19 November 2009
Dear WILPF Members and Friends,

The temperature drops and the days get shorter as winter approaches in Geneva, but the team at the International Secretariat keeps itself warm with the fires of activism! 

October and the beginning of November included a lot of important dates for WILPF.  From the 12th Session of the Human Rights Council to the much anticipated UNECE consultation on the 15th Review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (2-3 November).  More and more registrations are coming in every day as the agenda is finalized for the IB meeting this January in India.  But before this, WILPF is looking forward to monitoring the Copenhagen Climate Conference (early December). At the conference in Copenhagen 2009 the parties of the UNFCCC will meet for the last time on the governmental level before the climate agreement will be renewed.  Therefore, it is essential that the conference establish an ambitious global climate agreement for the period from 2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires.

In this International Update you will find:

Message from the Secretary General
WILPF and the Goldstone report- activities at the Human Rights Council
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 Anniversary
First Committee Monitor- more WILPF resources the UN General Assembly 1st Committee
Section Highlight:  UK WILPF’s new Edinburgh branch sponsors Africa in Motion film festival
Remember:  Send a letter:  No Nukes in the Climate Agreement!
International NGO Conference on Disarmament
UNECE  Beijing+15
CEDAW  turns 30!

As always, we welcome feedback and input to these mailings.  If you have something to contribute to the next mailing, please send it to secretariat@wilpf.ch with “For International Update” clearly marked in the subject line.
For the complete mailing as a web document, click here.
For the complete mailing as a printer friendly PDF, click here.
Past updates are archived on the website at: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/updates/,

Message from the Secretary General

Dear Friends,

Preparations for the upcoming international board meeting are well underway.  A number of sections, working groups and committees have submitted their reports, and additional reports are still coming in.  The office in Geneva has been working diligently to ensure that it is a successful meeting, with interesting political discussions and decisions to help shape WILPF’s future.

To help build WILPF, now is a great time to ask your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors to join.  Contact your national section to join.  If there is no section in your country, get in touch with the Geneva office to join WILPF.

A WILPF membership also makes a wonderful holiday gift.  If you’re searching for other holiday gifts, check out the WILPF store where you can find a range of items- from t-shirts to notebooks, coffee mugs to cards- to round out your holiday shopping.   Why not send your friend a “WILPF, Working for 1325 since 1915” ceramic mug this year?  Instead of sending the traditional holiday card, you could also consider sending WILPF note cards, and in doing so help support WILPF.

With best wishes,

Susi Snyder
[back to top]

WILPF and the Goldstone report- activities at the Human Rights

Earlier in the month, much time and attention was paid to the 12th Session and the 12th Special Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC).

From 14 September until 2 October the 12th regular session of the Human Rights Council took place. The team at the International Secretariat bundled their strengths and made six statements. The most heated discussion was followed by Dagmar Holscher and was centered around the Goldstone report and the follow-up by the HRC on Operation Cast Lead. Finally, Palestine agreed with the majority of the Council to postpone the debate until March 2010. Please click here to read the reports on several UPR sessions, the annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective (PDF), the links to the statement web casts and to learn more.

Thursday and Friday, 15 and 16 October, the Human Rights Council met in its 12th Special Session to discuss “the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and East Jerusalem”. The session was called for by Palestine and was supported by 18 Member States. Palestine called for the Special Session after it received strong domestic and international critique on its decision to support the deferral of the debate on the Goldstone Report during the regular Human Rights Council session.

The main recommendations of the Goldstone report were that what took place during Operation Cast Lead requires further investigation, that they fit in with a continuum of Israeli policies that result in violations of international human and humanitarian law and that the case should be deferred to the International Criminal Court if both parties have not undertaken independent investigations into the alleged war crimes within six months.

WILPF took the floor as one of the NGOs addressing the council and pushed for the adoption of the draft resolution in order to follow up on all of the Goldstone report’s recommendations and use the report as a peace building instrument. Please read and watch WILPF’s statement.

[back to top]

1325 Anniversary

Post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding are a broad themes and cover issues ranging from the participation of women in peace processes and planning for recovery to reconciliation, transitional justice and security sector reform.  These issues were addressed in the Security Council Open Debate held (unexpectedly earlier than usual) on 5 October 2009 to mark the 9th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325. The PeaceWomen Project monitored the debate and compiled an online thematic index of statements – extracts from which can be found in their Feature Event section. Their web pages on the debate – part of their developing Debate Watch resource – also contain links to relevant advocacy material and resources, government statements and outcome documents.

