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March 2009 Included in this WILPF International update you will find:
As always, we welcome feedback and input to these mailings. If you have something to contribute to the next mailing, please send it to susi.snyder@wilpf.ch no later than the 17th of the month. Past updates are archived on the website at: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/updates/, Also, please remember that you can find the most up to date version of the international directory online at this link: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/PDF/InternationalDirectory.pdf. Warm greetings, Susi Snyder Message from the Executive Committee One of the Co-Presidents, Annelise, was in India in January. She will write a comprehensive report, however she has this summary for the monthly update: On the 20th of January I went to Mumbay where I met with Ila Pathak, the President of the Indian Section, and Jharna Pathak, Vice President of the Gujarat Branch. We went together to Bhubaneswar in Orissa where we visited three relief camps in the Kandhamal district. In the camps were children, men and women, most of them Christians who had been expelled from their homes in villages in Kandhamal. Our purpose for the visits to these camps was to find out if the women’s rights had been violated and if so in which ways and to which extent. We were not focusing on the fact that most of these women were Christians except for the violation of one of the rights we are all entitled to namely the right to chose one’s own faith without being threatened let alone persecuted. Unfortunately we found that the women’s right were heavily violated in a number of ways. The instruments we used in the uncovering of the women’s rights violations were: The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1820 on Sexual and Gender Based Violence during Conflict. With the facts on the women’s rights violation that we had found in the camps we went to a range of authorities among other the Orissa Governor, Murlidhar C. Bhandare, Commissioner and Secretary in Revenue and Disaster Management Department in Orissa, G. V. Venugopala Sarma in order to draw their attention to the violations as well as urge them to react. From Orissa I went to Gujarat together with Ila and Jharna to visit the India Section and the Gujarat Branch. I was invited to speak at the Gujarat Vidyapith (the Ghandi University) and I chose to give a brief introduction to the WILPF history and tell about a discussion in WILPF after World War II on the non-violence principle. At a well attended meeting that had been arranged by the Gujarat Branch were also two members of the Maharashtra Branch, Renu Bali and Vaijayanti K. Deshpande and the Indian member of the International Board, Krishna Ahooja-Patel. At that meeting I talked about the WILPF international programme, and Krishna talked about the India Section, also about the revitalizing of the Section that had happened in 2000 in Nagpur in Maharashtra. The India Section President, Ila Pathak, welcomed me heartily in a speech, and after the meeting the Gujarat Branch was hosting a social gathering. The Section had scheduled their Executive Committee meeting for the next day when I was still in Gujarat, but unfortunately I got sick, which meant that I had to give up participating in that meeting as well as a visit to the Maharashtra Branch. --- Annelise Ebbe Kozue participated in “Security without Empire” conference held from Feb 27th through March 2 in Washington DC, USA, with her colleagues from Okinawa, Japan. Ray Acheson of RCW also attended. The conference was National Organizing Conference on Foreign Military Bases, a follow-up event of “No Bases Network” launched in March 2007 in Quito, Ecuador. Several U.S section members participated in the conference as well as a former Geneva intern from Korea, Jung Gyunglan. After the conference, Kozue and the Okinawan delegation visited the State Department and some U.S. congress members’ offices to request to halt a construction plan of a new U.S. military facility in Okinawa and to take a proper measure to address the problem of sexual violence by U.S. soldiers in and around the bases in Okinawa. After the conference, on March 6 and 7, she attended an academic conference, “Interrogating Okinawa,” organized by the National Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Sheffield in UK to which she was invited to deliver a paper titled “Gender, Peace Movements, Peace Action and Transnational Network of Okinawan Women.” She then visited New York and on March 9 and 10, she and Suzuyo Takazato, her colleague and a feminist peace activist from Okinawa, gave two lectures on “Gender and Demilitarization,” in which she argued for demilitarized security as the fundamental solution to the sexual violence by U.S. soldiers against women and children in Okinawa Angie Rosga, our UN Office Director, Ray Acheson, and Lacy Orme, an RCW intern attended the lectures. Kozue’s article on women’s peace movement in Okinawa, “Okinawa: Women’s struggle for demilitarization,” co-authored with Suzuyo