REFLECTIONS FROM DENARAU

June 2, 2004 - (femLINK Pacific) Since Thursday last week, we (femLINKpacific) have been documenting and dissemination experiences and issues around the process that has resulted in the release of the Denarau Statement and the Final Communique from the 7th Commonwealth meeting for the Ministers responsible for Women’s Affairs as a member of the 7WAMM - CSO Forum media team.

On Monday, as the official meeting began, we were joined by representatives of the local press who had added the conference onto their list of stories to cover for the week. What an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of women’s issues, of gender equality issues! As a women’s media representative, accredited to the meeting, it was certainly a space worth sharing with our mainstream counterparts.

The meeting has given the commonwealth member states an opportunity to take stock of how far they have advanced in implementing gender equality commitments, especially as member states of the United Nations, they gear up to report on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action due to be held next year. That process is referred to as Beijing Plus 10.

Since the last Commonwealth Women’s Ministers Meeting in Delhi in 2000, the 53 member countries have made limited advancements to achieving gender equality and this despite the additional commitments through the Beijing Platform for Action. However, the meeting noted that:

- 45 countries have developed national action plans, and this includes Fiji which formulated its Women’s Plan of Action in 1998, in line with the commitments made at the 1995 UN Conference on Women.

- 49 countries have ratified CEDAW although only 14 have signed the Optional Protocol; in 2000 the Fiji Government was the first Pacific Island government, which presented its implementation report to the CEDAW committee. Several women’s groups in Fiji also worked together and submitted an NGO Shadow report, which highlighted the impact of the May 2000 civilian coup on the women’s movement.

- 11 Commonwealth countries have instituted constitutional or legislative reforms that address gender concerns such as land, property, citizenship, employment, family and spousal rights. In Fiji, spearheaded by the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, the Family Law Bill was passed by the House of Representatives in 2003, women in Fiji now await the implementation of the Family Law Act; work is also being undertaken, with intense lobbying by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre to ensure effective legislation is in place to address domestic violence.

- 3 countries have exceeded the 30% target of women’s representation in parliament. This continues to be a critical focus of the work of women’s groups, and one recommendation from many civil society groups at this meeting has been the need to support women’s entry into local governments or municipal councils, and in particular to also create the necessary support structures for young women to effectively contribute to the decision making on local and national development needs. The presence of 24-year-old Malika Blair of Trinidad Tobago, the Deputy Mayor of the city of San Fernando, has been an encouraging example that coupled with political will, the support of political party leaders and an enabling environment for any woman or young woman who is ready, willing and able to raise the issues and concerns of their community at local and national level.

43 commonwealth countries attended this meeting, the first ever to be held in the Pacific. This has actually created greater visibility of the situation facing small island developing countries, who far too often cannot afford to substantively participate in such global gatherings and conferences.

A human rights framework forms the crux of the ‘Denarau commitment’. In fact if gender equality is part of the basis of defining democracy for the member countries, this not only reinforces many of the other international conventions and gives women’s groups greater opportunity to ensure that their governments progress towards transforming these commitments into tangible strategies, especially through legislative reform and review.

The conference has focused on critical issues for the 53 member countries of the commonwealth, some have been on the women’s human rights agenda for several decades, and there are several emerging issues and challenges that have emerged, especially with the HIV/Aids pandemic and recognising that gender equality will not be achieved without the participation of men and boys, as true partners for ensuring equitable development and sustainable peace.

The issue of Gender, Democracy, Peace and Conflict has adopted the ‘language’ of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. This has been a timely incorporation as later this year the UN Secretary General will present a report on the implementation of ‘1325’ which was adopted on October 31, 2000. This will possibly assist member countries put into place more gender sensitive policies and programmes to ensure women’s representation and participation, in conflict prevention, as well as in formal peace negotiations. It would certainly augur well for the member governments to promote their best practices, as they prepare their country reports to the Secretary General.

The Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action, which comes into effect in 2005 is not a legal and binding document for member countries, but it certainly assists in stressing the need for government officials responsible for Finance, Health, Trade, National Planning, even central banks, to look at their programmes and policy through their gender lens. The Commonwealth Gender POA for 2005 - 2015 specifically identifies the need to protect women’s economic rights, which are increasingly threatened as a result of globalisation and trade liberalisation. After all, within the member countries, 70% of those living in poverty are women.

And how easy will it be for member countries to harmonise their current Plans of Action with the new commitments?

According to Hon. Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Malaysia’s Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, the Commonwealth POA will help her strengthen and fortify her case: “Already in Malaysia we have the machinery in place. We made a constitutional amendment to ensure there is gender equality recently so for me, it makes my work easier and I am very confident that my government will endorse this plan of action. I’m determined that it is going to be implemented.”

She admits it will take some time but it will serve as a guide for her ministerial colleagues also to achieve the goals.

The preparations for the meeting with her ministerial counterparts and civil society groups, such as the Grenada National Organisation for Women, will assist the Hon. Yolande Maria Bain-Joseph, Grenada’s Minister for Social Development in implementing the plan: “All the networking and consultations we have had before would serve as endorsement for (the) plan of action.”

Fiji’s Minister for Women, Adi Asenaca Caucau is very positive, about the political will and commitment towards the priority areas of the Commonwealth Plan of Action, despite the delay in the reviewing the Fiji Women’s Plan of Action: “We had already agreed upon it in Cabinet. The Plan of Action has also been widely consulted with all the stakeholders. It is already incorporated into our corporate plan.”

She said the inclusion of the Ministers for Health, Tourism and Local Government in the official delegation served as reinforcement of the need for inter-ministerial collaboration on issues relating to poverty reduction as well as Gender and HIV/Aids. “For Fiji, you can be sure that the women’s issues are top priority in government.”

Meanwhile, the meeting has agreed that the next Commonwealth meeting moves to the region of Africa under a new name. Uganda will host the next meeting 2007 - it will now be called the Ministers Responsible for Women’s Affairs.

One of the achievements for the meeting, as well as for the women’s movement to certainly celebrate and build upon is that this Commonwealth meeting, for the first time, created the necessary space for civil society partnership, enabling women’s groups to engage in the negotiation of the text of the new Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality.

According to Rudo Chitiga, Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, civil society will need to maintain the momentum. Some strategies already being discussed by CSO participants at the meeting include strengthening the Commonwealth Women’s Network as an important Pan Commonwealth organisation in a common pursuit of gender equality: “The main focus of the network is to monitor the implementation of the plan as well as platform to exchange experiences and good practices in the implementation of this plan. So it becomes a key focal point for women’s organisations or organisations interested in gender to follow this up. They are also looking at other Commonwealth processes that have an impact on the implementation of this plan. They will follow the Health Ministers, they will follow the Finance Ministers, and other Commonwealth processes in order to draw attention to the issues in the plan.”

This commitment will be carried forward into future meetings, and the women’s movement can now use this as a valuable precedence for other official forums. The onus is now on ensuring women’s groups as well as governments and other agencies collaborate on capacity building efforts to work together, not just for political consensus, but a full realization of the vision shared here in Denarau.

Participants, and all stakeholders, can now look forward to the next Commonwealth Secretary General’s report on the Status of Women in the Commonwealth to find out just how far governments are able to implement the ‘Denarau vision’.

From: femLINKpacific/020604