Nominering till Beijing +5 Underlag till styrelsemöte 1-2 mars 2000

AI members only
AI Index:IOR/41/01/00
Distr: SC/PG/GR
-----------------------------
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom


To:All Sections
IGO Coordinators
IWN (Intersectional Women’s Network)
LGBT Network
Children’s Network

From: Legal and International Organizations Program (LIOP)

Date: 24 February 2000



Beijing Plus Five:
The special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, peace, peace and development in the twenty-first century”: Section Representation


Summary

This INTERNAL circular concerns the participation of section representatives in AI's delegation to the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Beijing +5 from the 1- 10 June 2000.



Recommended Actions

Sections wishing to nominate a member for consideration as a participant in the delegation must send the completed nomination to Florence Martin in AI’ s office at the UN in New York, to arrive by Friday 14 April 2000. (By post to 777 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017,USA, or email at [email protected])
AI members only

AI Index: IOR 41/01/00
Distr: SC/PG
No. Of Words: 1843
---------------------------------
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom

24 February 2000


Beijing Plus Five:
The special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, peace, peace and development in the twenty-first century”: Section Representation



WHAT IS BEIJING+5 ?

Beijing +5 is a five-day special session of the UN General Assembly to appraise and assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which was endorsed by 189 states at the UN World Conference on Women held in 1995 in Beijing, China. Similar sessions reviewing progress on commitments made at world conferences have been held recently, including Vienna +5 (following up on the UN World Conference on Human Rights) and Cairo +5 (UN International Conference on Population and Development).

The special session of the UN General Assembly on Beijing +5 will take place 5-9 June 2000. In addition to assessing progress in implementation of the Beijing Plaform for Action, the Assembly has decided that it would also consider further actions and initiatives.

Unlike the 1995 event in Beijing, which was a World Conference with thousands of participants, the Special Session of the General Assembly will be a meeting held at UN Headquarters in New York, with a different size and purpose. Members of the General Assembly will be attending the session itself at a high level, and, as is the case with regular sessions of the General Assembly, there will be little opportunity for NGO participation in the session itself. Also, there will not be a parallel NGO forum as in Beijing (more than 30,000 women and men attended the NGO forum in Beijing!).

Nevertheless, there will be a considerable number of NGOs from all over the world coming to New York and the NGO community is planning to hold a two-day NGO Working Session there from 2-3 June, 2000, to prepare for the Special Session. There will also be some parallel NGO activities, briefings, events and in addition, some NGOS are planning a day-long session during this time to address the future of women’s human rights. The Beijing +5 process provides a unique opportunity for women all over the world to ensure that the achievements of Beijing are not lost and to refocus international and national attention on the commitments made by governments. As explained by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women,“Five years after Beijing, the Special Session in June 2000 will provide an opportunity for all concerned to share and compare experiences, to renew old commitments and make new ones and to examine obstacles encountered as well as good practices in implementing the Platform for Action.” The Special Se
ssion will produce a Political Declaration and an ‘outcomes’ document which will identify achievements and obstacles in the implementation of the PFA, and actions and initiatives to accelerate implementation.

The UN General Assembly has designated the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the Special Session. The PrepCom has met twice to prepare for the Special Session, during the 42nd session of the CSW in March 1998 and during the 43rd session of the CSW in March 1999. Florence Martin, AI’s representative to the United Nations in NY and Caroline Lambert of AI Australia attended those sessions on behalf of AI. The Commission will meet again as preparatory committee in conjunction with its 44th regular session from 28 February - 17 March 2000. Regional preparatory meetings have been held in most of the UN regions. The reports of these meetings will contribute to the text of the final documents adopted at the Special Session.

These preparatory sessions focus specifically on preparing draft documents for adoption at the Special Session. Because of the more detailed and technical nature of these meetings, a small team of lobbyists is required. At this forthcoming PrepCom session, during the 44th session of the CSW this year, AI will again be represented by a small team of staff including Stephanie Farrior, Director of LIOP, and Florence Martin, UN Representative. The team will be negotiating draft language and reporting to sections on the outcome of the preparatory committee, as well as recommended actions before the June Session. After the PrepCom, a section action circular including recommended actions for the Beijing+5 Process will be produced, as will an external document setting out AI’s concerns and objectives for the effective implementation of the commitments made in Beijing.

WHY SHOULD AI PARTICIPATE IN BEIJING +5?

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which is the final document of the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, declared that the human rights of women are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. It urged that the full and equal enjoyment by women of all human rights should be a priority for governments and the UN. It stated that the equal status and human rights of women should be integrated into the mainstream of UN system-wide activities. In particular, the World Conference stressed the importance of working toward the elimination of violence against women in public and private life - thus articulating international concern and state accountability for violence against women in both the public and private spheres.



