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WE, THE UNDERSIGNED UNITED STATES NATIONAL AND US INTERNATIONAL NGOS:

1. Call on CSW Member States to fully reaffirm the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Outcome of the 23^rd UN General Assembly Special Session (Beijing +5)

2. Strongly oppose the US government’s amendments to the Draft Political Declaration prepared by the CSW Bureau and endorsed by the overwhelming majority of CSW Member States

3. Call on all UN Member States to commit to immediate national level implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of Beijing+5

4. Urge UN Member States to commit to the empowerment and human rights of all women by linking the Beijing Platform for Action to the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals and the outcome of the Millennium Summit

To sign-on to this statement, please email CSW49th@gmail.com or stop by UN Conference Room A Thursday March 3, from 9:45 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

This statement can be e-mailed to your networks as a call to action to contact:

Mr. Carl Fox, Adviser for Social Affairs, United States Mission to the UN
foxcb@state.gov
Fax: 212-415-4341

Dr. Mark Lagon, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organization Affairs
Email: lagonmp@state.gov
Fax: 202-647-7385

Also CC: President@whitehouse.gov

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FOURTH REPORT FROM NEW YORK

March 2nd

49TH. SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

by Fanny Gómez and Alejandra Scampini
REPEM

Translated by Marcela Hernandez,
GEO/ICAE

Snowing again. Less cold. Women attending meetings inside and outside the UN.Each day, more and more people gather, at least, this is the feeling when you queue at the entrance of the building, where you have to take off your coat, boots, and even your sweaters..... and, of course, show the passes, big, small, red, orange tags.....

But the noisest place is the corridor. Viena Café will always be Viena Café the G point of the meeting! Is smoking allowed? No. It's forbidden. Do people smoke anyway? Yes, of course..... sometimes smoke is unbearable.....

With the smoke, noise and smell of expresso coffee, NGO negotiations with official delegations start to take shape, because it is said that USA will not eliminate the amendment of paragraph 1 of the Official Declaration proposed by the Bureau. And, although a slight support from USA is expected.... we cannot run the risk.

On the other hand, the texts proposed for the Resolutions that will be approved next week, are already circulating. There is special concern about those dealing with issues related to women's trafficking and economic empowerment. (both presented by the United States)

Participants are reminded that negotiations on these resolutions have to be made in advance with the 42 countries that form part of the Resolution Commission, having voice and vote, among which are Argentina, Bolivia, Per, Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Salvador.

The Resolution on Trafficking is terrible. Neither UN language is used, nor the broad concept on women's trafficking. Prostitution is suggested to be the cause of trafficking and the situation is placed in such a criminal framework that it could turn into an instrument to strengthen the anti-migration mechanisms and, ultimately, xenophobia. The focus is on demand for trafficking, not on its causes.

NGOs, quickly organized themselves in a Caucus about Trafficking, drafted language to present it to governments in view of such a dreadful text. The caucus made a call to use UN language in its protocol so as to prevent, eliminate and punish trafficking of human beings, particularly women and children (Palermo Protocol), signed by 117 countries, including USA and ratified by 79.

The second resolution proposed by USA, about women's economic empowerment, called "Economic advancement for women" is already problematic because, the advancement approach is restricted and it constantly mentions entrepreneur women. Among the recommendations made by the United States to member states, a language already used in the process of the Monterrey Summit "Financing for Development" is noticed, in terms of coherence, placing gender language in a neoliberal model. Relevance is given to the financial sector, the proposed investment is limited to credit promotion, without mentioning the dumping effect and places women's economic advance in the promotion of small income generating projects and, thus, proposes the promotion of microcredit (let's recall that 2006 is the International Microcredit Year) as a panacea, overlooking the importance of the implementation of public policies for the creation of "decent employment" for women, encouraging agricultural and industrial production and economic reactivation inside countries.

