Trade union delegation to the 54th UN CSW's blog

Online discussion on the Commission of Women

In preparation for the fifty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women is organizing an online discussion on the linkages between women’s and girls' access to and participation in formal and non-formal education and training, and their equal access to full employment and decent work. The discussion will contribute to the findings and recommendations presented to the Commission on the Status of Women.

A podcast featuring experts discussing the theme will launch the online discussion. It will be available here and on UN Radio from 7 July at 10 a.m. (New York time).

Videos from Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF-FCE)

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Statement by WIDE, co-signed by ITUC, PSI, EI

Final Statement Concerning Beijing +15 process Review at Commission on the Status of Women New York, March 4th, 2010

The Fourth World Conference on Women produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), a comprehensive women’s human rights paradigm that envisioned the transformation of power relations. This was a global vision of social justice, equality, development and peace. Fifteen years later, the BPfA would seem to be considered by governments as technical instrument, and its substance has been depoliticised and diluted. The key implementation strategy of gender mainstreaming has lost its critical perspective and transformative purpose in terms of power relations and inequalities.

Women’s organizations have been the driving force behind the Beijing process. We note the Secretary
General’s repeated emphasis on the importance of civil society to the work of the UN, particularly in
relation to the achievement of women’s rights. As representatives of such organizations we are deeply
concerned that the spaces for influencing decision making by women’s organizations at the Beijing+15

Review have been significantly reduced. This is manifested by:

• The Declaration on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women having been agreed ahead of time and adopted without consultations with civil society.
• The absence of information on opportunities for civil society to influence the conduct and outcome of the CSW meetings and the Declaration.
• Poor logistics and facilities that have prevented women from participating effectively.

The presence of such a huge gathering of women has been used instrumentally to legitimise an empty Declaration. This is another example of the reduction of the space for critical engagement between governments and civil society.

The 54th Session of CSW was intended to be the opportunity to review progress and promote the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. However, in its failure to strongly reaffirm and commit to renewed and concrete actions and resources to implement the BPfA, the Declaration represents a backward step.

The Declaration appears to overstate the progress made, and to ignore the slow and partial nature of implementation. It underestimates the degree and types of challenges that remain for women in their multiple identities, including the persistence of all forms of violence against women. It fails to take into account changes in the global and local contexts. The current context of multiple crises--such as the food, energy, climate change, care, economic and financial crises-- new forms of insecurity, new aid modalities, internationalization of conflicts, perpetuation of the feminization of poverty and the ongoing struggle around women’s health issues, including Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV/AIDS, have created challenges not present 15 years ago.

For this reason, we call upon the Secretary General, the Chairperson of the CSW and Member States to take all opportunities associated with the forthcoming global negotiations in relation to Special High Level Meeting of ECOSOC with the Bretton Woods Institutions, World Trade Organization and the UNCTAD andthe 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit in order to recover the transformative nature of the BPfA by:

• Reaffirming the BPfA both as a comprehensive, critical and human rights framework that requires full implementation as a matter of urgency and as integral to and a prerequisite for the implementation of the MDGs.

• Ensuring that civil society, including women’s organizations, is able to participate meaningfully and that young women are empowered to become future leaders of these processes.

• Committing to an accountability framework for the BPfA with concrete benchmarks and timetables.

• Ensuring adequate funding for gender equality policies, programmes and institutional mechanisms and for women’s rights organizations through the implementation, among others, of the 2008 Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, which has strong and concrete commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

• Protecting the policy space of countries so that they will have the flexibility to determine their development pathways consistently with universal women's rights and global commitments.

• Creating in 2010 a strong, well-resourced UN Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Entity with strong operational capacity and ability to hold the UN to account as well as strong mechanisms for meaningful civil society participation as supported and articulated by the GEAR (Gender Entity Architecture Reform) campaign.

