Suite 405, Davina House

 137-149 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7ET

020 7490 4100; info@nawo.org.uk; www.nawo.org.uk

NAWO, the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations, is an umbrella group representing and supporting women’s organisations and individual members based in England.  With a focus on gender and Europe, NAWO promotes gender equality and social justice utilizing the internationally agreed human rights instruments for all women. NAWO works alongside sister organisations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as the UK Joint Committee on Women,  the United Kingdom’s national body representing the concerns and needs of women in the UK at the European Women’s Lobby.

In this, the 52nd meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, the theme, "financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women" addresses one of the core challenges facing those working for the advancement of women: the availability of sufficient resources to ensure positive sustainable change.  NAWO believes that at this juncture it is crucial to make funding and resources more readily available towards initiatives which promote women’s equality on all levels:  internationally, nationally and locally.  NAWO supports the strengthening of a single UN entity working for gender equality and women’s empowerment.  We believe that a well-resourced and funded UN women’s entity will significantly contribute to the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights, and, comprising OSAGI, DAW and UNIFEM, will provide pioneering research, programs and initiatives that support member states and women’s organisations across the globe.

In this way, the UN’s resources should be spread more equally to enhance women’s status.  To ensure this is the case, NAWO calls on the UN to undertake gender budgeting itself – that is to assess the impact of its allocation of resources on both women and men, boys and girls and to analyse the total amounts committed to women’s equality globally. NAWO also supports initiatives to promote gender responsive budgeting and of analysis by governments, thereby ensuring equality of access to public resources.

Gender budgeting requires action to be taken to encourage and promote women’s participation in budgetary debates and decision-making.  The under-representation of women within the UN and on other bodies is a reflection of continuing inequality between women and men and of women’s lower status within societies globally.

NAWO further calls on the United Nations within its own system and on Governments - in particular, European governments - to require public and private bodies to appoint qualified women at Board and other senior levels, using quotas or other specific incentives and sanctions, in order to achieve gender balance (40% minimum women, 40% minimum men and no more than 60% of either sex) thus increasing democratic decision-making.

NAWO is pleased to see that the review theme is the role of women in peace building, peace keeping, and conflict prevention and NAWO would like to draw attention to the disparity between the rhetoric of UNSCR 1325 and the reality of implementation.

Equal participation of women and men in peace building at all levels needs to be addressed urgently.  NAWO is particularly concerned that this is recognised and rectified in the areas of women in key position such as peace negotiations and peace missions.

NAWO calls on the United Nations system in and through all its bodies and agencies to assist with technical expertise in ensuring disaggregated statistics are collected to enable gender impact assessment in the area of peace building.  Information gained in this way must be made available to governments so that steps may be taken to mitigate detrimental impacts.

NAWO further calls on governments – both from north and south – to encourage girls to pursue formal education, to train both women and men so that they understand the gendered nature of conflict especially violence against women and girls, and to ensure equal numbers of women take leadership roles, with the skills necessary for negotiation and conflict resolution.

NAWO calls on States Parties, the UN and civil society to work together towards the goal of gender equality as it affords both women and men enhanced lives, increased prosperity and greater opportunities.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Statement for UN Commission on the Status of Women

2008 - 52nd Session

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), among the first group of non-governmental organizations to receive consultative status with the United Nations, has monitored every session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The 52^nd Session offers an opportunity for Member States to demonstrate their commitment to the goals of women’s empowerment, human rights and gender equality, goals WILPF has continually worked towards since its inception in 1915 as part of its ongoing work to prevent armed conflict and to establish the conditions for sustainable peace on a global scale.

WILPF recognizes the many commitments expressed by Member States and applauds the concrete achievements by governments and the UN system towards realizing equality between women and men as outlined in the preamble of the Charter. Unfortunately a significant gap between policy and practice still remains. We look forward to the Commission addressing the persistent gaps in implementing policy commitments, particularly to the role played by the failure to allocate adequate human and economic resources to implementation of gender equality goals.

WILPF looks forward to Member State’s evaluation of their prior commitments on “Women’s equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peacebuilding.” While laudable work is being undertaken, particularly through efforts to implement Resolution 1325, much remains to be done. Women remain excluded from or marginalized in decision-making on the full spectrum of security issues, within peace processes and within the UN system itself.

