By Vicki J. Semler
October 31, 2004
1. BEIJING PLUS 10 ONLINE CONFERENCE (October 2004 to January 2005) IN
PREPARATION FOR 49th SESSION OF CSW: Gender equality and women's
empowerment ten years after Beijing - Where do we stand?
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will undertake a
review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women
(1995) and the Outcome of the twenty-third special session of the
General Assembly (2000) during its 49TH session from 28 February to 11
March 2005. The CSW will focus on implementation at the national level,
to identify achievements, gaps and challenges, as well as future actions
needed to further implementation.
From October 2004 to January 2005, WomenWatch is hosting a series of
online discussions on the Platform's critical areas of concern and other
important issues to provide input into the review and appraisal. The
discussions are being facilitated and moderated by members of the
Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality. You can make a
contribution to the review and appraisal through your participation in
the online discussions, which will be summarized and submitted to the
CSW in February 2005. The summaries will also be posted on WomenWatch.
TO PARTICIPATE, subscribe separately to each online discussion by
choosing the discussion topic from the list on the website
(http://www.un.org/womenwatch/forums/review/) and then clicking
"Register for this discussion" button.
Online discussions are as follows: 1). Women and the Economy. Moderated
by UNDP. 11 October - 11 November 2004. 2). Human Rights of Women.
Moderated by OHCHR. 8 November - 3 December 2004. 3) Women and the
Environment. Moderated by UNEP. November 2004. 4) Violence against
Women. Moderated by UNIFEM. November 2004. 5) Women and Health
-(including Reproductive and Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS). Moderated by
UNFPA, WHO. November 2004. 6) Women and Poverty. Moderated by World
Bank. 10 January - 4 February 2005. 7) Education and Training of Women
and the Girl Child. Moderated by UNESCO/UNICEF. 10 January - 4 February
2005.
2. LAUNCH OF NEW AFRICA ICT POLICY MONITOR WEBSITE.
New website: <http://africa.right.apc.org>
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) announces the
launch of a new Africa ICT Policy Monitor website. With the second World
Summit of the Information Society to be held in Tunis in 2005, this
website is particularly important and appropriate at this time.
Collecting indispensable documentation since 2001, the new look Africa
Monitor‚ has a new design and structure to make it even easier for
African civil society to find the materials they need to get involved in
ICT policy lobbying.
3. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WILL CONTINUE UNLESS ITS ROOTS IN GENDER
DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY SERIOUSLY ADDRESSED
Addressing a United Nations Security Council Open Debate on "Women,
Peace and Security," Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), emphasized that any real solutions
to eliminating violence against women must derive from a concerted
attack on its origins -- deeply rooted, historical patterns of
discrimination against women and systemic gender inequalities that are
pervasive both in peacetime as well as during conflict.
"The international community is now fully aware that rape and other
forms of violence against women are systematically deployed, with the
cruelest effect, as a weapon of war," she said. "However, gender-based
violence during conflict is but part of the continuum of violence that
runs through women's lives, from times of peace to times of war. It only
deepens with war. Discrimination and gender inequality are seeds that,
during wartime, become a bitter fruit that destroys the fabric of
communities and the lives of women and their families."
4. WOMEN STILL FACE OBSTACLES IN REACHING SENIOR STAFF POSITIONS AT UN
The United Nations has given itself a mixed report card for its efforts
to reach the General Assembly's target of equality between the numbers
of men and women in professional and managerial staffing. A report from
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the UN General Assembly says although
the proportion of women at those levels in the Secretariat, with
contracts for one year or longer, rose 1.7 percent last year to 37.4 per
cent on 30 June of this year, "the analysis of the longer-term trends
portrays a picture of uneven progress in women's representation at all
levels."
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
5. OFFICE FOR THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN AUSTRALIA DOWNGRADED.
At least one of Australia’s main women organisations has criticised the
merging of the Office for the Status of Women (OSW) into a new portfolio
in Prime Minister John Howard’s reorganised government. At yesterday’s
swearing-in ceremony in Canberra, PM Howard kept Senator Kay Patterson
as Minister for Family and Community Services and also Minister
Assisting the PM for women’s issues. This effectively downgraded the OSW
to a department, which the PM said would provide policy advice, income
support and assistance to families and their children, senior citizens
and community groups.
The Women Services Network (WESNET), Australia’s peak women’s
organisation working to eliminate domestic and family violence, says the
downgrade was “a disgraceful announcement by the Howard Government and
“a sad day for Australian women”.
“How ironic that on the day the devastating costs of domestic violence
to the Australian economy are released to the public we find out that
the Howard Coalition government has downgraded the Office for the Status
of women to a division within the Department of Family and Community
Services”, said Pauline Woodbridge, National Chairperson of WESNET.
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