Signatures:

(Please sign on before Tuesday, 09th March 2010) Correspondence to: 15beijing2010@gmail.com

Organizations: WIDE Network, Banúlacht- Ireland, AWID, Campana “Muevete por la Igualdad”,
Coordinadora ONGD-Spain, One World Action- UK, Kulu- Denmark, Wo=Men- Netherlands, Feminist
Task Force of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, ENLACE, IFOR Women Peacemakers
Program, DAWN, Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Siglo XXIII/SERR, Mujeres
en Zona de Conflicto-Spain; African Women`s Development and Communication Network/FEMNET;
Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana, NETRIGHT; REPEM (Red de Educación Popular Entre
Mujeres de America Latina y el Caribe); Red de Salud de las Mujeres latinoamericanas y del Caribe,
RSMLAC; Red Mujer y Habitat Latinoamerica; Red de Mujeres Afrocaribeñas, Afrolatinoamericanas
y de la Diáspora; Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad (Mexico); Red Nacional de
Mujeres, Colombia; Foro de Mujeres y Políticas de Población (México); Confluencia de redes de
Mujeres, Colombia; Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres, Colombia; Equidad de Género:
Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia A.C. (México); DDESER/ Red por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos
en México ((México); GIRE, Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida, México; Centro de
Estudios para la Accion Femenina (Republica Dominicana); Feministas en Marcha (Puert o Rico);
Geledés - Instituto da Mulher Negra (Brasil); Articulação de ONGs de Mulheres Negras
Brasileiras (Brasil); Mujeres Sonorenses en Acción MUSA (México); Milenio Feminista
(México); Programa Feminista Centroamericano la Corriente (Nicaragua); Red de
Observatorios de Violencia Social y de Género (México); Red de Observatorios de Violencia
Social y de Género (México); Espacio Espiral, Promoción Cultural, Desarrollo Sustentable y
Equidad AC (México); Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud (México); Forum de Política
Feminista –Spain; PPIINA (Plataforma por Permisos Iguales e INtransferibles de Nacimiento y
Adopción).- Spain, PLENT (Platform for Equal & Non-Transferable Parental Leave) – Europe; Le
Monde Selon les Femmes- Belgique; Teamsters Canada; Syndicat canadien des communications,
energie et du papier (SCEP); Public Service Alliance of Canada; Canadian Teachers' Federation;
Canadian Union of Public Employees; Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec – FIQ;
L’Alliance canadienne féministe pour l’action internationale (AFAI), Alberta Federation of Labour
(AFL); Autonomous Women's Center, Belgrade; NWCI; MATCH International; Canadian Federation of
University Women (CFUW); Canadian Federation of University Women; Confrontations, Utopia;
Human Rights in Democracy Centre (HRDC), Albania; Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND);La
Diaspora Solidaria (Latinoamerican women in Europe's fund); Udruzenje''Zenski razvojni
centar''/Association''Women's development center'; WomanAction; NGO Women`s Safe house
Podgorica, Montenegro; Feminist Legal Studies, Queen's University (Canada); ALTERO-Association for
personal training, education, development and empowerment, Serbia; Centro de la Mujer Peruana
Flora Tristán; HOPE Pakistan; OXFAM International; GADN – UK Gender and Development Network;
ITUC – International Trade Union Confederation; Public Services International – PSI; Educational
International – EI, The National Council of Women of Canada; FinnWID - Finnish Women in
Development; Feminist Think Tank, Poland; Red Latinoamericana de Católicas por el Derecho a
Decidir (RLACDD); TIYE International; K.U.L.U. – WIDE Danish Platform; Le Monde selon les femmes ;
Canadian Labour Congress - Congres du travail du Canada; Forum de Política Feminista ; PLENT
(Platform for Equal & Non Transferable Parental Leave) ; Articulación de Mujeres Brasileras ;
Corporación Humanas – Colombia ; Fundac – Colombia ; REPEM – Colombia ; Limpal – Colombia ;
Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir – Colombia ; CIASE – Corporacion de Investigacion y Accion Social y
Economica ;
Individuals: Ilse Lenz, Germany; Cindi Foreman; Brita Neuhold WIDE Austria, Mandy Macdonald,
Scotland, Monica Sonia – Romania; Prof. Dr. Christa Randzio-Plath, VENRO/Marie-Schlei-Verein,Germany;