In the work of the Peacebuilding Commission, it is unclear whether commitments to include women in peacebuilding have made a practical difference on the ground. While there is a lack of demonstrated political will to ensure women’s participation, more tangible still is the poor commitment of resources to these issues. This despite agreement in the 48^th Session to “continue to make resources available nationally and internationally for prevention of conflict and ensure women’s participation in the elaboration and implementation of strategies for preventing conflict.”

WILPF thus welcomes the Commission’s consideration of the important theme of Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. In developing policy in this area, it is critical that clear and strong connections be drawn between this and the realization of all other commitments to development and gender equality made by the Commission and Member States; including commitments to women’s full and equal participation. It is not simply that women have the right to participate as equals. It is also that without women’s participation and empowerment and without gender equality, sustainable peace, sustainable development and true human security are unattainable.

As then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan articulated:

“study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women …. And I would also venture that no policy is more important in preventing conflict, or in achieving reconciliation after a conflict has ended.”[1]

WILPF welcomed the recognition of the links between participation, equality and development in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document. In particular WILPF welcomed the recognition that the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and outcome of the 23^rd Special Session of the General Assembly “is an essential contribution to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration.” This contribution is not possible without resources and gender-centered financing policy. The failure to finance gender equality is the failure to finance development and human security.

The consideration of Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment requires providing direct, sustained and increased financial and human resources to discrete budget lines, and support to women’s groups and organizations. It is, however, critical also to look beyond this level and type of support. Financing for Gender Equality is not just about adding more resources to existing efforts. It is also about how resources are spent by government in the economy as a whole. WILPF welcomes the work done by some governments to engage in gender responsive budgeting and calls on all governments to do so and to enhance these efforts. This involves not only analyzing the differential impact of government spending on men and women but also offers a means to critically reflect on government spending priorities and to prioritize human security and gender equality.

WILPF finds it unacceptable that despite the many commitments made to gender equality and women’s empowerment the figures tell a different story:

-         Women make up 70 percent of the world’s poor and 67% of the world’s illiterate. They own just one per cent of assets worldwide;[2]

-         According to a 1995 UNDP study, more than two-thirds of the world’s unpaid work is done by women – the equivalent of $11 trillion (approximately half of the world’s GDP);

-         Out of $69 billion of overseas development assistance in 2003, only $2.5 billion or 3.6% was earmarked for gender equality as a significant or principal objective.[3] Yet, in the three year period from 2002 to 2004, US military aid to Israel alone totaled over $9 billion with another $6 billion to Egypt and $4 billion to Pakistan;[4]

-         Of $20 billion in bilateral aid in 2001-2005, an OECD DAC study reports only $5 billion was allocated to projects promoting gender equality; the cost of approximately 2 weeks of the occupation of Iraq;[5]

-         The combined budgets of the UN women’s entities is only $65 million[6] only 0.005% of world military expenditure of $1204 billion in 2006;[7]

-         The entire budget of the only operational women’s entity – UNIFEM – in 2006 was only $57 million, only 2 % of the $2.34 billion budget of UNICEF for the same period;[8]

-         The World Bank estimates the cost of interventions to promote gender equality under MDG 3 is $7-13 per capita. The world’s military expenditure in 2006 amounted to $184 per capita.[9]

What is clear is that in scales that matter, commitments to gender equality are not yet real. No amount of policy will make a difference unless: gender equality is seen as a critical part of public finance management; is factored into macroeconomic policy and development financing; and is seen as more important than weapons.

WILPF calls on Member States:

-         To invest in human security, equality and sustainable peace and to end the prioritization of war and military spending and the impunity enjoyed by war and weapons profiteers.[10]

-         To strengthen the development and human rights work of the United Nations by strengthening and better resourcing its gender equality architecture as a critical aspect of financing for gender equality.

-         To include women as senior decision makers in economic and trade policy including through ensuring their input in the decision making of supra-national institutions such as the World Trade Organization and Bretton Woods Institutions. WILPF calls on Member States to provide mechanisms by which women are guaranteed an opportunity to input into the decision-making processes of these institutions at a local level and that these take account of the needs of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

-         To pressure the Security Council to implement Article 26 of the United Nations Charter, which charges it with formulating a system to regulate armaments and reduce military expenditures, in order to promote international peace and security and free up human and economic resources for development.

