Country-Specific Essay
SandyCheeks
backgroundUnitedNations.pptThe United Nations and the Global Women’s Movement
History and Background
What is the United Nations?
The United Nations was founded in 1945 by 51 nations to:
- promote peace and security
- To develop friendly relations among nations
- To help nations work together to improve the lives of the poor, to conquer disease, illiteracy and hunger…
- To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.
UNITED NATIONS PREAMBLE (1945)
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS…
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
The United Nations and the World Conferences
1946
- Human Rights Commission Established
- Commission on the Status of Women Established
- UN has convened world conferences on various topics
disarmament
human rights
population
human settlement
environment
children
International Human Rights under the United Nations
- In 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights*
- The Declaration enumerates civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, but contains no provisions for monitoring or enforcement
* 48-0 with 8 abstentions (Eastern Bloc, Saudi Arabia and South Africa)
WORLD CONFERENCES
- 1968—Parallel non-governmental meetings begin, to:
Create spaces for governments, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions (World Bank) to examine topics of global importance
1ST WORLD CONFERENCE OF WOMEN--MEXICO CITY 1974 (133 delegates)
- Themes
equality
development
peace
1ST WORLD CONFERENCE OF WOMEN--MEXICO CITY 1974
Accomplishments
1. Recognition of universality of oppression
2. Oppression linked with:
inequality
absence of rights concerning family matters
3. Meeting structure established Govt.
(1st World Conference on Women and NGO (Tribune))
1ST WORLD CONFERENCE OF WOMEN—Mexico City
Accomplishments
4. Creation of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Convention=binding international formal agreement among Member States.
Established a National Committee to review progress
5. INSTRAW (The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women
6. UNIFEM (The United Nations Development Fund for Women
7. Declared 1976-1985 International Women’s Decade
2nd WORLD CONFERENCE OF WOMEN—Copenhagen, Denmark (1980, Mid-Decade Conference)
Accomplishments
1. Intergovt. Meeting= 145 countries
2. NGO 8,000 people
3. Elimination of discrimination in law and policy
4. Recognition of divisions
3rd WORLD CONFERENCE OF WOMEN—Nairobi (End of Decade)
Accomplishments
Document: Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women
The global recession had eliminated much of the progress women had made.
Set Minimum targets by 2000
a. enforcement of laws guaranteeing implementation of women’s equality;
b. Increase in life expectancy of women to 65
c. Reduction of maternal mortality
d. Elimination of women’s illiteracy
e. Expansion of employment opportunities
Fourth World Conference: Beijing
- The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
- NGO Forum
- September 1995, Beijing
- 189 countries
- 36,000 + 8,000 women
Beijing Conference: Objectives
- Review and appraise the advancement of women since Nairobi, 1985
- Mobilize women and men on both the policy-making and grass-root levels to achieve the Nairobi objectives
- Platform for Action
- Determine the priority actions 1996-2001
Preparatory Process
- The UN General Assembly Approves Holding a Conference
- Conference Secretariat is formed (Sec. General is appointed (Gertrude Mongella) http://www.fasngo.org/en/presentation/leadbank/people/gertrudemong.htm
- PrepCom(preparatory committee) initiates worldwide planning process (CSW acted as PrepCom)
1. accredits NGO’s
2. preparing background, substantive, and working documents, and disseminates to govts in official UN languages (English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese
3. convenes expert group meetings, composed of representatives of Govt., NGO’s, academics
Preparatory Process
4. Creates a preliminary outline for official conference document (“Platform for Action”)
5. Facilitates negotiations among govts. over language
- Regional Meetings established in Argentina, Vienna, Austria, Jakarta, Indonesia, Dakar, Senegal, and Amman Jordan. NGO’s participated
- Creation of Regional Plans of Action. UN mandated that each country propare a National Report assessing progress of Nairobi, which provided preliminary debates to determine regional priorities.