Takazato was recently published in The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle against U.S. Military Posts (Catherine Lutz, ed. Pluto Press, 2009). From Samira Khoury: In times of war what does a peace activist do? Participate in demonstrations, sit-ins, vigils & sign petitions. Participate in debates & give interviews...stay glued to the news television taking note of the latest massacres...In short all "normal" activities are disrupted, if not paralyzed... Message from the Secretary General The Geneva team is exceptionally active at the moment. We are following discussions in the UN relating to Disarmament and Human Rights, engaging with other organisations to highlight issues of concern and organising and participating in events to promote WILPF’s programme. In early March we held the International Women’s Day Disarmament seminar. The seminar concentrated on the security challenges in the Middle East, specifically on the threat perceptions that make people think that they need military means, including weapons of mass destruction, to provide security. Sharon Dolev, of Greenpeace Mediterranean was the keynote speaker and provided a better understanding of what it means to live in Israel and the things that shape threat perceptions there. The seminar also prepared (as it has for over 25 years) a statement that was read into the record of the Conference on Disarmament. The UN Conference on Trade and Development recently held a two day discussion on mainstreaming gender in trade policy. Strengthened gender analysis was suggested as a way to best eliminate gender gaps in trade policy, with the full recognition that simply adding the word ‘women’ to more documents was just not good enough. The group decided to establish a gender disaggregated database that take all the “players” in trade into consideration, in other words also acknowledging women’s contribution to trade and to the countries GDP. By doing this new patterns in trade will be reviled and by that give the possibility for establishing better polices at the ground level. Hopefully many sections and members are preparing events for WILPF’s upcoming 94th anniversary on 28 April. The Geneva office would like to compile a list of all of these events on the website. Please send your event information to Inforequest@wilpf.ch for posting. With best wishes, Susi Snyder Message from the United Nations Office Dear WILPF Members, At long last I’m grabbing a few moments in the midst of the hectic whirlwind that is the United Nations Office (UNO) to send out a long delayed note of greetings to you all. As you probably know, we’ve just begun the CSW (Commission on the Status of Women) meetings here in New York so things have been busy preparing for this. On Saturday, together with several wonderful interns who are working tirelessly with us in the UNO, I welcomed a gathering of more than thirty women to a special educational session in preparation for the CSW. The gathering took place at City University of New York’s John Jay College, where the Women’s Center kindly co-sponsored our event (providing us with a lecture hall space for free – thank you, Jessica Greenfield!). In attendance were several WILPF members in town for the CSW and a group of UN Practicum students – consisting of college, Masters, and Doctoral students from around the U.S.. The Practicum is led by the US-WILPF President Laura Roskos and her colleague Amy Agigian, both professors from Suffolk University in Massachusetts. This program is co-hosted by WILPF and the U.S. National Women’s Studies Association and was established last year for students to learn about how the UN implements women’s international human rights in practice, and to network with women’s organizations from around the world. The educational session was a great success and I look forward to spending more time with the Practicum group as the week goes on. Tomorrow we will have our formal WILPF reception for all WILPF members and their friends who are in town for the CSW and I am very much looking forward to that event as well. I hope to meet many women whom I’ve only had an opportunity to meet online thus far, via email correspondence. While you haven’t heard much from our office yet, as I’ve been settling into this big job and beginning to learn the ropes, WILPF’s UN work has proceeded at a rapid clip. As you know from the e-news sent out by our staff, Sam Cook and Ray Acheson, their programs have been hard at work on women, peace and security issues (PeaceWomen.org) and disarmament issues (reachingcriticalwill.org) respectively. WILPF has also been welcomed back into the NGO Working Group on the Security Council – an arena where the organization has not been represented for some time. As part of this Working Group, I have had the opportunity to participate with several Ambassadors and their staff in “off-the-record” conversations about such issues as the ongoing conflict in the middle east, global economic disparities especially vis-à-vis military spending, apparent shifts toward support for nuclear disarmament among more of the world’s leaders, environmental