Millenium Development + 5 Summit
Women's major group statement Millenium Development +5 Summit WECF endorses and contributes to the women's statement
16.06.2005 |Sascha Gabizon
ENDORSED TEXT
We, The Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), United Methodist UN Office, Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) are writing to seek your endorsement of the attached document to advance women's rights and gender equality in the Outcome Document for the Millennium + 5 Summit.
We have reviewed the draft Outcome Document released by the General Assembly President on June 3, 2005 in light of the gender-related amendments we initially proposed.
The GA draft Outcome Document now includes some of our earlier suggestions on gender equality and women's rights in the preamble (para 9); reference to the ICPD goal on Reproductive health and the strengthening of health systems (para 19), gender mainstreaming (para 21), the role of women in peace and security (para 37), and gender balance and gender mainstreaming in the UN system (para 96). However, references to reproductive health services have been dropped (access to reproductive “health” remains in the draft), reproductive rights, and land and inheritance rights are not included (para 20). There are still many areas that need to be strengthened.
In the attached document, we focus on the specific sections related to gender equality and women's rights. There are many other aspects of the Outcome Document, which we addressed earlier and will continue to promote. We will use this shorter and more focused set of recommendations during this next phase of the negotiations beginning on June21 and during the civil society hearings June 23-24.
We would very much like to have a strong list of endorsing organizations that reflects geographical and thematic diversity. Please respond to MS5signon@beijingbeyond.org by June 17, 2005 if you would like to endorse this gender-focused document. (Please list name, title and organization). We will post a list of endorsers on our websites.
We hope this is useful for your own discussions with governments in capital. And please let us know how your discussions with governments proceed!
Download the following documents:
WECF comments on the draft statement (104 KB)
Proposed Language Amendments on the Draft Outcome Document for theMillennium +5 Summit, 14-16 September 2005 (84 KB, pdf)
The statement was developed by the following organisations:
Center for Women’s Global Leadership
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
United Methodist UN Office
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