Creating Final Conference Documents
- 2-3 year process (60% of outcome predicated on work done during this process)
- Member States bring forward their positions to be included
- By the time delegations gather at Conference, much of the language in the documents has already been discussed, debated, and agreed upon
- Disputed language is bracketed. Once text is agreed upon by delegates, brackets are removed, and it cannot be reopened
- Consensus: Although technically each country has one vote, rarely is a vote taken to decide language. If consensus not reached at final hours, sponsors of the controversial text will normally withdraw it
Creating Final Conference Documents
- Creation of Beijing Declaration (General statement of principles that serves to set the moral tone and the political imperative of the area being examined
- Creation of the Platform for Action (prescriptive outline or blueprint of steps that govts. Agree should be taken at the national, regional, and international levels. A platform also specifies mechanisms for putting recs into action
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/bejingmnu.htm
Tensions Surface with Draft Platform(March 1995 PrepCom)
- Majority of women hoped to build on concepts of women’s human rights
- Battled religious conservatives, fundamentalists delegations such as Holy See, Iran, ultraconservatives from U.S. 40% of language remained bracketed—they became known as the “Holy brackets”
- In effort to lessen them, held additional week in July 95. Much of the bracketed text referred to “sexual and reproductive health, reproductive rights, foreign occupation and alien domination, cultural background, and philosophical convictions
The Platform for Action
- Created at the Beijing Conference
- Identifies 12 “critical areas of concern” considered to represent the main obstacles to women’s advancement
- Defines strategic objectives and spells out actions to be taken over the next 5 years by governments, the international community, NGOs, and the private sector
Platform for Action: Issues Addressed
- Poverty
- Education & Training
- Health
- Violence
- Armed Conflict
- Economy
- Decision-Making
- Institutional Mechanisms
- Human Rights
- Media
- Environment
- The Girl-Child
*
Millennium Development Goals
- In September 2000, heads of 189 member states ratified the Millennium Declaration.
- The Declaration established 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which became an agreed blueprint for accelerating improvements in the lives of the world’s poor by 2015.
- These 8 MDGs directly address social, economic and environmental dimensions of worldwide development, and help to prioritize some of our greatest challenges in the 21st century.
The Eight MDGs
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UN Women Begins Its Work
Created by a UN General Assembly resolution in July
2010, it merges and builds on four parts of the UN system:
- Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)
- International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
- Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI)
- United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNDFW)
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- “UN Women’s vision is one where men and women have equal opportunities and capacities and the principles of gender equality are embedded in development, peace and security agendas.”
– Executive Director Michelle Bachelet
UN Women Vision
UN Women works on five thematic priorities:
Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation
Ending violence against women
Strengthening implementation of the women, peace and
security agenda
Enhancing women’s economic empowerment
Making gender equality priorities central to national,
local and sectoral planning and budgeting
- Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation working with partners to close the gaps in women’s leadership and participation in all sectors and demonstrate the benefits to such leadership for society as a whole;
2) Ending violence against women by enabling states to set up the mechanisms needed to formulate and enforce laws, policies and services that protect women and girls, promote the involvement of men and boys, and prevent violence. UN Women will work with UN partners, such as UNICEF and UNFPA and WHO, to scale up support to countries so that UNCTs are providing comprehensive support at country level;
3) Strengthening implementation of women’s peace and security agenda through women’s full participation in conflict resolution and peace processes, gender-responsive early-warning, protection from sexual violence and redress for its survivors in accordance with UN Resolutions;
4) Enhancing women’s economic empowerment is particularly important in the context of global economic, food, fuel and environmental crises. UN Women will work with governments and multilateral partners (UNDP, ILO, World Bank, regional development banks) to ensure the full realization of women’s economic security and rights, including to productive assets and social protection.
5) Making gender equality priorities central to national, local and sectoral planning, budgeting and statistics: Working with UNCTs and other partners, UN Women will support evidence-based planning, budgeting and statistics to assist countries to formulate and cost gender equality plans, ensure gender-responsive budgeting, support CEDAW reporting and build national capacity for CEDAW implementation.
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THE GLOBAL WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
- Transnational social movement
Loosely connected web or organizations and movements operating in their local communities, expanding the parameters of national political debates, and shaping and transforming international institutions.
Articulating a new vision for how society should be organized, how institutions of global governance should be structured equitably, and how all of humanity’s basic human rights and needs can and should be met.
Broaden the understanding of women’s human rights, extend the boundaries of human rights advocacy, and integrate gender into international human rights practice.
