WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY PREVAILED

Friday March 11th concluded the 49th Session of the UN Commission on the

Status of Women, this year known as “Beijing + 10”.  

The CSW session was an excellent reflection of the current geo-political context within the UN system.
 

Thousands of advocates for women’s rights from all over the world who gathered at the United Nations
for two weeks successfully gained full and unequivocal reaffirmation of the Beijing Platform for Action
(BPFA) in a Political Declaration adopted March 4th. Participation at this CSW session included
approximately eighty ministers, over 1800 government delegates from 165 member states of the
United Nations, together with representatives from UN agencies, multilateral institutions and over
2,600 civil society organizations came  to the ten-year review of the Platform at the U.N. Commission
on the Status of Women (CSW). Government ministers  spoke, reflecting the global importance of
gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights.    

In addition to the focus on the inter-governmental process, thousands of women gathered in several
hundred NGO side events to share successful practices, analyze gains and losses during the decade,
and strategize the way forward.  The vitality of how women are working to implement the Beijing
Platform at all levels – from local to global – was best reflected in these events. The diversity of women
represented—from every region of the world, and young women, in particular—also demonstrated the
strength of the global women’s movement.

Working together, governments and women’s rights advocates rallied to defend the human rights of
women and to reaffirm the Beijing Platform despite opposition from the United States.  The U.S.
government initially refused to unequivocally reaffirm the Platform by offering an amendment that not
only threatened consensus but also attempted to undermine the human rights underpinning of the
Platform.  The U.S. stood alone as every other government refused to bend to its intense pressure. 

In addition, 10 resolutions adopted at the CSW covered the following:  Gender Mainstreaming, HIV/AIDS,
Women in Afghanistan, Women in Palestine, Indigenous Women, Women and Natural Disasters,
INSTRAW, Economic Advancement of Women, Trafficking, and a proposal to consider in 2006 appointing
a Special Rapporteur on Laws that Discriminate Against Women. Many of these cover areas of great
concern to women that are often addressed by the CSW.  The resolutions on Indigenous Women and
on Women and Natural Disasters, however, are new and represent important gains based on organizing
done by women on these issues. 

The Economic Advancement and Trafficking resolutions, while covering important topics, were introduced
and used by the US to continue to try to impose their special perspectives and to undermine aspects of the
Beijing Platform. Because many governments rejected parts of the U.S. approach, the trafficking resolution
eventually passed in a modified form. On Economic Advancement, the resolution introduced by the US that
had focused narrowly on entrepreneurship was successfully expanded by other countries to address the
feminization of poverty, the role of the public sector, and the link between reproductive rights and economic
independence. As a result the US withdrew its sponsorship but the resolution was still adopted.  

The Political Declaration establishes a strong link between the Platform and the Millennium Declaration,
the subject of a five-year UN review in September 2005. Throughout the CSW, governments recognized
that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the time bound targets for eradicating poverty and
implementing the Millennium Declaration, cannot be achieved without advancing the human rights and
empowerment of all women in all their diversity.   

The UN Secretary General, in his statement at the CSW, highlighted the seven strategic priorities
proposed in the MDG Task Force on Gender Equality, and affirmed the critical importance of taking
focused action on:

• Expanding efforts to combat violence against girls and women. 
• Guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights
• Guaranteeing women’s and girls’ property, land and inheritance rights
• Eliminating gender inequality in employment, such as eliminating the earnings gap
• Increasing the number of women in national and local governments
• Investing in the infrastructure necessary to reduce women’s and girls’ time burdens, so that,
  for example, the amount of time women spend on gathering fuel, water, and other basic
  necessities is drastically reduced
• Expanding girls’ access to education, secondary as well as primary

These are a good start that all governments should be urged to support along with the Beijing Platform
as critical to the MDGS and the coming Millennium Summit.  However, paper commitments alone are
not enough; sufficient resources must be made available to achieve these goals in a timely manner.

The Millennium review summit in September presents an important forum for governments to advance
women’s rights and gender equality.  The forward momentum of women’s equality must also be carried
into the World Summit on an Information Society (WSIS) II in 2005. Furthermore, proposals to reform the
UN must reflect gender perspectives, and action taken on UN reform must include women as decision-makers.
The UN, in its institutional structure, must reflect a greater commitment to gender equality.  Therefore, it is
critical to increase funding for and the status of the women-specific units of the UN, including the Commission
on the Status of Women (CSW), the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the
Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues (OSAGI), the UN
International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the CEDAW
treaty monitoring committee. 

The purpose of a stronger UN is to promote peace, security, human rights, and sustainable development,
issues of critical importance to women as well as men.  None of these goals can be achieved without women’s
equality.  In addition to the Beijing Platform, other documents and their interpretations, such as the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and all human rights treaties as
well as UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, provide guidance on how to
address the linkages between gender equality, development, human rights and peace.

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