Download Statement

Statement by Jan Eastman at the Plenary Session

March 10, 2010

Statement delivered by
Jan Eastman, EI Deputy General Secretary
at the Plenary Session on behalf of
Public Services International (PSI), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Education International (EI)

Chairperson, Delegates, Colleagues:

I am pleased to make this statement on behalf of Public Services International (PSI), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Education International (EI), speaking for more than 200 million members from across the globe.

This 54th Session is a critical gathering of the Commission on the Status of Women – marking Beijing +15. It is a time and a forum for us to reflect upon the 12 areas of the Platform, assess gains made, but more importantly, assess what should be done by Governments in partnership with unions and civil society to advance women and girls, and achieve real equality between women and men.

The trade union movement and civil society have been central to the advancement of women’s rights. 

Today, I express our dismay and disillusionment with the process. At this landmark Session, it should be a priority to seek the input of trade unions and civil society. Instead, we have experienced insurmountable problems of access and engagement.

And we have been silenced. 

The Outcome document of this Commission, a political declaration, was a foregone conclusion – negotiated and agreed to before the meetings of the CSW even began. This does not move us forward in either content or process.

And despite the emphasis that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon persistently puts on the importance of the work of civil society in advancing women’s rights, it has not been easy to engage, or to negotiate.

At this time of multiple global crises, it is essential that all voices are included in decision-making, and that Member States have the opportunity and do consider the very legitimate issues brought forward by civil society and trade unions. 

We know the reality of our members and we know the struggles of women, in the workplace, in the home, and in society: to gain access to decent work and quality public services, especially in health and education; to enjoy clean water and reliable energy; to participate in decision-making; to be leaders, and to be represented in all occupations.
Too many working women are to be found in precarious employment, with low pay, and limited access to social protection. Unpaid care work is a major contributing factor to gender inequality and women’s poverty. Pay inequity remains a persistent problem – even in Nordic countries the pay gap remains at 12%, and in some countries it can be upwards of 50%.  

Recommendations:

• We call on the United Nations and governments to invest in social infrastructure – in public health and social care – not only to mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis, but to place countries on a path to sustainable, gender-sensitive development.

• Of paramount importance in this regard must be the implementation of the ILO’s Global Jobs Pact and the ILO Resolution on Gender Equality at the Heart of Decent Work.

• We call on the United Nations and governments to invest in public education, to make it both a cornerstone of economic recovery and a means of advancing women and girls.

• We welcome the resolutions put forward by governments, especially that on the economic empowerment of women. In this regard, we advocate strongly for:

• Including gender perspectives in social and economic policies;
• Actively promoting women’s economic empowerment through education and other means;
• Providing access to decent work, full employment and social security;
• Redressing workplace discrimination and inequalities;
• Implementing equal pay for work of equal value (pay equity).

• We call on the United Nations and on governments to make social dialogue a reality, and we respectfully submit that what has been taking place at this year’s CSW has NOT been a dialogue.

• As the United Nations moves ahead with Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR), civil society and trade unions must be a legitimate part of the decision-making process.

We unions offer and have the capacity to provide expertise in many of the 12 areas of Beijing+15, particularly in women in the global economy, education and training. In this regard, and given its priority focus on access and participation of women and girls to education and training, science and technology, including the promotion of women’s access to full employment and decent work, our involvement in the preparations for next year’s session of the Commission, and our active participation are of particular importance.

We stand here as members of civil society. Promoting respect and equality for all people is our mandate. The United Nations must be OUR United Nations too. 

