NGO Committee on the Status of Women, Geneva

In her many years as the UN representative for the International Federation of University Women – IFUW (from 1994 to 2011!), former NGO CSW Geneva President Conchita Poncini has been a determined advocate for the human rights of women. Over the years, she has written dozens of statements, oral and written, submitted to the Commission on Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on the Status of Women and many other UN instances. Many of these statements have been co-signed by Committee members and submitted as joint statements.

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of her death in May 2011, “a few” of these statements have been recovered and are listed below. They all bring the many issues around women’s human rights; and many are still valid today.

• 2001-03 CHR57 Tolerance and Respect
• 2001-05 LDC3 in Brussel
• 2002-08 Sub-CHR58 Women’s Human Rights
• 2003-02 WG Right to dvt
• 2003-03 CSW47 ICT and WSIS
• 2003-04 CHR59 Women’s ESC Rights
• 2003-07 WSIS gender-caucus
• 2003-07 WSSD GHS chemical labelling
• 2005-03 CHR61 ESC Rights
• 2005-04 CHR61 Tech Advisory Services
• 2005-04 CHR61 functionning HR mechanism
• 2005-08 Sub-CHR57 Right to dvt
• 2005-08 Sub-CHR57 Women’s Human Rights
• Date?  CHR  Gender Mainstreaming and Women’s Human Rights
• 2006-06 HRC1 preparation
• 2006-09 HRC2 Women Rights
• 2006-10 HRC2 Mandates of Special Procedures
• 2006-10 HRC2 UPR
• 2006-12 HRC3 Expert Advisory body
• 2007-03 CSW52 gender approach right to peace
• 2007-06 UNECE CES Unpaid work
• 2007-09 Panel gender perspective in work of HRC
• 2007-09 HRC6 Human Rights Education & Learning
• 2007-10 HRC-Special-5 Myanmar
• 2007-12 CoNGO roundtable gender equality & gender justice
• 2008-03 HRC7 Children are our future generation
• 2008-06 HRC8 VaW
• 2008-06 ILC97
• 2008-09 Freedom of Expression and Interreligious Dialogue
• 2008-09 HRC9 Vienna Declaration
• 2008-09 HRC9 Panel Women’s Rights
• 2008-11 CSW53 Sharing family responsibilities
• 2009-03 HRC10 Economic Crisis
• 2009-03 CSW53
• 2009-04 Durban Review
• 2009-09 HRC12 Gender Perspective Integration
• 2010-02 CSW54 traditional practices
• 2010-03 HRC13 Traditional Values
• 2011-03 HRC16 Afghan Women and Girls

A joint statement on Violence against Women & Girls, “RAPE IS A CRIME” has been written by a group composed of representatives from Femmes Africa Solidarity (FAS), Inter African Committee (IAC), Women World’s Summit Foundation (WWSF) and World YWCA. This statement is to be delivered at the 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

“We, members of the NGO/CSW in Geneva, therefore call upon Governments and other stakeholders to enforce legislation to protect women, and to prevent and respond in a timely manner to cases of sexual violence including rape against women. We call for a strengthening of strategies that address gender inequalities irrespective of the circumstance or culture. We call for an end to impunity and the denial of the rights of victims. Sexual assault is not about lust and desire; it is a violent crime of power, control and dominance. We appeal to the decision makers to ensure reforms needed to protect women, ensure access to justice, end impunity and advance their rights.”

The full statement can be downloaded here.

A joint statement by the World YWMCA, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) and the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, Geneva,

“PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY AS INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE: FROM POLICY TO ACTION”

has been delivered at the Human Rights Council 18th Session during

the annual discussion on the integration of a Gender  perspective in the work of the Human Rights Council

on 26 SEPTEMBER 2011: PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA; SWITZERLAND

This statement can be downloaded here.

Committee member Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) calls to Action in support of a United Nations 5th World Conference on Women to advance this proposal to ECOSOC in July 2011 and to the General Assembly.

Target date would be 2015, 20 years after the 4WCW in Beijing.

Today, the world needs more than ever empowered, creative and committed women to help solve the many problems facing humanity and to reach the Millennium Development Goals.

Downloads : Joint Statement “Convening of a Fifth World Conference on Women”  delivered at the 55th CSW (New-York, 22 February-4 March 2011) :  English version / French version

For more information 5wcw.org

This oral joint statement was prepared in response to the report of 9 December 2010 of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (MANUA) on widespread harmful traditional practices. It was delivered during the 16th session of the Human Rights Council (28 February – 25 March 2011)

It can downloaded here

By the International Federation of University Women – 25 Febrary 2010

On the fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, it is more important than ever for Governments and Civil Society to renew their commitment to ensuring women’s enjoyment of their full human rights and gender equality.  While advances have been made in the adoption and application of international principles and norms, mainstreaming of women’s rights is far from a reality.