damage and the direct conflict-producing by-products of coltan-mining, and the need to democratize the structure and processes of the UN. In particular, I have begun actively working with members of the campaign to support gender equality architecture reform as part of the UN system-wide coherence initiatives that are currently underway. The “GEAR process,” as this campaign is more widely known, is picking up a great deal of exciting speed at this year’s CSW meetings and I hope to be able to report positive developments on this front in coming months. There’s much, much more, but time doesn’t permit an exhaustive account and I must get back to doing that work! Two interns in our office are working hard to develop a unique web page for the UN Office to keep you all informed of work we are doing, and to serve as a hub for information about New York-based UN news and events, much as the WILPF International site currently does for as many events around the world as its staff and interns can manage. It’s time, I think, for our office to have its own locatable presence on the web, too, though, so check out the site: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/uno.It’s sure to grow in coming months. Until soon, Durban update & talking points, Register by 28 March! WILPF was very active in the lead up to the first World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa in 2001. April 20 – 24th 2009 governments will come together in Geneva to review the outcome document from that conference- the Durban Declaration and Programme for Action. To prepare for this Review Conference, WILPF has updated its web-based resources around Durban. You can find the updated information here. In addition, talking points have been developed, based on the talking points used in preparation for the first world conference. If you would like to join the WILPF delegation- send your full name (as it appears on your passport) to maria@wilpf.ch before 28 March, along with the dates you will be in Geneva and a short note about your reasons for wanting to participate in the delegation. WILPF does not have any funds to support travel to this meeting. Talking points for the Durban Review Conference WILPF calls for clear affirmation that the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the enslavement of Africans and African descendants constitute crimes against humanity. We call for the recognition of their right to compensation and for the creation of a Development Fund for countries and peoples affected by colonialism. WILPF calls on the Durban Review Conference to recognize the discrimination against the Palestinian people and affirm their right to self-determination as well as the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and receive just compensation. WILPF calls for the affirmation of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination. We call on all States to respect the cultures of indigenous peoples, their right to use their own languages and to have their own forms of organization, to have the right to develop their lands and resources in respect of their own values and ways of life. WILPF calls for multilevel approaches in understanding and identifying the points where race and gender intersect in manifestations of racism and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. These forms of discrimination deny women their human rights, preventing them to participate fully in the economic, social and cultural life. WILPF calls for international trade and financial arrangements that are based on equity and just economic relations to achieve genuine development, benefiting all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, gender or belief. We reject economic globalization based on the free-market economy and determined by transnationals and international financial institutions. The core components of economic globalization — deregulation, privatization and liberalization — in trade and investments intensify patriarchy, racism, racial and ethnic discrimination, xenophobia, religion and other forms of intolerance WILPF recognizes that migration, and particularly labour migration, is not a choice but a necessity for most migrants and their families in order to survive massive poverty, ethnic or gender-based violence, armed conflict, or displacement resulting from development projects. Migrants face multiple forms of discrimination in acquiring employment, education, housing and other social services because of being foreigners or coloured. The receiving States must adhere to the relevant international conventions. WILPF calls on all States to implement, without reservations, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965, as well as all other international human rights instruments pertaining to the elimination of discrimination, the protection of minorities and all other vulnerable groups. 