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Life and Death in the Garment Industry

Being in New York City for this International Women’s Day, for this impressive and inspiring gathering of global womens’ rights activists, my thoughts are with the women of the garment industry and their special connection to this important day.

I think of March 8, 1857 when women garment workers protested here against inhumane working conditions and low wages and were beaten down by police – their courage to push for change. But mostly I think of the 146 women, some just children really, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants, who died March 25th, 1911 during the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire – outrage at these deaths became a rallying point for women workers’ rights activists and spurred on organizing efforts in the garment industry and the development of labor legislation in the US. The death of those women – locked into their workplace to keep them at their sewing machines and to keep out union organizers - has remained a vivid symbol to the labor movement and on International Women’s Day.

Sisters, it is with great sadness in my heart that I must report that the reality on the ground for garment workers today – more than 100 years later --  is shockingly the same:

last Thursday, as many of us were making our way here to CSW54, a fire swept through the Garib & Garib sweater factory in Bangladesh, a workplace producing clothes for a range of international companies, and left 21 dead – 16 of them women.

While the information is still coming in it seems that this preventable tragedy has the hallmarks of earlier garment factory fires – the fire seems to have been caused by an electrical problem, spread from the first floor throughout the seven-story building, trapping workers inside. It appears, from witness statement and press reports, that the emergency exits were blocked, the front gate was locked and fire extinguishing equipment was either missing or inappropriate. According to one survivor, rescue efforts were further hampered by the fact that firemen had to cut the window grills to get into the building to rescue trapped workers. No one on the scene could tell firefighters how many workers were in the factory at the time. Not only was this fire preventable, but it was predictable and therefore in no way can we call it an accident.

“We should be proud but not complacent” about the gains made for women 15 years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, earlier this week during the UN’s official commemoration of International Women’s Day.

Indeed,  the Garib & Garib factory fire is a stark reminder of how much more still needs to be done to ensure that all working women have a safe workplace and that support for Decent Work is acted upon at all levels. In the garment industry brands and retailers still need to take responsibility to ensure international labor standards are implemented in their supply chains and governments and labor inspectorates need to ensure implementation of labor laws.  Serious efforts to prevent future deaths will mean directly involving workers in monitoring health and safety standards -- women and men have to be able to report and challenge health and safety violations.  This can only be done through supporting the right to organize and working directly with trade unions on the ground, a right that is still denied to many women workers around the world.

The women’s movement has been a key player in achieving successes for workers in sectors like the garment industry where women are the majority and exploitation is rooted in gender discrimination. The ongoing engagement and vigilance of the women’s movement is critical in ensuring respect for women's rights in the workplace -- and seeing the strength and diversity of that movement represented here in New York at the CSW gives me great hope.

However, as I walk through midtown Manhattan, past the bright and bustling H&M store, one of the retailers sourcing at Garib & Garib, over to the UN, I wonder how long the journey towards justice for the women of the garment industry will be – since it’s still a matter of life or death.

Nina Ascoly

Coordinator, Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC)  International Secretariat

The CCC is an international network of trade unions and NGOs dedicated to improving working conditions and empowering workers in the global garment industry; the majority of the workers who make the world’s clothes are women.  For more information on the Garib & Garib fire and the CCC’s activities, please see www.cleanclothes.org 

Women Discuss Migration and Climate Change at CSW Side Event

Amidst dialogue this week on ending domestic violence and creating gender equality, a group gathered on Monday to speak of two other global phenomena that are affecting women: migration and climate change.

Moderated by Carol Barton of the United Methodist Women (UMW) Immigrant/Civil Rights Initiative, the hour-long event featured reports from a wide range of migration and human rights groups including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Domestic Workers United (DWU) in New York, and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR).

The dialogue was held as a side event in conjunction with the U.N.’s 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which is taking place in New York from Mar. 1-12.

Opening the talks was Gemma Adaba, ITUC representative to the United Nations (U.N.), who spoke about the commoditization of labor and its impact on human rights.