In Beijing, the assembled governments incorporated “women’s rights are human rights” as Article 14 of the Beijing Declaration, which, together with the Platform for Action, constitutes the final document of the Fourth UN World Conference on Women. Early drafts of the Platform, debated for long hours in the Commission on the Status of Women, barely mentioned human rights and failed to refer to governments’ responsibility to prevent human rights violations against women. In its final form, however, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action represents an important step forward by governments towards acknowledging the reality of human rights violations against women and girls and state accountability for those violations.

The objective of AI's participation in the Beijing Plus Five process is to ensure that governments attending the Special Session remain committed to ending human rights violations directed against women, that they understand the nature of the violations and the steps necessary to respect, protect and fulfill these rights, and that the documents adopted at the Special Session contain measures that incorporate these commitments. AI played a prominent and vital role in the negotiation of language around women's rights as human rights in Beijing, and as such, we have an interest in ensuring such language remains strong. In the years since the Vienna and Beijing World Conferences, some of the rhetorical commitments to rights have been put into practice, but more often the rhetoric has not grown into practical, accountable programs. The Beijing +5 process is a time to call for implementation of the commitments made in Vienna and Beijing.

HOW WILL AI PARTICIPATE ?

While the Beijing+5 Special Session will be a much smaller and more focussed affair than the World Conference itself, it is imperative for AI to show that it is fully committed to the goals and objectives of making human rights, women’s rights.

At Beijing, AI’s delegation was led by the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Pierre Sané, and Pierre will once again lead the delegation at the Special Session. The goal of AI at the session is not only to ensure that the documents adopted reflect our concerns but that AI as a movement is able to participate in the very important interaction with all the participants, in particular other NGOs.

It is therefore important for us to balance the relatively limited ability to participate fully in the session itself and to have an impact on it, with the need for the movement to be given an opportunity to be represented and to interact with the process. It is also essential to remember that in order for the Special Session to be successful and the outcome document to be useful, sections will need to catalyze national level attention and lobby their governments in the capitals during the course of the session itself.

AI will therefore select five Section delegates, one from each region, to be part of the delegation to the Special Session.

Criteria for selection to the Beijing+5 session:
We are inviting nominations from sections for staff or active members, in particular IWN Members, to join AI's delegation to the Beijing+5 session as well as the NGO meeting beforehand. Candidates should be able to be in New York for the duration of the session from the 1-10 June (the NGO workshop is 2-3 June; the special session 5-9 June).

Candidates must have a good knowledge of AI's mandate and working methods and particular expertise and interest in the work on women. Experience lobbying government at the national level will provide an appropriate skill base for participation on the Beijing Plus Five delegation, and AI will provide assistance to translate those skills to the UN. Candidates should be able to communicate effectively in spoken English, French or Spanish.

The final selection of individual delegates will be made by Stephanie Farrior, the Director of the Legal and International Organizations Program, in consultation with the outreach and regional development teams at the IS.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

Sections wishing to nominate a member for consideration as a participant in the delegation must send the completed nomination to Florence Martin in AI’ s office at the UN in New York, to arrive by Friday 14 April 2000. (By post to 777 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017,USA, or email at [email protected])

All nominations must include a short CV or resumé of the candidate, information based on the above criteria for selection, including in particular their experience of work on gender issues and other work for AI, their experience in lobbying governments, a statement outlining how their inclusion in the delegation will contribute to the future of the section's IGO work on gender and to the work of the delegation, a statement from the nominee about how s/he plans to use the experience gained at the Special Session to develop the sections’s work in future; and dates when they will be available to be in New York and telephone, fax numbers or e-mail where they can be contacted.


BACKGROUND READING:
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action , UN Fourth World Conference on Women.
Human Rights are Women’s Right. Amnesty International, ACT 77/01/95, March 1995
Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Commitments made by Governments in the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action (AI Index IOR 41/05/96) for Amnesty International’s evaluation of the final document.]
1998: A Wonderful Year for Women’s human Rights? The UN, governments and the human rights of women, AI Index: IOR 40/12/97, January 1998]
Making A Reality of Women’s Rights: Bringing into force the Optional Protocol to the Women’s Convention AI Index:IOR 51/04/99

* The draft documents for the Special session are posted on the AI IGO DATABASE, under UN Commission on the Status of Women\2000\Beijing+5

* And also check the following website:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/followup/beijing5/index.html
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/
http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/beijing.html