100th Anniversary- Call for Logo and Title Suggestions! In 2015, WILPF is organising a large conference, bringing together members and sister organisations in The Hague, as well as events on the national, regional and local level at that time. The celebrations of WILPF’s 100th anniversary will reflect the fact that WILPF is truly an international organization with sections on all continents. It shall be impossible for people – wherever they are – to miss that WILPF is celebrating its 100th anniversary. As WILPF prepares for our 100th anniversary (April 28th, 2015), we are issuing a call to members, sections and friends to design a captivating logo and catchy title for the event. Please send your suggestions and ideas to Inforequest@wilpf.ch. Section update - Netherlands- 1 year on, national action plan on 1325 WILPF Netherlands is part of a working group that has recently commented on and made suggestions towards improving the implementation of the National Action Plan on 1325. The report evaluates the first year of implementation of the Dutch National Action Plan (NAP) on Report from UN Climate Change conference in Poznan, Poland 1st – 12th December 2009. Historical background The executive body of the convention is a meeting of all the countries that have ratified the convention. Their meeting is known as Conference of the Parties (COP). One of the meetings in Poznan 2008 is called “COP14”, the 14th meeting after UNFCCC came into force in 1994. The convention has a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. The convention includes provisions for updates, so called protocols that would set mandatory emission limits. The principal update to UNFCCC is referred to as the Kyoto Protocol. A protocol is a legal instrument that imposes specific obligations on its parties in order to implement the objective(s) of the convention. The Kyoto Protocol has its own parties that have ratified it, and its own executive body. This is called “Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP)”. CMP4 is a separate meeting under the umbrella UNFCCC in Poznan in 2008. Most of the countries in the world have agreed to the Kyoto Protocol. The United States and Australia have not ratified it. When Russia ratified it in 2005, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force that year. The CMP1 happened at the same time as COP 11 in 2005. The meetings in Bali in 2007, Poznan in 2008 and the one coming up in Copenhagen 2009 have the focus to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The convention has an advisory body for science and technology called “Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice” In Poznan it had its 29th session and that meeting was called SBSTA 29. Most of the work concerned with the implementation of UNFCCC is delegated to another body called “Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI).” The meeting in Poznan was called SBI29. The signatories to the UNFCCC are split in three main groups: To be able to understand what is going on one has to get used to all the abbreviations. The main themes at COP14 were mitigation, adaptation, financing adaptation and technology transfer. CAN (Climate Action Network) is an umbrella NGO organisation for climate questions and actions. They had plenary meetings every day at the conference and had working groups on the main themes. One of the CAN working groups was on CDM - “Clean Development Mechanism”. This is very controversial; it allows that projects to reduce emissions in developing countries get CER credits (certified emission reduction) - each 1 tonne of CO2 emission that can be traded with, sold and used by industrial countries to be part of their own emissions goals that they have in accordance with the Kyoto-Protocol. All the documents and results of the conference will be available at the homepage to UNFCCC - http://unfccc.int/2860.php This is an excerpt from the January 2009 WILPF Environment Working Group Newsletter. The full edition can be read here. HR News Update: March 2009 Dear all, warm greetings from Geneva! My name is Ilse Wermink and I am WILPF’s programme intern for the whole of 2009. I will keep you updated on human rights developments via bimonthly HR News Updates. Please contact me if you want me to focus on a certain matter in the following HR Updates via ilse@wilpf.ch.
9 & 12 January 2009 The Human Rights Council convened in a special session on the 9th and 12th of January 2009 to discuss the grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The meeting was called for by Egypt, on behalf of the Arab and African Groups, by Pakistan, on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and by Cuba, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). 27 countries supported their call for the meeting. The long list of speakers resulted in an additional half day of session and with 33 in favour, 13 abstentions and 1 against Resolution A/HRC/S-9/L.1/Rev.1 was adopted. In addition to the HRC, multiple rather emotional statements were made during the opening session of the Conference on Disarmament on the 20th of January. On the 10th of February WILPF published a written statement on the Middle East, urging for rapid aid, the rapid opening of border crossings and the protection of Israeli and Palestinian populations by UN peace keepers amongst others.