“We have integration in terms of products and production, and services as well…and what is happening in this global arena is that this movement of people is being treated exactly like this movement of goods and services,” Adaba said.

“We must remind these global policy makers that labor is not a commodity,” she added.

Regarding the impact on women in the process, Adaba pointed out areas like education, health and domestic work where recruiting agents, or “middle men,” recruit women for work but force them to pay large sums of money for their visas. She also spoke of human trafficking as the low point of such recruitment efforts.

In combating these practices, Adaba said that a challenge must be made to the “liberal framework” underlying the situation, including notions that “circular migration,” or temporary migration, is good for development of non-industrialized countries.

“We propose to say that development is good for migration,” Adaba countered, adding that a focus should be placed on Millenium Development Goal (MDG) number eight which refers to a “partnership in development” between rich and poor countries.

Adaba argues that such an approach would provide for real growth in developing countries and allow migration to become a personal choice rather a compulsory one.

“If people want to migrate they can, rather than it being a forced issue, where the situation is so dire in their country,” Adaba concluded.more

*Source: www.ecumenicalpress.com 

UNCSW Draft Resolution on Women’s Economic Empowerment

3 March, 2010

This morning the Government of Columbia tabled this draft resolution on Women’s Economic Empowerment, for discussion and negotiation among Member States. Along with the ILO, the trade union delegation at CSW54 will be monitoring the negotiations on this Resolution closely. The initial reaction  of the trade union group is that this is a good resolution that could help to advance women’s economic empowerment. However, trade union delegates will be examining the language today to determine whether they wish to propose any amendments. 

Keep checking the Blog for updates on the progress of negotiations on this important Resolution! 

Download the Draft Resolution (pdf)

Download the Draft Resolution (doc)

A chaotic 54th session of the UN Convention on the Status of Women

Since the arrival in N.Y., I can only deplore the CSW process and access conditions, which have been so far unacceptable.

Let me give you a few examples of disagreeable and unwelcoming working conditions for participants to the meeting:

Firstly, on the accreditation procedures, pre-registered participants waited until 9 hours for UN passes on Monday. Over the weekend we waited three hours.

At the opening session also we encountered difficulties: the room was opened to top officials only, even regular staff was not allowed. Consequently, representatives of the civil society had absolutely no chance to get in contact with or influence governments’ reps. Instead, together with colleagues of civil society organisations, I was sent to and overflowed room, with no access to audio retransmission or translation. The only space available, the balcony was occupied by a double of its capacity...

Secondly, concerning the outcome document, we were informed that it had been already agreed and will be announced at the official plenary. On draft resolutions, even member states do not receive the draft. So you can guess that there is a major obstacle to negotiation process there too!

As for public PC, main way of contacting the outside world in all this turmoil, there are only two of them, to be shared between more than 300 participants.

EI delegates from Spain, Sweden, Brazil and Canada, absolutely infuriated, have already contacted their delegations and requested action.

So which form will the action take?

My colleague Jan Eastman, EI Deputy General Secretary, will address the plenary session tomorrow or Thursday for three minutes on behalf of trade unions. As there is still no clarity on time slot, I do not know yet when she will take the floor, but you will be able to read the final  text of her intervention soon on this blog. The main point of the statement is the following: “This year, at this landmark session of the Commission on the Status of Women, it should be a priority to seek input and feedback from trade unions and civil society. Instead, we have experienced insurmountable problems of access and engagement with the process. And we have been silenced.”

An open letter, whose text has already been presented and endorsed by participants, will be sent to Ban Ki Moon. It has been posted on the blog, calling “on the United Nations and on governments to make social dialogue a reality, ensure that civil society, trade unions and NGO’s assume their rightful place in the process, and we submit that what has transpired at this year’s CSW must never occur again.”

It was a good way to turn the many frustrations into more proactive energy. The pledge of more than 200 million members of the International Trade Union Confederation, Public Services International, Education International and UNI Global Union can simply not remain unanswered!

