Rights to Reality - Worldwide
In a session titled: A Human Rights approach to address gender based violence, delegates heard of success on the African continent to establish gender machinery.
The Masimanyane Women's Support Centre in rural South Africa works on the intersection of gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in rural South Africa.
Masimanyane's Dr Lesley Ann Foster says 15 years of democracy has seen tremendous improvements in the institutionalization of women's rights.
It is indeed the role of the media in this Southern African context to help to ensure that these changes become a reality by bringing the top level institutionalized successes to the community level.
In a remote region of Kenya, bordering Somalia, Rukia Abdullahi has succeeded in becoming the area's first female local government representative.
From a deeply religious community she talks of the cultural challenges, but also support from unexpected quarters.
Ms Abdullahi, too, would like the media to tell her story to a wider audience.
The meeting heard that gender equality advances made in the developed world can be deceptive.The fundamentalist Christian revival churces, for instance, have been guilty of interpreting the Bible from a male perspective.
Jan Erickson of the National Organization for Women Foundation says despite the fact that advocacy groups like NOW have worked for two decades to halt the epidemic of gender-based violence and sexual assault, the numbers are still shocking. 
She says an average of 3 women per day are murdered by their partners in the United States. NOW has welcomed the White House effort to Aid Women and Girls. On 11 March President Obama signed an executive order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls to help eliminate the challenges they face and to ensure that cabinet agencies coordinate the policies that affect women and families.Mr. Obama said women still earned 78 cents for every dollar men make.One in four women experience domestic violence..
Like their counterparts in the developing world, women in the US hope that additional gender machinery will make rights real for women.
I am Miriam Freudenberg, 25. I am attending the conference on behalf of WAVE - Women Against Violence Europe.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, the gathering has been a huge success in terms of forging networks and getting to know the work and people from NGOs all over the world.
However, regarding NGO's influence on policy making the outcome was disappointing. NGOs aren't allowed in the delegates' conference rooms, even as a silent audience. We dont get ammendments and documents on time (if we get them at all) and many delegates avoid contact with their national NGOs. Yet it is often the NGOs which have the expertise and ideas that is crucial to finding solutions to the questions posed at the CSW.
I know the UN system of policy making is often complicated and outdated. Yet I hope for changes in the near future.
It mustn't be so hard for the civil society to actively participate in a gathering as important to the worldwide female population as the conference of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The panel described in the blog was hosted by aim for human rights, a dutch based human rights organisation who specialize in developing methods that help NGO's worldwide in applying Human rights and holding their government to account. Please visit our website at www.aimforhumanrights.nl (section on women's human rights for more information on our methods.
ReplyDeleteAs part of the dutch NGO delegation, I was responsible for hosting our blog in dutch (http://www.womeninnewyork.blogspot.com/), which might be of interest. you will find my reflections on the panel in a post on 11 march.
As to the lack of access to delegates, this is indeed a challenge. I our case we spend quite a bit of time in preparing for the CSW, amongst others by having a preparation meetig with the dutch delegation. During the CSW we had two lunch meetings with the Dutch delegation at which we were able to give direct input into the negociations. greetings loeky droesen