2005 CSW Review of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing +10)
NGO Discussions at the 48th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, 1-12 March 2004
Report from the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, April 2004

During the 48th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at UN Headquarters in New York from 1 to 12 of March 2004, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), the NGO Committee on the Status of Women (NGO Committee) and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) convened three meetings to facilitate a discussion among women from different parts of the world on the ten year review of implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to take place in 2005.

The purpose of these discussions was to focus on the process for the ten-year review, encompassing the regional meetings and preparations in 2004, the CSW review to take place at its next (49th) regularly scheduled commission meeting in March 2005 and the UN General Assembly review of the Millennium Summit (Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals – MDGs) outcomes in the fall of 2005. We did not attempt to address specific issue areas for the reviews but rather outlined goals and strategies that might be used for a variety of issues.
There was some discussion and the general affirmation of the desire for a Fifth UN World Conference on Women to take place sometime between 2007-2010. Some ideas were also raised regarding the possibility of women holding their own non-governmental world conference. However, we did not address ideas or plans for these possibilities in any detail.

Consensus was reached by the NGOs on some critical overall positions, which are reflected in the goals and strategies below. In particular, NGOs agreed that while we hoped that there would be a lively and meaningful review of implementation of the Platform for Action, we did not want any renegotiations of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing +5 outcome document or any other type of negotiated UN document from this process.

CSW 2004 government agreements on Beijing + 10 Review

First, the Commission on the Status of Women decided that the Beijing +10 review in 2005 would focus on implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly in 2000 (Beijing +5). A large number of delegations also expressed views in favor of not having any negotiated text outcomes, but the final decision on this question and the type of outcome (report, political declaration) of the 2005 Beijing +10 review has not been taken. This decision will be made following CSW informal consultations beginning in December 2004. While there seems to be little appetite among the governments for full-scale negotiations, some type of negotiated outcome in the form of a brief political declaration has not been ruled out.

Second, the Commission emphasized the “need to integrate a gender perspective in the implementation and review of the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals.”

Third, the Commission recommended that a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly be convened during the Commission's forty-ninth session in March to which the Commission on the Status of Women will transfer some of its general debate on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the Assembly. (More information may be available following CSW informal consultations beginning in December 2004.)

Fourth, the Commission agreed that the methods of work at the review would include the expanded use of interactive dialogues with the broad based participation of governmental delegations, UN agencies and civil society.

In addition, there was overall concern about ensuring real and substantive participation by NGOs in the Beijing review process. In that regard, reference was made to the recommendations that will be issued this spring by the Eminent Persons Panel on UN-Civil Society Relations. Concern was also expressed about the possible marginalizing of gender concerns in the General Assembly’s review of the Millennium Summit and the need to identify systematic approaches to bring into it the comprehensive CSW discussions on women’s equality and empowerment from the Beijing plus ten review.

Recommendations from NGO discussions for 2005

The NGO discussions began with reports from each regional caucus about what they were planning to do at the regional reviews of Beijing +10 and how they saw their goals and strategies in this process. Regional Commissions will make their own decisions on whether to have “negotiated text.” Therefore it is critical that the NGOs monitor these processes and encourage government delegates to avoid any type of negotiated outcome. For more information about the regional meetings to be held during 2004, see the web sites and contacts listed at the end of this report.

The three NGO sessions were then devoted to outlining a wide array of goals and strategies for the Beijing Plus 10 review. While each organization, network and region will undoubtedly choose to emphasize different aspects of these goals and strategies, there was a general consensus among the women present on the goals and strategies listed below. For more information, please contact any of the facilitating global organizations or regional focal points listed at the end.

Goals

• Celebrate B+10 and IWY+30 and women’s gains in these years
• Mobilize and re-energize women’s movements at all levels, particularly grassroots
• Hold a 10 year Review of Beijing Platform for Action regionally and globally
• Focus the Review on implementation and obstacles to implementation of the Beijing Platform
• Get government and UN commitments to more targeted & time bound indicators & measurable goals for implementation
• Gain more resources from governments for women’s issues generally
• Link Beijing Platform with MDGs (& reviews of both) and other areas/processes of UN, such as CEDAW & other human rights treaties, Security Council Res.1325, etc.
• Strengthen CEDAW and government compliance with it; pressure for ratification of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW
• Hold governments and multilateral institutions accountable for gaps in implementation
• Put B10 review in the context of examining global forces affecting women, such as militarism, fundamentalisms, and globalization
• Strive for equal voice in all areas of global and regional policy of the UN and other multilateral institutions like the WTO, etc. (bring women’s perspectives to these issues.)
• Assess the impact of and problems with gender mainstreaming
• Create a permanent monitor of gender mainstreaming at all levels
• Increase participation and access for young women in UN processes
• Link race and multiple oppressions to gender more effectively
• Develop partnerships with men to advance women’s rights
• Use momentum of B10 to encourage women in local communities to run for political offices
• Identify new issues and challenges that women face not covered adequately in the Platform

Strategies

A. Overall approach and Lead up to 2005

• Be proactive and use this year to raise issues women care about and not just be reacting to UN agenda
• Put implementation of the Platform in the larger global context and examine how forces like militarism impede achievement of the platform
• Monitor and lobby national government processes - governments should be requesting input from women’s NGOs, making reports available
• Prepare NGO Women’s (alternate or parallel) reports at national and regional level; the NGO Committee on CSW will compile them. Use Shadow Reports made to CEDAW and involve Universities and Women’s Studies departments in preparation of reports.
• Call on governments to eliminate all laws that discriminate against women - formal institutionalized inequality
• Utilize and monitor regional B10 meetings to raise issues of concern to women
• Use other existing regional processes and look at gaps in regional processes
• Use B10 to demonstrate the need and demand more Resources for implementation of the Platform
• Identify resources for NGO participation in review of PFA
• Compile a Matrix on women’s issues in all world conferences and make available all existing ones
• Wide dissemination of information through media and Internet
• Maximize use of electronic information sharing (e.g. circulation of DAW questionnaire)
• Share/make available manuals and format for preparing alternate reports and lobbying techniques
• Establish a website & media for Beijing+10
• Strive to make process inclusive of all, such as migrants and different language groups, parents and caregivers, the disabled, etc.