So let’s hope for the best and that this crucial Conference for all women worldwide will turn out to be a real forum where their voices can be heard and taken into account.

Do not hesitate to show support by commenting on the blog!

R.S.

Support our Action! Sign the Letter!

Open Letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

concerning the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

New York, March 2, 2010

Your Excellency, 

We are writing this open letter to express our outrage with the process and substance of the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  At this CSW meeting, we are representing more than 200 million members of the International Trade Union Confederation, Public Services International, Education International and UNI Global Union.

This gathering of the CSW marking Beijing +15 is a critical forum for us to reflect upon the 12 areas of the Platform, assess gains made, and determine what still needs to be done by Governments in partnership with unions and civil society to achieve equality between women and men. Engaging civil society in this assessment process is critical to the success of this UNCSW, but also to our collective success in achieving gender equality.  

Unfortunately, to date, our effective participation in this UNCSW has been impossible.  At every juncture in the process, civil society members have faced significant roadblocks – from the outcome documents having been agreed upon ahead of time and adopted by the second day of the CSW54 meetings, to the line-ups at registration, to the lack of sufficient space, the difficult and unhealthy conditions in the meeting rooms, the lack of interpretation in conference rooms, and so many other obstacles in between.  

Women from around the world have come to the CSW in hopes of being heard, and have invested considerable time and resources to get here.  They have experienced discouragement and a profound sense of disrespect.  Most of these difficulties go well beyond the logistics associated with the ongoing renovations at the UN Headquarters.  

Your Excellency, you have been consistent in affirming the important contribution of civil society in the work of the United Nations, and you have so eloquently stated that our times demand a new definition of leadership – global leadership, which includes civil society in our work towards the collective global good. Yet, at this year’s CSW, civil society has been silenced.

The effective engagement of civil society at this 54th session of the CSW is all the more important as we look ahead to the September summit on the Millennium Development Goals.  Moreover, in this time of global economic crisis, it is all the more essential that all voices are heard and that Member States consider the very legitimate issues brought forward by representatives of civil society.  

We stand here as members of civil society, and we believe the United Nations should be OUR United Nations too.  

We call on the United Nations and on governments to make social dialogue a reality, to ensure that civil society, trade unions and NGO’s assume their rightful place in the process, and we submit that what has transpired at this year’s CSW must never occur again. Your Excellency, your recognition of the critical role of civil society in advancing women’s rights has been appreciated, and we look to you to address and remedy the grave concerns we are bringing forward to you today 

UNCSW Delegates from the International Trade Union Confederation, Public Services International, Education International, Union Network International

TO SUPPORT OUR DEMANDS PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENT (NAME & ORGANISATION)!!

Download Open Letter of Complaint to the UN Secretary-General

Descargar la Carta Abierta a Secretario General de la ONU

Télécharger la Lettre Ouverte au Secrétaire-Général des Nations Unies

Trade Union Events at the UN CSW

Thursday 4 March, 2:00pm - 3:30pm

Event Title:   Women in the Global Economy in a Time of Crisis

Workshop will bring together trade union women from around the world for a dialogue with representatives of NGOs, women's movements and government representatives. Initial brief presentations from expert panelists, the workshop will stimulate discussions on the impacts of the multiple food, financial, jobs and climate crises on women's prospects for achieving decent livelihoods. 

Venue: Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, 221 E. 52nd St. (Between 2nd and 3rd Ave.), Main Auditorium 

The presentations will take place against the backdrop of Section F of the Beijing Platform of Action (BPfA), Women in the Global Economy, and will examine these multiple crises as a new and emerging issue to be addressed within the BPfA.

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Friday 5 March, 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Event Title:  Trade Union Review of Beijing +15, Country Perspectives

Venue: Murphy Institute, 25 W 43rd St. (between 5th and 6th Ave.), 18th floor

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