-         To participate in the UN Register of Conventional Arms in order to enhance transparency of international arms transfers, procurement through national production, holdings, and relevant policies, and in the UN Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures to enhance transparency of spending on military personnel, operations, maintenance, procurement, construction, research, and development.

WILPF looks forward to the development of policy during this 52^nd CSW that will ensure a gender-perspective in the 2008 follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development in Qatar and the follow-up to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in Ghana.

As a 92-year old organization, WILPF continues to work toward collective human security and sustainable peace and away from militarism and economic violence, in collaboration with civil society, governmental and international actors, including within the UN system. We look forward to working with others from around the world to dismantle the prevailing culture of militarism and create a culture of peace in which gender inequality, racism and discrimination, economic injustice, violence and oppression are absent and in which women are full and equal participants.

[1] Empowerment of women the most effective development tool, Secretary-General tells Commission on the Status of Women, UN Press Release SG/SM/9738, WOM/1489, 28 Feb 2005

      [2] UNIFEM, World Poverty Day 2007, Investing in Women –  

        Solving the Poverty Puzzle (2007)

[3] Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers’ Meeting: Policy Brief, (2007) at 9

[4] Collateral Damage, The Center for Public Integrity, (2007) http://www.publicintegrity.org/militaryaid/regions.aspx

[5] Congressional Research Service, Report for US Congress, The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan and other Global War on Terror Operations since 9/11, (2007), RL33110

      [6] Resource Guide for Gender Theme Groups, Jan. 2005.

[7] SIPRI, Recent Trends in Military Expenditure, http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_trends.html

[8] UNIFEM UNICEF Annual Reports 2006

[9] SIPRI, Recent Trends in Military Expenditure, http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_trends.html

[10] 1995 UNDP

Women's International League for Peace & Freedom - WILPF

http://www.wilpf.int.ch/index.htm

WILPF PeaceWomen

http://www.peacewomen.org/wpsindex.html

WIDOWS FOR PEACE THROUGH DEMOCRACY (WPD)

STATEMENT BY WPD TO THE 52^nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women 25^th February- 7^th March, 2008

With reference to the main theme: Financing Gender Equality in Development Policies

And the sub-theme: Women and Armed Conflict (reviewing the agreed conclusions of the 43^rd CSW of 1988)

­­­­­­­­ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________­­­­___________

Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD), based in London, is the lead international organisation focusing specifically on the status of widows and wives of the “disappeared” in conflict-afflicted countries. It also addresses the situation of widows in all developing countries where they face discrimination, abuse, violence, poverty and marginalisation as a result of their personal status, lack of legal protection or access to the justice system.

A Fringe Meeting on Widows: Needs and Roles in Conflict and Post-Conflict Scenarios will take place during the 52^nd CSW. All those interested in this area of gender equality are welcome to participate.

WPD is the umbrella organisation for some 20 widows’ groups in developing countries, including several afflicted by wars. It encourages the formation of federations of widows’ groups wherever widowhood is a stigma and a “social death”. In 2005, it promoted the established of the first regional caucus of widows’ groups for South Asia: SANWED (South Asian Network for Widows’ Empowerment in Development), which brings together those representing widows of the six countries of the region, facilitating the exchange of experience and best practice on securing law reform, eliminating violence and harmful traditional practices, and ensuring widows’ enjoy the rights enshrined in international and domestic law. It has produced a “Widows’ Charter”, based on the CEDAW, for adaptation by widows’ NGOs and activists lobbying for law reforms. As a member of GAPS UK (Gender Action on Peace and Security), it promotes the inclusion of widows’ representatives in peace-building activities and documents the impact of conflict on their lives, in accordance with the requirements of UN SCR 1325.

A Neglected Gender Issue

Widowhood is one of the most neglected and hidden of all gender issues. Given the ever increasing numbers of widows in war-affected regions, their vulnerability to violence (within and outside the family)h and their crucial social and economic roles in peace-building, reconstruction, the UN and the international community now needs urgently to prioritise the complex issues of widowhood across the whole spectrum of development policies.