Human rights must be approached in a way that is meaningful and relevant in diverse cultural contexts.  Traditions and beliefs have been shaped over the years into a culture which can be traced from a power relations dominated by a patriarchal society.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was  therefore conceived and adopted within the context of universality, indivisibility, interrelatedmss and interdependence, to promote and protect all humankind without distinction or discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.  The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action reaffirms beyond question that human rights are women’s rights.

It is therefore essential that cultural relativism should not be an overarching consideration founded on traditional values, practices and cultural beliefs which continue to subordinate and discriminate against women in many parts of the world.  Violence against women throughout their lives, from girlhood to adulthood, remains widespread globally, with certain harmful traditional practices and domestic violence being perpetuated in the name of cultural relativism and national values.

In this regard we call attention to the Human Rights Council Resolution 12/21 adopted at its  12^th Session entitled “Promoting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Through a Better Understanding of Humankind.  This resolution calls for, inter alia, the convening in 2010  of a  workshop for an exchange of views on how a better understanding of traditional values of humankind underpinning international human rights norms and standards can contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, with the participation of representatives from all interested States, regional organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society, as well as experts selected with due consideration given to the appropriate representation of different civilizations and legal systems”;

We want to underscore along this line to bear in mind that a gender equal lens with a human rights education is necessary if one is to effectively analyse how the phenomenon of traditional values have evolved and developed in a changing society. It is important to trace their historical and religious origins over the centuries which have been predominantly men-led.  It is also indispensable to involve the media which has been globalised through the Internat and other forms of new technology.

Finally, in designating participants to the workshoop, women from all walks of life especially including from rural and indigenous populations must be involved in this exchange for they are often excluded in such platforms as not being “experts” when in fact they are often victims of  of harmful traditional practices because of their ignorance of their human rights.

PANEL ON WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS, 12 september 2008

Delivered by

Conchita Poncini, President, Geneva NGO Committee on the Status of Women

The Women’s and Girls’ Caucus facilitated by the three centres in Geneva, New York and Vienna of the NGO Committees on the Status of Women of CONGO, where some 50 women (and a few men) participating at the DPI Conference last week to commemorate the 60^th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights in Paris, made this summary statement:

We urge

1. that women’s rights and gender equality and discrimination be addressed, using the insistence on substantive equality ofCEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women);

2. strengthening the interconnection between human rights mechanisms and the Commission on the Status of Women;

3. expanded opportunities and financial resources to promote human rights education for women and girls;

4. that all human rights principles and instruments apply a life span perspective for women and girls;

5. increasing awareness and use of human rights complaints mechanisms and implementation of monitoring procedures

In addition, the 15 undersigned NGOs of the Geneva NGO CSW request the Council, when preparing commemorative events of the UDHR, that Eleanor Roosevelt be spot-lighted as the First Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, who led the 17-member drafting group in successfully completing the Declaration as it stands.

We fully support the statement of the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, where she asked that we look at human rights as a whole and not one right against another. This is particularly true of women and girls whose rights are violated just because they are female. We strongly endorse what she said, that no effort should be spared to “persuade countries to repeal laws and practices that continue to reduce women and girls to second-class citizens despite international standards and despite the specific commitments that have been made to throw out these laws and customs.”

Lastly, we ask for a regular impact assessment on the implementation of Resolution A/HRC/6/L32 on Integrating the human rights of women and mainstreaming a gender equality perspective throughout the United Nations system and in this respect to ask the Advisory Committee to undertake the task of evaluation including providing gender-disaggregated indicators and benchmarks that would holistically look at economic, social and cultural rights as indivisible, interdependent and interrelated with civil and political rights and to assess how women’s right to development and their empowerment over their life span are being incorporated in law and practice. We are encouraged to learn that the UNCT has established a ScorecardPerformance Indicators for Gender Equality, an accountability framework for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming by the UN Country Team’s (UNCT) and be used as model for other UN bodies and government entities.

SIGNATURES RECEIVED:

•1. INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN

•2. ZONTA INTERNATIONAL

•3. WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM

•4. WOMEN’S FEDERATION FOR WORLD PEACE INTERNATIONAL

•5. SOLAR COOKERS INTERNATIONAL

•6. FEMMES AFRICA SOLIDARITE

•7. INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR THE PREVENTION OF ELDER ABUSE

•8. INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN

•9. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF WOMEN

•10. WORLD STUDENTS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

•11. WOMEN’S WORLD SUMMIT FOUNDATION

•12. WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL ZIONIST ORGANISATION

•13. WOMEN’S ORGANIZATION WORLDWIDE

•14. FEDERATION OF AMERICAN WOMEN’S CLUBS OVERSEAS

•15. INTER-AFRICAN COMMITTEE

•16. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GERONTOLOGY AND GERIATRICS