Held under the presidency of Vietnam, the October 2009 Open Debate focused on the theme of “responding to the needs of women and girls in post-conflict situations for sustainable peace and security.” As was noted by Austria in that debate, “[n]o society can afford not to make full use of women’s potential contribution to peace-building and post-conflict recovery.” They went on to reference the research presented by UNIFEM that evidences the effect of excluding women and neglecting their needs from these processes – such neglect “imposes serious costs on recovery, undermining efforts to reassert the rule of law and restart the economy.” As has become standard practice, a member of civil society (here representing the NGO Working Group on women, peace and security) was invited to make a statement in the debate.  Somali advocate Asha Hagi Elmi Amin spoke of her participation in Somali peace efforts as part of the women’s “Sixth Clan” initiative that resulted in important gains for women. She also noted, however, that women for the most part remain excluded from peace and post-conflict processes, “to the detriment of society as a whole.”

In response to this problem and as an outcome of the Open Debate, Vietnam led the adoption of a resolution on women, peace and security (SCR 1889).  SCR 1889 addresses one of the key reasons for the failures to address the needs and interests of women in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding. That is, it addresses the exclusion of women and of their interests from the early stages of these processes and from the institutions that are central to them. SCR 1889 is an important building block in furthering the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda first expressed in SCR 1325. It not only addresses concrete and essential issues such as post-conflict needs assessments and resource allocation but also contains provisions that could lead to improvements in monitoring and reporting on implementation and, hopefully, improved accountability. As Ms Amin noted, “without accountability [being provided for in the various women, peace and security resolutions] persistent impediments to their implementation will remain.”

In the coming months Peace Women will be launching several exciting and participatory projects leading up to the 10th Anniversary of 1325 in October 2010.
[back to top]

In his closing remarks, First Committee Chair Ambassador José Luis Cancela of Uruguay explained that since the Committee began working this year, delegations have listened to him say that his main aspiration was the greatest possible consensus between all delegations. He called for consensus not as minimal points in agreement to create formulations more or less repeated every year and not as an imposition of the powerful over the weak, but as a cornerstone for building genuine efforts to push forward in this unprecedented moment for disarmament and non-proliferation.

Most delegations took this call seriously. Sponsors of several draft resolutions engaged in intensive consultations to garner consensus on their texts, which sometimes resulted in substantial modifications to the drafts in order to accommodate concerns of other delegations. Some of these resolutions included those on a fissile materials treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space, the International Day against Nuclear Testing, and perhaps most notably, the arms trade treaty. Not all of these efforts were successful; the final example had to be adopted by a recorded vote.

Regardless of their success, these efforts demonstrate that consensus is not just an outcome but also a process. Consensus as a process is intended to be cooperative rather than competitive, to facilitate compromise rather than zero-sum approaches, and to ensure that the “tyranny of the majority” cannot silence the concerns of a minority.

Consensus as an outcome offers an aura of unity. It suggests that the final product is satisfactory to all participants, which will make its implementation easier, because everyone involved agrees with it. Yet with some resolutions, it is not at all clear that consensus demonstrates unity. Delegations frequently issued explanations of vote on resolutions adopted by consensus to register remaining concerns they feel were inadequately addressed in the modifications, or even to withdraw their participation from the consensus adoption altogether.

Some draft resolutions were so compromised in an effort to reach consensus that their original supporters had to issue explanations of vote. At least ten delegations that have been traditionally strong supporters of developing a robust and legally-binding arms trade treaty expressed concern with operative paragraph five (OP5) of the resolution, which mandates the treaty negotiating conference to be undertaken “on the basis of consensus”. Even with this concession that so alarmed some treaty supporters, the draft resolution was not adopted by consensus.

Why would governments that want a universal arms trade treaty be concerned about a negotiating conference undertaken on the basis of consensus? Do they object to equal respect for all delegations’ concerns and priorities? Do they not want a treaty that all governments will ratify and implement?

The rest of this editorial can be found here.  Other issues of the First Committee Monitor can be found here.  Reaching Critical Will has other useful resources on the UNGA First Committee- including voting charts, resolutions, and governmental statements all available on the website.

[back to top]

A small branch of WILPF is just starting up in Edinburgh and has already delved into several impressive activities.  Although the branch is quite new, it has already had a launch seminar at the Scottish Parliament called 'Voices of Congolese Women' in April.

Most recently the branch was approached by the Filmhouse in Edinburgh to sponsor the showing of the film Kinshasa Palace at the end of October for the UK’s largest African film festival, Africa in Motion, which showcased films from Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  The screening cost £100 and although the branch did not have any funds to cover this expense, individual members and supporters pledged money to cover the costs.  WILPF Edinburgh provided the UK WILPF member Kongosi Mussanzi as a speaker to lead the discussion after the screening.  As a result WILPF was included in the festival’s publicity material and the branch also has the opportunity to distribute WILPF publicity material during the festival.

[back to top]

Remember:  Send a letter:  No Nukes in the Climate Agreement!