 Development policies tend to assume that “women” are a homogenous whole, thus diverting attention to some of the most vulnerable groups of women - such as widows. These women have very specific needs but they are never mentioned in any of the 12 action areas of the Beijing Platform for Action, nor in the Outcome Document of Bejing+5, in spite of their extreme poverty and their exploitation and oppression as the result of discriminatory interpretations of religion and custom. Law reforms, to comply with international standards such as the CEDAW have failed to bring justice to widows due to the dominance of traditional codes over modern laws in areas of personal status land and inheritance and rights. “Chasing-off” and “property-grabbing” are common features of widowhood across regions, cultures, class and caste. Harmful traditional practices relating to mourning and burial rites, some of which can be life-threatening and degrading to widows have received very little attention.

Huge Increase in Numbers of Widows

Today, the numbers of widows, of all ages, has increased to unprecedented figures due to armed conflict and ethnic cleansing. Although reliable statistics are rare it is estimated that in several countries, for example, such as Iraq, DRC, Sudan, Afghanistan, Burundi, Rwanda, every 3^rd family is widow-headed. NGOs’ reports suggest that in Iraq, parts of DRC and in Darfur, over 40% of all adult women are in this category and over 50% of children are dependent on their impoverished widowed mothers for their survival. War widows have also been victims of rape and forced pregnancy. In Rwanda many were deliberately infected with the HIV virus.

The stigma of widowhood and its poverty impacts most disastrously and irrevocably on their children – withdrawn from education, in exploited child labour, begging on the streets, or sold into early marriage, to traffickers for prostitution,

Why is Financing of Gender Equality in Development relevant to Widowhood issues?

To effectively address Gender Equality the UN international agencies and governments must focus their attention on the status of widows whose numbers have so dramatically increased in many countries.

·        Widows are the poorest of the poor in many developing countries, especially in South Asia and Africa.

·        Widows do not know their rights under new laws on, for example, inheritance and land rights, and face barriers to accessing the justice system.

·        The international community must support training and information on widows’ rights for judiciaries, lawyers, police and community leaders.

·        Law reforms must include special provisions on the rights of widows.

·        Coping strategies to survive poverty are life-threatening but also affect the whole of society.

·        Daughters of widows are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, sale, forced prostitution and early child marriage. Poverty bans them from education and therefore future employment.

·        Widows are not exclusively “victims” of discriminatory attitudes and practices, they are key players in development

·        Policies should include financial and other support directed to widows’ organisations in developing countries so as to strengthen their capacity and effectiveness in documenting their experiences; filling the gaps in data collection; articulating their needs and promoting acknowledgement of their roles.

·        Addressing issues of widowhood is essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): in particular, the goals of reducing poverty; gender equality; school enrolment; limiting the spread of the AIDS virus.

Statement by the Board of Directors of
the Global Fund for Women

END SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/cms/campaigns/congo/board-statement.html

December 10 2007, International Human Rights Day

The Board of Directors of the Global Fund for Women, a diverse group of leaders from many nations, including Afghanistan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, the Philippines, Ukraine, and the United States, is deeply concerned about the brutal epidemic of rape and sexual aggression currently being used as a tool of war against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Global Fund for Women sees this as an ongoing crime against humanity and we stand in solidarity with other human rights organizations as we call for an end to the violence and immediate action by the international community.

As Africa's third most populous country and the key supplier of strategic minerals to much of the industrialized world, the well-being of Congolese people should be of concern globally. Instead, the world has stood by as four million people have died due to war and starvation over the last 10 years. Almost half a million women have been raped and tortured and now are rejected by their communities. Wars and conflict adversely affect all people, but disproportionately hurt women and children. They are most likely to suffer physical harm, including sexual violence, as a consequence of military action. They are also the most likely to become refugees as they flee from weapons that mutilate, maim and kill. An estimated 3 million have already been displaced in conflicts in Congo.

Remarkably, as they did in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, it is women themselves who are taking the lead in transforming this unacceptable state of affairs. Civil society organizations led by women are building local peace committees and unmasking the flow of weapons into their communities. They are brave and determined, but they need our support.

As leaders of an international women's fund that supports women and children in over 160 countries, we make the following demands:

1. We demand an end to impunity for the perpetrators of this crime.
2. We demand that the international community exercise its leadership by ending the flow of arms coming from the United States, Russia, and France into Congo and Central Africa.
3. We demand the United Nations be true to its mandate to protect Congolese populations currently under threat by armed groups.
4. We demand that the Congolese government be held to the highest standards of accountability with regard to ensuring the safety of all its citizens, particularly women and children.