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by Christine Mangale
There was only one session on care giving at the recent International AIDS conference, but I could tell that this was an issue that needs much more attention.
Women and girls comprise nearly 90% of care providers globally especially in rural areas. Women are not just caring for family members, some are trained in home-based care and work in their communities as full-time volunteers because there are no formal health care services available. And yet, this is rarely recognized and only propels the cycle of poverty. The experts at the session seemed to conclude that this current situation is seen as tolerable since women are the ones going through this. A question that summed up the session was: “If it was men who are mostly involved in home-based care, wouldn’t a solution already have been found?
The value of time, energy and resources required to perform this unpaid work is rarely recognized. In the African context, this traditional practice is overly exploited, and caregivers that work full time as volunteers to countless patients may only receive a meal for their labor, while just like everyone else, they need money to support their families, especially pay for their children’s school fees. Why can’t some of the billions currently poured towards the AIDS response be targeted towards women who dedicate all their lives taking care of the sick? To care for the sick, girls are dropping out of school and women are suffering in silence. We must advocate for solutions to this care giving crisis, such as community financing systems. This is key to restoring the dignity of these women.
This conference, sponsored by two Ecumenical Women members, the United Methodist Women’s Division and the National Council of Churches will be an opportunity for faith based leaders to explore best practices and new approaches for working together to end human trafficking. It will be held in New York at the Church Center for the UN from Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
Check out the registration form:
The Division for the Advancement of Women has very recently posted a description of the communications procedure of the Commission on the Status of Women on the website of the Division for the Advancement of Women. Hopefully, this will make the Commission on the Status of Women a more accessible procedure to use for individuals and organizations that are engaged in advocacy work on women’s human rights and gender equality issues. The new communication procedure is LINKED HERE.
You are invited to participate in the online discussion on Women and men: equal sharing of responsibilities organized by the Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations, which will run from 7 July to 1 August 2008.
To register, please click here.
You are encouraged to register before 3 July 2008.
You will receive an email with your username and password before the start of the online discussion.
The online discussion will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the issue of equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS, and to identify good practices and strategies required to accelerate gender equality in this regard. The discussion is part of the preparatory process for the 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2009. It will provide background information for an Expert Group Meeting organized by the Division for the Advancement of Women on this theme.
On June 19, the U.S. used its presidency of the Security Council in June to host a thematic debate on “women, peace and security: sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chaired the debate and read the following presidential statement. Secretary Rice was not the only woman seated around the table, seven others joined her representing their countries, including the Minister of Gender of Liberia, the Baroness of Scotland and the Ambassador of South Africa.
When I, along with the members of the women leaders working group, first began looking at this issue, we realized that in the 60 years of UN peacekeeping, only seven women had held the post of Special Representative to the Secretary General. You immediately took the lead in helping to address that, Mr. Secretary General. And today, Margrethe Loi of Denmark is now the Special Representative in Liberia. We applaud you for your commitment and we look forward to working with you on this critical issue.
I also want to commend all of you here today, my fellow Council members, and I want to thank a number who have traveled from very far to show their dedication to this important issue of ending the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as instruments of warfare. Rape is a crime that can never be condoned, yet women and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence. As many of you know, for years, there’s been a debate about whether or not sexual violence against women is a security issue for this forum to address.
The US is expected to introduce a new resolution that builds on the achievements of resolution 1325, focusing on sexual violence. Some speculate that this resolution was inspired by the new documentary, “The Greatest Silence” about rape in the Congo by HBO. The U.S. hosted a showing of the documentary at the UN earlier in the month.
As a precursor to this debate, on May 15, 2008, the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing, “U.N. Security Resolution 1325: Recognizing Women’s Vital Roles in Achieving Peace and Security.” The purpose of the hearing was to inform the House’s debate on House Resolution 146, which calls for US compliance to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and highlights women’s contributions to peace building and security. Read some of the hearing testimony.
Below is the European Union response to the CSW agreed conclusions. It is good that some form of disappointment has been placed on the record. I recommend reading it as they explain their position and stick up for the big picture that was once again lost in politicking… we will keep our ears open here for further implications.
EU Statement on the Agreed Conclusions: Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. 52nd session of CSW - UN Commission on the Status of Women
Mr. Chairman,
I am taking the floor in order to explain the basis upon which the European Union has been able to join consensus today on the Agreed Conclusions entitled “Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women”.
The European Union attaches great importance to accelerated achievement of the goal of gender equality and the empowerment of women. We believe that availability of necessary human and financial resources for the empowerment of women and the commitment for adequate funding identified and mobilized from all sources and across all sectors to achieve the goals of gender equality and the empowerment of women have to be made and fully met. The European Union also believes that remaining obstacles and challenges need to be exceeded effectively and in a holistic manner and therefore also through reinforcing national efforts to promote gender equality and women’s rights in reaching the goals and objectives of gender equality and empowerment of women, laid down in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Beijing follow-up process.