In the August 2009 edition of the WILPF International Update, we urged WILPF members to take action to prevent nuclear energy from being included as a solution to climate change.  We urge you to send a letter again, or send one for the first time now- as the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen draws closer.

WILPF will have a delegation attending the sessions in Copenhagen and will lobby fiercely to prevent nuclear energy from being seen as a solution to the climate crisis.  Your support, by sending a letter on this issue to your elected officials, is needed now more than ever.

More information can be found here.

[back to top]

International NGO Conference on Disarmament

A number of members of the Geneva team, along with the Secretary General attended the International NGO Conference on Disarmament in Stockholm from November 6-8th.  The Swedish Network for Nuclear Disarmament hosted the conference on the topic Reaching Nuclear Disarmament: The Role of Civil Society in Strengthening the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The goal of the conference was to gather the International Movement against Nuclear Weapons and to facilitate coordination of strategies that will lead to a successful NPT Review Conference in 2010.  WILPF’s presence allowed us to demonstrate our active role as an organization in strengthening the NPT and to participate in a constructive exchange of strategies with other civil society groups.  On the first day of the conference, Susi Snyder chaired the opening panel discussion on Reaching Nuclear Disarmament - from Visions to Reality, which posed questions concerning the role of civil society in promoting a stronger disarmament regime and how to realize the recommendations of the WMDC report.  On day two, WILPF International President Kerstin Grebäck chaired a panel on The Middle East - Suggestions for Reaching a Secure and Peaceful Region.  Ray Acheson delivered one of the keynote speeches on Reaching Critical Will for Disarmament.  Susi also spoke on two additional panels:  NATO, the European Union and Nuclear Weapons in Europe, and Civil Society Strategies and Priorities for the NPT RevCon.

As a forerunner to the conference IKKF (WILPF Sweden) also held an open seminar focusing on current issues relating to nuclear disarmament and feminist security policies, which was led by the Secretary General of WILPF Sweden, Petra Totterman Andorff.  Speakers included Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will, Daniel Nord (deputy Director of SIPRI) and Susi Snyder.  This seminar provided an opportunity for members of WILPF Sweden, particularly those in the Stockholm branch, to meet with two of the international staff and discuss key issues related to our overall work. 

The Geneva team would like to extend our gracious thanks to Josefine Lind, Josefine Karlsson, Malin Nilsson, and especially Emma Rosengren for all they did to make this seminar one of the best NPT Preparation Seminars of the decade.

[back to top]

UNECE Beijing+15

Immediately  before leaving for Stockholm, Ilse Wermink and Susi Snyder spent long hours preparing for the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s consultation on the 15th Review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (2-3 November).

As was announced in earlier Monthly Updates, WILPF was actively involved in the Regional Review Meeting of the Beijing Platform for Action in Geneva. First on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October during the NGO Conference and subsequently on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 November at the UNECE (Economic Commission for Europe)
Regional Review Meeting.

During the NGO Conference Kirsti Kolthoff, Susi Snyder and Ilse Wermink successfully managed to get some of WILPF's points added to the recommendations that the NGO Conference presented at the UNECE meeting. Understandably, it was a hard task to get over 200 organizations to agree upon recommendations that were brief, powerful and to the point. Despite all the hard work, the meeting ended on a disappointing note as weak discussions followed the panel presentations and even weaker concluding recommendations were adopted by the ECE Chairman.  It is now up to us to use the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women to advocate for a stronger outcome and specific recommendations towards realizing the goals outlined in the Beijing Declaration and Programme for Action.

More information about the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women can be found here.

[back to top]

CEDAW turns 30!

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a panel of CEDAW members and civil society activists involved in the migrant rights of women in Europe and the CIS met 4 November 2009 at the UN in Geneva to talk about "Women and migration in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, including in the context of the financial crisis." An interactive discussion ensued with questions coming via satellite from panelists in Belgium, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan. Issues raised included the responsibilities of origin states versus receiving state on protecting the rights of migrant women, the interface of migration and trafficking, the need to make better use of the media and statistics in educating and bringing attention to migrant women's rights and dissolving the linkage between employment permits and migrant women's employers or husbands in an effort to reduce their vulnerability to abuses.

Overall the discussion proved targeted and inspiring. Much to our surprise and delight, Mr. Patrice Robineau, Senior Adviser to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) concluded by saying that state bodies must take responsibility for strengthening political willingness. In order for people to exercise their willingness, the judiciary system must also be strengthened, and it seems time that governments spent more on strengthening their judiciary than on military expenditures.

WILPF’s UN lobbying efforts once again pay off as on of our most crucial messages is adopted by an influential UN adviser.   It appears Robineau agrees that "you get what you pay for!"

[back to top]