21 January 2009 On 27 March 2008, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 7/25, entitled “the Prevention of Genocide” and through this urged the High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize a seminar on the Prevention of Genocide. In two sessions the HRC discussed preventive strategies, initiatives and mechanisms and commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The OHCHR has not yet fulfilled its promise of preparing and publishing a paper on the outcome of the seminar, but had already prepared a concept note.
02 until 13 February 2009 For the fourth time the Human Rights Council came together for the Universal Periodic Review and reviewed 16 countries. For WILPF I only covered the UPR sessions for countries in which WILPF had sections and groups: Canada, Germany and the Russian Federation. Before attending the Country Reviews, I wrote down my expectations. During the sessions it was interesting to note that each time over 60 States registered on the Speaker’s List, making their interns wake up at 6 in the morning and forming a line to register at 7. Being fresh and new to this mechanism it was interesting to see how the different States presented their national Human Rights situations, but it became quite tiring to hear State after State speak about similar issues in their two-minute oral statements. All in all, I think the UPR needs to be developed further, but has great potential in bringing civil society and State representatives together on local, national and international level. For those interested, the following documents are available:
The 5th Universal Periodic Review will be undertaken from the 4th until the 15th of May and 16 countries are planned to be reviewed. The following three countries, out of these 16, have either WILPF groups or sections:
(Please click on the links for the national reports and UN compilation of information.) Please contact me via ilse@wilpf.ch if you want me to focus on certain issues in reporting back on these three UPR country reviews.
19 January until 6 February 2009 The 23 independent experts on women’s rights from all over the world – forming the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – convened in Geneva to review 8 countries (Armenia, Cameroon, Dominica, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Rwanda). Preceding the reviews, IWRAW (International Women’s Rights Action Watch) and WILPF cooperated in providing training for NGO representatives from most of these countries on CEDAW and practical guidance on participation in the actual sessions. Just new to WILPF it was highly motivating to meet these women working at grass-roots level and see how CEDAW functions. On 26 January the Committee held a session with all NGO representatives of the countries under review. If interested, please read my notes on this session. On the 21st of January WILPF, IWRAW and the International Women’s Tribune Centre (IWTC) organized a lunch briefing on Women in Conflict: to brief the CEDAW Committee on the intersection between Resolution 1325, Resolution 1820 and the work of the Committee. As underlying documents WILPF presented the CEDAW recommendations on Women in Conflict and IWTC presented the references to Resolution 1325 and 1820 in CEDAW recommendations. For their 44th session, the Committee will convene in New York from the 20th of July until the 7th of August 2009. Twelve countries are under review, amongst which the following four countries have WILPF sections: Argentina, Denmark, Japan and Switzerland. Please click here to read the background documents.
20 & 23 February 2009 On Friday the 20th of February 2009 the Human Rights Council held a special session to discuss the impact of the current world financial and economic crisis on human rights. The session was called for by Brazil and Egypt, on behalf of the African Group. WILPF was present and saw a high number of country representatives speak on the issue, as well as UN agencies and for the first time a member of a Treaty Body. The discussions generally divided developing countries, (including China and the Russian Federation) highlighting the need for additional assistance, from the developed countries, highlighting the responsibility of governments to protect the human rights in their respective countries. The 10th Special Session led to a relatively weak Resolution A/HRC/S-10/L.1 for which 34 States voted in favour and 14 States abstained (amongst which were Canada, Switzerland, Republic of Korea, Japan and Mexico). The session had to be suspended until the 23rd of February to reach this resolution. The most important paragraph of the resolution emphasizes that the current financial and economic crisis does not diminish the human rights obligations States have. Please click here if you want to read WILPF’s summary on the 20th of February session.
02 until 27 March 2009 The 10th Human Rights Council session started on Monday the 2nd of March and will continue for the month. WILPF will cover the following items on the HRC agenda:
For more information, please click here. If you want me to focus on certain issues when attending these sessions, please contact me via ilse@wilpf.ch.
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