B. CSW Beijing Review

• No negotiated text or renegotiation of Beijing Platform for Action
• Encourage participation of high-level government representatives at CSW
• Full NGO participation in the entire review process (look at Financing For Development (FfD) & Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) models)
• Hold Interactive Panels/Debates with NGOs as full participants
• Hold Panel on working methods of CSW and ways to strengthen its impact in UN
• Hold Panel on MDGs & Platform to provide input to MDG review
• Assess mainstreaming strategies and problems with it
• Showcase best practices of governments and obstacles thwarting good intentions
• Discuss budgeting & resources needed for implementation
• Examine how legal mechanisms are being used to advance women

C. Moving Forward & Institutional Issues

• Identify new issues for CSW action post 2005
• Hold the UN accountable and evaluate institutional mechanisms for achieving gender equality and gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system
• Discuss ways to strengthen CEDAW
• Use occasion to reform the CSW - to strengthen results & commitment to it
• Possible appointment of special rapporteur(s) to CSW
• Greater participation in 1325 review & Input on SG report on implementation of 1325
• Input on ECOSOC review of gender mainstreaming
• Identify research needs that could be addressed by women’s studies students and professors
• Feed into WSIS, identify women’s needs and desires for information, communication technology and use ICT’s to strengthen women’s alternative economic models
• Focus on women’s buying power to benefit local and women’s economic activity

D. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) & B10

• Make strategic use of MDGs Review, use task force reports, influence and expand targets, etc.
• Urge DAW to incorporate an assessment of how the Beijing Platform relates to the MDGs as input to the SG’s report on B10 and MDG 5
• Call on governments and UN to establish concrete measurable mechanisms for accountability to integrating gender into MDGs
• Link B10 and MDGs assessment in alternate reports for B10 and MDG review, in events nationally and at regional meetings as well as during the CSW review
• Link feminist agenda to global and regional trade negotiations at the WTO, etc. to show how gender-sensitive trade is central to achieving women’s equity and the MDGs.
• Take up MDG 8 – push Northern governments to address enabling economic environment for fulfilling MDGs and how this affects women.
• Integrate a gender perspective through out the 8 MDGs

E. Celebrations and Other NGO Activities

• Celebrate locally & nationally the 10 years since Beijing and 30 years since International Women’s Year / use Beijing theme of ‘moving forward and never going back’
• Hold a variety of NGO events/debates/tribunals at all levels on implementation of Beijing and the impact of global forces on women
• Use DAW questionnaire as basis for Faith Based and other organizations to review their own record toward implementing women’s Equality
• Use the Beijing Platform for Action in electoral processes
• Utilize other events in 2005 to look at B10, such as the World Social Forum, the AWID Forum, and the International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women

F. 5th UN World Conference on Women

• Keep the idea of a 5th UN World Conference on Women alive and monitor integrated conference follow-up at the UN
• Develop a strategy for getting a 5th world conference on Women on the CSW agenda for the future. 2-3 year lead time required for UN global conferences.

Resources:

Facilitating global organizations
Center for Women’s Global Leadership: cwgl@igc.org
NGO Committee on the Status of Women: ngo_csw_ny@hotmail.com
Women’s Environment and Development Organization: wedo@wedo.org

Regional focal points
Several organizations that participated in the 2003 discussions agreed to be contact points for various functions:

Asia Pacific Women's Watch: apwld@loxinfo.co.th
European Women's Lobby: mcphail@womenlobby.org
FEMNET: femnet@africaonline.co.ke; wanyeki@iconnect.co.ke
Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), Canada: charlotte.thibault@videotron.ca

Other regional contact points need to be identified for the Caribbean, East Europe, Latin America and West Asia/Middle East.
Gender and the Millennium Development Goals
http://www.undp.org/gender/docs/mdgs-genderlens.pdf
www.unmillenniumproject.org
http://www.undp.org/mdg/countryreports.html

Regional meetings on Beijing +10 to be held during 2004
Calendar of regional intergovernmental as well as civil society events
http://www.wedo.org/meetings.htm

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
African Centre for Women,
P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: (251-1) 51-2785/4416
E.mail: ouedraogoj@un.org
www.uneca.org

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations 1211, Geneva, Switzerland
Fax: (41-22) 917-0036
E.mail: patrice.robineau@unece.org
www.ece.org

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Women and Development Unit
Casilla 179-D, Santiago, Chile
Fax: (56-2) 208-0252
E.mail: smontano@eclac.cl
www.eclac.org

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Emerging Social Issues Division,
UN Building Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Fax: (66-2) 288-1030/1000
E.mail: kay.unescap@un.org
www.unescap.org

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
P.O. Box 11-8575, Beirut, Lebanon
Fax: (961-1) 98-1510/1511
E.mail: sbaity-kassem@un.org
www.escwa.org.lb