Service en UN Comité Area 06 D27 Regina Smit

Newsletter March -April 2015

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Zonta International is a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy ______

What happened in NEW YORK?

UN Commission on the Status of Women CSW and NGO – CSW Update March 9 to 20, 2015 New York

As an International NGO Zonta International brings women’s concerns to the .

Dear Zontians,

This Service and UN Newsletter contains the latest update about the 59th CSW and the review about the Beijing+20. More than 50 Zontians from al over the world attended the CSW in New York.

I wish you pleasant reading.

Regina Smit Service and UN committee Area 06 District 27 ______

The Commission on the Status of Women, 9 to 20 March 2015

How to travel from A to B?

UN Building Zontians from Sweden, Belgium, Oregon and New York US ZI President Maria Jose Landera Oestergard

March 7 2015, ZONTA Introduction Meeting, in the US Fund for UNICEF offices in Maiden Lane NY

The Zonta UN Committee hosted the first CSW orientation for all interested Zontians. Leslie Wright, ZI UN Committee chairman, explained the difference between CSW and NGO CSW. The CSW is the annual Commission on the Status of Women for Governments! The NGO CSW is the committee for NGO’s in consultatieve relationship with the UN! The 20th anniversary of Beijing is an opportunity to re-examine the Platform for Action and determine the gaps and progress made on each of the critical areas of concern. What is the program for Zonta in the NGO CSW? Side events, Zonta -UN reception, Zonta dinner on March 12, a ticket event.

Introductionmeeting in the UN office Maiden Lane NY ______

March 8, “Celebrate the Feminist and Women’s Movements 1975-2015”

NGO CSW at the Consultation Day and the March to Times Square.

Consultation Day The purpose of NGO CSW Forum Consultation Day is to set the stage for the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings and facilitate interactions between participants. The location for the day was the Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City, it is a music hall which is a noted venue for African-American performers, famous are/were Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and more. This year was the review of the 4 Women World conferences Mexico, Nairobi, Copenhage and Beijing with panel discussions and photo’s. Keynote speakers at the Consultation Day: Phumzile Miambo-Ngcuka, Under Secretary and Executive Director of UN Women Ruchira Gupta, winner of the NGO CSW Distinction Award and winner of a Clinton Global Citizen award. Ruchira Gupta, is an Indian abolitionist, journalist and activist. She has worked for over 25 years to end sex trafficking and has been honored for her work by nations, governmental leaders, and organizations on a global scale.

Ruchira Gupta

The Women’s March to Times Square Speeches and Entertainment at Times Square about Gender Equality, Equal Rights for Women and Man

Times Square, Zonta members and European Women Lobby

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On March 9, 2015,The official opening of the CSW by General Secretary Mr Ban Ki-moon at UN Head Quarters in the General Assembly Hall

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Women’s Voices Shut Out of UN Political Declaration on Women’s Rights UN Member States adopted a Political Declaration on the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women after several months of closed-door negotiations, in which women’s groups were largely excluded.

Nearly 1,000 women’s rights and feminist organizations worldwide have issued a statement decrying the lack of transparency in this process. Historically, the Commission on the Status of Women has adopted declarations or “agreed conclusions” after a two-week session that includes robust civil society participation.

In fact, engagement of civil society and women’s groups was critical in securing a bold and progressive declaration in 1995 to promote gender equality and the human rights of women and girls.

The groups say that the Political Declaration adopted does not go far enough in committing to the transformative agenda that is needed to achieve gender equality.

At this moment in history, women and girls face extraordinary and unprecedented challenges, including rising fundamentalisms, violent extremism, increased number of displaced persons, climate change, and increasing inequalities within and between countries, among others. The evidence is clear: women and girls suffer the disproportionate impact of these challenges and without real commitment and resources to address them, gender equality and the full realization of the human rights of women and girls is a pipe dream. Bold leadership by governments is needed now more than ever. Moving forward, governments must ensure that efforts to realize gender equality, empowerment, and the human rights of all women and girls is critical to sustainable development. None of the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social or environmental – can be achieved without the full participation of women and girls and without all of their human rights being fulfilled.

Stock exchanges ring their opening bells for gender equality on March 9, 2015

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and International Women’s Day, stock exchanges from around the world joined UN Women, the UN Global Compact and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative in supporting gender equality and highlighting the pivotal role of the private sector in empowering women.

Zonta Side Events

Zonta International supports the UN Projects. Zonta International is the biggest donor for the UN!