The Priority Theme of 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women “Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women” has, in the view of the European Union, not been aptly addressed. Read the rest of this entry »
After staying up until 4 am negotiating last Friday, the member states have finally presented us with the CSW Agreed Conclusions. This document serves as the outcome on the theme of Financing for Gender Equality and has important implications for the review of the financing for development meetings later this year.
Check back later for analysis from Ecumenical Women. In the mean time, please provide your feedback on the recent experience at CSW by taking this very brief survey. Ecumenical Women look forward to your recommendations and input to improve our effectiveness at next year’s CSW!
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 4 (IPS) - When women activists lash out against gender discrimination, one of their longstanding complaints is also directed at the U.N. Secretariat, where senior level posts are still largely a virtual monopoly of men. Despite a 1997 General Assembly resolution calling for 50:50 gender parity in decision-making jobs by 2000, the elusive goal is long past that deadline. A coalition of some 600 women’s groups and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) is now complaining that the pervasive gender discrimination in the U.N. system may also be responsible for the lack of an executive director at a key body dealing with women’s issues: the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
Since its former executive director Noeleen Heyzer was appointed executive secretary of the Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifi c (ESCAP) last September, UNIFEM has remained headless, but functions under an acting executive director, Joanne Sandler. ”We need an appointment now”, says Ana Agostino, coordinator of the Feminist Task Force of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), who points out that the six-month-long delay is unacceptable. She said that women’s groups were expecting an announcement during the current two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which concludes Friday. But there are no indications it will happen.
For the second day in a row, NGOs have been excluded from observing government negotiations on the Agreed Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women. Over 2,000 NGOs have come to New York from around the world to participate in the meeting.
This is a terrible precedent for the Commission, which would not exist in its current form, if not for years of women’s movement and advocacy at the UN. Countless UN agreements provide guiding principles for NGOs and governments to work together, such as the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, the Beijing Platform for action and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination on Women.
In 2000 governments came together and created the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015 — but they made a major mistake doing it behind closed doors. It took until 2003 for civil society to join the campaign, and valuable time was lost.
Governments cannot achieve gender equality alone. As the ones implementing gender equality on the ground, NGOs should be considered experts and allies. The CSW is not the Security Council, this is a team effort, and if governments send a message of exclusion to civil society, their most valuable resource, the entire world will suffer.
NGOs have presented a letter to the bureau of the commission requesting that they be able to observe the meeting, and restating that they will follow observer protocols. But NGOs must keep the pressure on and get the word out about what is happening. Click here to download NGO letter to bureau chair
A Study of The Kingdom of God within the “Monterrey Consensus” framework
….for the sake of all persons male, female, black, white, young, old, rich, poor,
There is a heart within those of us who yet believe in the coming of the Kingdom of God which will not rest. ”
(adapted from Augustine, 300 AD)
This study is born from that unrest. It analyzes the six themes of the Monterrey consensus. It can be used as a discussion guide for groups to analyze the concept of the Kingdom of God or the Monterrey consensus.
An excerpt:
One look at the world as we see it today with its vast inequities of privilege, power, ease of life, and economics, and we know something is vastly wrong. When we understand that women bear the disproportional burden of our erroring ways, the problem is thicker. And when we realize that women of color and indigenous women are excessively loaded with troubling powerful inequity, we must cry out. “This is just wrong.”
As the bearers of children, women have always needed the protection of community. Except for perhaps small pockets of the world, we can not escape this fact. And yet, more and more, around the world, with the direction our economy is taking us, women’s only hope of survival is to be used as a cog in a “liberalized, non-regulated economy”. And the problem? The value system of that economy has little consideration for the unique needs and the multiple responsibilities placed upon women. To see so many suffering at such extraordinary levels is unacceptable in God’s Kingdom and should be unacceptable in any ethical system of governance.
Download to read more….
A Study of The Kingdom of God within the “Monterrey Consensus” framework
De 25 de febrero a 7 de marzo reúne-se en la ONU, la 52a. Sesión de la Comisión de la Condición Jurídica y Social de las Mujeres bajo el tema principal “Financiación en el Desarrollo para la Igualdad de Genero y empoderamiento de las Mujeres”. La coalición Mujeres Ecuménicas, en la cual Sabiduría y Testimonio, participa como integrante de la Federación Mundial de Mujeres Metodistas y de las Iglesias Unidas, lanza su website y presenta a la Comisión de la ONU su posición en el tema, desde la perspectiva teológica de justicia e igualdad
Ecumenical Women: la justicia para los pobres y la preocupación
Aqui, la versión en portugués del COMUNICADO A IMPRENSA, emitido por las Mujeres Ecuménicas. En archivo, el documento en español de las Mujeres Ecuménicas entregue a la Comisión de la ONU.
Para quien quiere contribuir en el blog en ingles, siga los pasos ugeridos en el link Subscribe to feed.
Para quien quiere contribuir en español, envíe su blog para roliveir@gbgm-umc.org , que el será revisado y enviado a la moderadora del blog.
–Rosangela Oliveira
Sabiduría y Testimonio
