NEWS

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser proposed the idea here Thursday of holding a global conference on women's issues in 2015, 20 years after the last women's summit held in Beijing.

The joint announcement was released on the International Women's Day, which is held to draw attention to the challenges faced by women as well as to their contributions.

                                                                                       8 March 2012

JOINT ANNOUNCEMENT BY PGA AND SG
on the occasion of the
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

The President of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser and the Secretary-General of the United Nations H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon would like to jointly propose the convening of a Global Conference on Women by the United Nations in 2015, twenty years after the last women’s summit in Beijing.

Given that women compose the half of humanity and the inherent importance and relevance of women issues for the global progress, it is high time that such a world conference is convened, more so as the world is going through enormous changes in all fronts having both positive and other implications for women.

The President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General hope that the international community in general would welcome this joint initiative. They also hope that the Member-States who have the final authority to convene the proposed conference would take the necessary step in that regard during the on-going 66th session of the General Assembly.

They believe that high point that the UN reached with the establishment of UN-Women in 2011 can be meaningfully substantiated with a global programme focusing on women and articulated at the Fifth Conference.
  
The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing which adopted in 1995 the current Forward-Looking Platform of Action was preceded by three such world conferences beginning in 1975 in Mexico City, in 1980 in Copenhagen and in 1985 in Nairobi, held in intervals of five years. The enthusiasm of civil society, particularly women’s organizations, for such a conference has added extra strength to the general support expected for the proposal.

The Assembly President and the Secretary-General believe that a world conference on women would do justice in looking closely not only at the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action but also at the emerging issues, in particular  those relating to women and political participation, UNSCR 1325 related  issues on women and peace & security, equal access to decent work and to decision-making, involvement of rural women and girls as well as aid effectiveness, food security, trafficking, drugs, migration, environment, climate change, information technology  which impact on women in various ways  at all levels. As a result, naturally these have implications for nations and societies as a whole. With their manifested complexities, all those areas need to be addressed in a holistic manner, benefitting from ever-widening potentials of global connectivity.

In all these, role and involvement of the young people, particularly women, would bring in an important dimension of intergenerational empowerment that did not get a deserving prominence in earlier conferences.


Download PDF of this announcement here.

MOMENTUM GROWS FOR A UN 21ST CENTURY WOMEN’S CONFERENCE

First since Beijing 1995. Would utilize internet technology. Simultaneous satellite conferences could be held worldwide. Would energize global women’s moment.

To sign the petition, http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/5wcw.html

Growing support for a UN 5th World Conference on Women (5WCW) was evident in the numbers of NGO delegates wearing large blue 5WCW buttons, and in speeches and panels during meetings of the 56th Commission on the Status of Women (February 27-March 9, 2012).

This grassroots campaign for) begun in 2002, led by activist-author Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, backed by four prominent ECOSOC Consultative Status NGOs, was joined by Ambassador Gertrude I. Mongella, Secretary-General of the Beijing Conference and first president of the Pan-African Parliament who came to New York specifically as a 5WCW advocate, and in the address by Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, former president of the Security Council, whose efforts led to the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325, the Women, Peace, and Security resolution.

Both respected leaders emphasized that new issues deeply concerning women have arisen since 1995: the rise of terrorism, climate change, food scarcity, lack of safe water, economic recession and its effect on women and girls. And that fears for undoing the Beijing Platform for Action, some of whose goals have been opposed by fundamentalist religious leaders should not stand in the way of all the benefits: inspiring a new generation of women leaders, energize the global women’s movement, reach people worldwide through technology to raise awareness of problems to women, new and available solutions.  

A large delegation from San Francisco birthplace of the UN where the UN charter was signed, came to lobby for San Francisco as the host-city, which while premature until the UN General Assembly supports a 5th World Conference on Women, added to the momentum. A petition in support of 5WCW now has over 13,000 signatures.


To sign the petition, http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/5wcw.html

On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 -- 9:00 AM California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was on KQED's Forum with Michael Krasny.

Click through to KQED's Forum site at http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201202010900 to listen to an audio podcast of his interview.

Around the last 3-4 minutes of the interview, you will hear his very positive response and high praise for the SF Commission.

Thanks to FRIENDS Board Member Barbara Mark for getting the Lieutenant Governor to acknowledge the Commission!

"Emily Murase, director of the city’s Department on the Status of Women, said the elimination of the state version comes as state programs relied upon by poor women, including CalWorks and childcare programs, are on the chopping block. “At precisely the time when women most need a voice at the table, most need advocates, I just don’t see how it makes any sense at all,” she said."

More at SFGate's City Insider blog.