The projects from Zonta International in 2014-2016: • Eliminating Obstetric Fistula in Liberia in partnership with UNFPA • HIV-Free Generation in Rwanda in partnership with US Fund for UNICEF • Gender Responsive Schools in Vietnam in partnership with UN Trust Fund • Delaying Early Marriage in Niger in partnership with UNFPA • Voices Against Violence in 12 Countries in partnership with UN Women

Related on the Zonta projects side events has been organized during the NGO CSW:

- Make the invisible Visible: Partnering to End Violence Against Women and Children in Rwanda with US Fund for UNICEF. First HIV free generation, Improved prevention and care of HIV, Strenghened national capacity for HIV positive patients, Improved services for victims of violence, Empowerd women and girls to protect and claim their rights. The US Fund for Unicef works in this project since 2008. - Elimination of Harmful Practices against Women and Girls by 2030: What are the linkages, dynamics and drivers of son preference and prenatal sex selection, female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage?

March 9, side event with Unicef, left in the middle ZI PresidentMaria Jose Landera Oestergard

- Voices Against Violence in 12 Countries in Partnership with UN Women and WAGGGS. What do we know about WAGGGS and about the project in 12 countries? What is WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)?

Nicola Grinstead is Chair of the World Board of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, a global movement of 10 million girls and young women in 146 countries, dedicated to supporting girls and young women to reach their full potential. In this op-ed, she emphasizes the importance of life-long learning, non-formal and self-directed education and engaging girls and boys to eradicate gender-based violence.

The global community, a vast majority of national societies and experts from multiple disciplines are more aligned on the beneficial and transformative effect of education on the lives of individuals and their communities than almost any other intervention. For those people subject to the crippling effect of inequality, education is touted as the panacea, lifting them out of poverty, away from high mortality rates and saving them from violence.

She said: I am part of this consensus. But, and this is a big but, what we mean by education and its practical application on the ground needs to be reassessed, refocused and redefined.

Reassessed because what doesn’t enjoy the same overarching consensus as the power of education is the need for education, and the investment in it, to be about more than access to primary school. It is about continuing into secondary school and beyond. To be truly transformative, to reach the hardest to reach, to make sure we support those adults who have never had an education and have already fallen through the cracks, education must be about life-long learning.

Refocused because education is not simply about mathematics and literacy. It must also initiate students - to use the jargon of global development – into “21st century skills.” That means things such as citizenship, leadership, confidence and self- esteem. And it must address the challenges people face in the 21st century, for example the issue of body confidence for girls.

Redefined because although the UNESCO definition of education encapsulates three key pillars – formal, non-formal and informal – formal education tends to overshadow other possibilities. Action plans are consequently narrowed and funneled into supporting education in school based, formal settings, from which naturally follows the policy, the funding and the effort. Yet non-formal education can, and already does in many instances, play a role in surmounting what are often seen as intractable challenges, such as gender-based violence, conflict and sustainability.

Yet since the Beijing Declaration almost 20 years ago, the inroads into ensuring education is delivered to its full effect have been superficial compared to the task remaining. To live up to the expectations set in Beijing, I believe we not only have to reassess, re-focus and redefine education, we must, if empowerment is to be our end goal, place empowerment at the centre of education.

And rather than the governments, the NGOs, the experts and the funders deciding what’s important and what works, we must look to the people seeking an education for answers.

In the guiding movement, we constantly ask girls and young women what matters to them. The most recent testament to this was the selection process of the new Chief Executive of the World Association, with a panel of young women involved in the interview process and the appointment of Anita Tiessen, who will join us in April from UNICEF UK. Imagine a Fortune 500 company getting customers to interview prospective CEOs!

Imagine if we could put empowerment on people’s required reading lists. For me, and for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world, empowerment is about being able to reach your full potential. And here, I think, is the addition to the usual conversation about empowerment – it is about being able to support and transmit those skills, opportunities and attitudes to the people and communities around you, through leadership, citizenship and with confidence.

Imagine a world full of great and committed teachers, of opportunities to learn from your peers on topics that are important and could make a difference to your life, in ways that make sense to you and are delivered in safe spaces. Then imagine a world where girls get married and have children later, gender-based violence is eradicated, families are healthier, poverty unheard of and a sustainable way of life is enjoyed by all.

Change the way we think about education. Invest in it more broadly. And we won’t have to imagine this brave new world. We will be living in it.

