Beijing+15/CSW54 Links & Resources

Statements submitted to the 54th Committee on the Status of Women

-Joint Statement by U.N. Adolescent Girls Task Force (ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, WHO), presented at a Reception by the UN Interagency Task Force on Adolescent Girls during the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, 3 March 2010.

Source: UNIFEM

As leaders gather for the fifteen-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, we, the members of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, jointly pledge to intensify our efforts to fulfil the human rights of adolescent girls. During the next five years, we will increase our agencies’ support to developing countries to advance key policies and programmes that empower the hardest-to-reach adolescent girls, particularly those aged 10 to 14 years. Many of the 600 million adolescent girls living in developing countries remain invisible in national policies and programmes. Millions live in poverty, are burdened by gender discrimination and inequality, and are subject to multiple forms of violence, abuse, and exploitation, such as child labour, child marriage and other harmful practices. Click here to download pdf version.

-UMW and PICUM Launch Report on Women Migrant Workers, “The Exploitation of Undocumented Migrant Women in the Workplace.”

Source: United Methodist Women website

The report was released on the occasion of the UN-Commission on the Status of Women in New York as part of the “Beijing +15” review of the Beijing Platform for Action following a workshop organized by the two organizations during the Peoples’ Global Action (PGA) on Migration, Development and Human Rights in Athens, Greece, Nov. 2009. The report was launched at an NGO side event on “Women, Migration, and Global Turmoil—Organizing a Collective Response” organized by the Gender Caucus of the People’s Global Action, including Migrant Rights International, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, PICUM and United Methodist Women. To download a pdf of the report, click here.

-Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) Statement.

Source: DAWN website

When women from all over the world arrived in China for the historic 4th World Conference on Women in 1995, we optimistically imagined a new world where states, nations and societies would collectively recognize, cooperatively uphold and progressively expand women’s human rights, development and our equality with men. The multilaterally negotiated Beijing Platform of Action (BPFA) contained milestone commitments to the world’s women, and we looked forward to a future where it was possible to end all forms of violence against women; women’s poverty and our unequal share of caring work within and outside the home; as well as socio-cultural discrimination, sexual disciplining, and political exclusions of various categories of people, including women, transpeople (and men). To read the full statement, click here.

-WIDE Statement to the 54th Session Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Source: WIDE website

Fifteen years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action structural inequalities based on gender differences, exclusion, discrimination and violence against women are still present worldwide. In the present context of multiple global crises (economic, financial, food, energy, climate and care), WIDE is concerned that gender equality and enforcement of women’s human rights are losing ground worldwide. Over the last five years the EU and Member States have adopted a number of crucial documents on this issue. To read the full text, click here.

-10 March: Final Statement Concerning Beijing +15 process Review at Commission on the Status of Women”. This is a joint statement published by WIDE in collaboration with other women NGOs in New York. To read the full statement, click here.

-The European Women’s Lobby Beijing+15 Report on the activities of the European Union.

Source: EWL website. The global movement for women’s rights in 2010 marks 15 years of activism on the basis of the shared framework and vision enshrined in the groundbreaking Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). In Europe, this year also represents a milestone for thousands of women’s associations from across the region as it marks 20 years since the foundation of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL). To download the full report, click here.

Other related reports

“Impact of the crisis on Women: sub-regional perspectives”, Awid Brief Series. Read more

Gender Equity Index 2009 by Social Watch

King Richard, Sweetman Caroline , Gender Perspectives on the Global  Economic Crisis, Oxfam, February 2010

Organizations working on gender equality and women’s empowerment

U.N. Agencies

UNIFEM-Women’s fund at the United Nations, dedicated to advancing women’s rights and achieving gender equality.

UNFPA-United Nations Population Fund promoting the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.

UN-INSTRAW- United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women is United Nations Institute devoted to research, training and knowledge management in partnership with governments, the U. N. System, civil society and academia to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.

OSAGI: Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women.

Civil Society

NGO global forum A Committe of the Conference of NGOs in consultative relationship with the United Nations.

WEDO empowering women as decision makers to achieve economic, social and gender justice, a healthy, peaceful planet, and human rights for all.

AWID is a membership organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women’s human rights.

WIDE is a European feminist network which monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective.

Women Watch United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality.

FEMNET is the African Women’s Development and Communication Network and aims to strengthen the role and contribution of African NGOs focuesing on women’s development, equality anf other humen rights.

CWGL is the Center for Women’s Global Leadership which develops and facilitates women’s leadership for women’s human rights and social justice worldwide and was foundedin 1989.

More from SID on CSW54:

Overview

Background information

Key issues

SID Blog: Gender matters

Compiled by Federica Lomiri