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights 

The Co-Chairs presented a number of bullet points that referred to gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights in their Summary at the end of OWG-8. These are:

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Open Working Group discusses promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment No 4

Joint statement of 48 countries to the Open Working Group

Argentina

HE Maria Cristina Perceval, Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations delivered a statement on behalf of 48 countries on issues related to gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The post-2015 development agenda must tackle the root causes of inequalities and achieving gender equality must be a priority. Gender inequality undermines progress while achieving equal rights improves the well-being of children and households.  The needs of older women and their contribution to sustain development should not be forgotten. We should be strategic and pragmatic – building on the MDGs. 

The following must be incorporated into the post-2015 development framework:

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Open Working Group discusses promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment No 3

Interventions from the floor

Members of the Open Working Group (OWG) were appreciative of the introductory presentations and spoke on a number of issues related to inequalities. This report will focus specifically on issues related to gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

References were made to areas including women’s and girls economic and social empowerment; women’s participation in decision-making; equal access to education; reducing proportion of unpaid work; primary health care, maternal health; gender-based violence; effective monitoring mechanism; child, early and forced marriage; and the role of men.

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Open Working Group discusses promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment No 2

Presentation by Nicole Amerline, Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Nicole Amerline, Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was one of the presenters at the beginning of the afternoon session. She referred to women as the primary victims of conflict and violence. She referred to the progress that had been made on gender equality as a prerequisite for achieving the MDGs. Nevertheless the MDGs didn’t entirely adopt concept of gender equality.

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Open Working Group discusses promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment, No 1

Opening statements on gender equality

The discussion on gender equality in the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development in its 8^th session (OWG-8) under the agenda item on promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment began with two powerful presentations by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women and Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director, UNFPA. 

Summaries of their statements follows below. 

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Stakeholders Forum Sustainable Development Goals E-Inventory addresses Gender

The Stakeholders Forum Sustainable Development Goals E-Inventory includes gender in its analysis of proposals related to the themes of the Eighth Session of the Open Working Group (OWG-8). It points out that the TST Issues Brief on Gender declares that inequality between men and women ‘is the most pervasive form of inequality around the world and a pressing human rights concern….' 

Gender equality is shown as being the second most common thematic area covered by proposals in the e-Inventory. Sexual and reproductive health and rights is also a high priority issue for stakeholders.

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Call for submissions for Human Rights Council report on maternal mortality and morbidity

In the fall of 2012, the UN Human Rights Council adopted resolution 21/6 entitled ‘Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights’ – the fourth annual resolution on this issue.  Resolution 21/6 welcomed the technical guidance (TG) on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity developed by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with deep engagement of and input from civil society.  The TG is attached – it is an excellent resource for advocacy and cooperation with governments towards improving maternal health and indeed realizing sexual and reproductive rights more broadly. 

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