Changing the World One Story at a Time

Eight year old Maria Elena del Valle went on a red string strike. She was angry about having to do all the household chores whilst her brother, older than her, got away with leaving their home in a mess day in day out. She proposed to divide every space she shares with her brother, including the toilet seat with a red string down the middle for two weeks in a row, one half for her and the other half for her brother. She wanted to build the evidence to show her mother that her brother was the culprit for littering their home. Did Maria know that she would become a passionate activist in promoting decent work and pay for women workers in the informal economy of the Bronx New York?

Momal Mushtaq from Pakistan narrated her flashbacks whilst walking through metres of snow from downtown Manhattan to UN headquarters. She told about the origins of the dream that she has been able to realize now, at the age of 25, the initiative, fighting barriers to women’s mobility. As a girl she was only allowed to ride a bicycle in doors whilst her brothers ventured into the streets of Karachi. Whilst studying abroad she learned to use the bicycle as a means of transport and for mere fun she cycled from Germany to the Netherlands and Belgium.

Planet 50-50 by 2030:

Step It Up for Gender Equality event was a UN Women-hosted celebration for the 20th anniversary of the historic Fourth World Conference. Progress in the last 20 years has been too slow. Keynote speeches from President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Former U.S. Secretary of State opened the evening, which brought together politics, arts, philanthropy and activism in a powerful combination to support the rights of women and girls worldwide to an audience of some 2,000 people. “Women’s and girls’ voices too often go unheard, their talents and initiative unused. This is to the detriment of the world’s prosperity and security,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Too often, leaders have used women to advance power. I believe we must use power to advance women.”

Side events from Belgium and the Council of Europe and the European Union

Karin Nordmeyer, Council of Europe Committee, at Women’s March

Council of Europe and Belgium: Gender stereotypes and sexisme – root causes of discrimination and violence against women

EU: women’s equal access to all resources: why do we matter

Ending Sex Discrimination in the Law The result of the Beijing +20 1995: 189 countries pledges to end laws that discriminate based on sex 2015: Still waiting

Ending Sex discrimination in the law

By law, in….

• The Bahamas, marital rape is legal • Russia, there are 456 types of jobs women can’t hold • Egypt, killing a wife carries less of a punishment than other types of murder • The US, it’s harder for fathers to bestow citizenship on children born overseas and out of wedlock than mothers, reinforcing gender stereotypes • Cuba, girls can be married off at age 14 • Northern Nigeria, husbands can beat their wives to “correct” them • Iran, court testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man

… and list goes on all over the world

Working Methods resolution, 29 items

How is the future for the working methods? Future organization and methods of work of the Commission on the Status of Women, 29 items On March 18 at its sixtieth session, when the Commission decided on its future multi-year programme of work, it should further review its working methods towards further aligning these to the post-2015 development agenda to be adopted at the UN Summit in September 2015. the Economic and Social Council decided about 29 items, (hereby a few) that:

• the Commission on the Status of Women should review the functioning of its methods of work, • Recognizing the key role of UN Women in supporting the work of the Commission, • the Commission will continue to consider one priority theme at each session, based on the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty

• the General Assembly and possible linkages to the post 2015 development agenda to be adopted at the UN Summit in September 2015 • that each year the Commission will evaluate progress in the implementation of the agreed conclusions on a priority theme from a previous session as its review theme through interactive dialogue • the Commission will report on gender equality and empowerment of women aspects related to the agreed main theme of the Economic and Social Council in order to contribute to its work • Invites all gender specific United Nations entities and other relevant United Nations entities, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, to contribute where appropriate, to the discussion of the Commission

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)

Wanted 600 million jobs Most people joining the global workforce today will only have a few years of school with limited skills to make a living. Most will toil from dawn to dusk in harsh conditions, usually in agriculture or demanding physical labour, earning less than $1.25 per day. Some of the lucky ones with university degrees will take a job that undervalues them. This is a reality that ECOSOC and the ILO wish to change. From Global commitment to national implementation Building on its success in reviewing progress on the MDGs representatives from governments, civil society, philanthropic organizations, academia and the private sector are being engaged in the conversations, which will also examine the broader implications – for development cooperation – of a post-2015 development agenda. The post-2015 agenda will reflect new development challenges and is linked to the outcome of “Rio+20”, the conference on sustainable Development For more information www.unwomen.org and www.zonta.org

To end with the quote of Hilary Clinton: "20 years ago declaring Women's Rights as Human Rights was groundbreaking. Now it is routine."

Donations to the Zonta International Foundation help empower women to realize their full potential

See more: WWW.ZONTA.ORG

Regina Smit [email protected] Service en UN Comité Area 06 District 27 ______