In view of this proposal, several networks that gathered in the Women and Economy NGO Caucus, made a language proposal to be submitted to governments with an approach of economic development, women's empowerment, equality and justice in economy, and poverty eradication based on human rights. Special mention is made to Copenhagen documents, ILO, Human Rights and, particularly, DESC (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) CEDAW and human security report.

A language was selected to call on governments to go on being flexible in the sphere of policies to guarantee means to live and sustainable employment in formal and informal economy. A call is made so as to constitute a broader framework with an economic agenda for sustainable development and equity between countries and sectors. Besides, it is requested to assume again the commitment of caring about the systemic causes of poverty. Remember that yesterday we finished our report, asking ourselves how could we express our discomfort and sadness towards the draft of the political declaration of the Bureau of the Commission on the Status of Women that neither conveyed our efforts and regional advances, nor opened doors for a more promissory future. Thus, the "replica text" from Latin America to the Official Declaration was made known and advice was sought from NGOs. It is a text that gives strength to the Beijing Platform for Action, within the context of neoliberal globalization, militarisms and fundamentalisms that have spread throughout the region. It presents emerging issues such as the increased and reinforced discrimination suffered by many women from the region due to gender, race, ethnicity, geographical location, sexual orientation, age, etc. The text makes a strong call to increase investment in women's development, because until this moment, governments have not mentioned where the money is to advance in women's status.

Regarding governments' activities, the plenary is given continuity where national reports are discussed on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action during the last 10 years. Reports made by queer bodies for the advancement of women such as the "Gender and Sports" Office of a small country. Imagine our faces, taking off our headphones and asking ourselves: did they say "Gender and Sport? or strange comments done by a member of one delegation who said: "Because, AMONG OTHER THINGS, we are talking about women here ...."

Suddenly, policemen and well-dressed people start to appear in the galleries, which announced that the delegate from the United States was going to make her declaration.
As we had supposed, her declaration was very similar to all her speeches, and, according to the language we had seen in the amendment proposed for the Declaration, in paragraph 1, and the resolutions about women's economic advancement and women's trafficking.

United States presented itself as the leader of freedom and of the processes of democratization of women's life around the world. This argument was exemplified by their intervention in Iran and Afghanistan. In the discourse, she intelligently said that she reinforced the Beijing Platform for Action acknowledging and warning that by doing it, they were not creating international rights, and, least of all, the right to abortion. She declared that the BPFA is not a linking document and she admitted that abortion is not a national sovereignty affair.

On the other hand, she states that the United States has worked hard to encourage responsible behaviour of men at home; that has promoted the fund for the millennium project that shall address people fostering economic freedom.
And that they have devoted significant funds for reproductive health and for the promotion of free will to decide the number of children....

The R�Group, that, as we have previously said, has been working as a block and in a very closed way in order to go on being strong and sustain the agreements of Mexico and Santiago, made its speech almost at the end of the evening. We hope we can have the text tomorrow so that you can have the feelings of our region but we have already given you some advances, telling you that sexual and reproductive rights were never mentioned.

Based on the declarations of some countries, and, particularly of the Rio Group, one could ask ourself: IS THIS BEIJING + 10 OR BEIJING - 10?

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THIRD REPORT FROM NEW YORK

March 1st

By Fanny Gomez and Alejandra Scampini
REPEM

Translated by Beatriz Simonetti,
REPEM

Second day of the CSW. More snow. Colder. Many more women. New doors and security regulations to access the UN main building; at first we had to access it through Door One; afterwards through Door Two. We had to have passes, ground passes, red tickets in the passes; in short chaos, new directions and many new people. The slogans announce: Yes to the whole platform. Beijing +10.Reaffirm the Platform. I love my body. Yes to Sexual and Reproductive Rights and many more slogans in pins, bags and stickers.

The day begins very early, with several formal and informal meetings, some of them restricted, some of them more open.

The NGOs, organized in regional caucuses, expectantly analyze the situation of tense calm. Today is not a day of great definitions, but of speculations on the possible withdrawal of the US amendment, due to the scarce support it has received.
We wonder if this is a delaying strategy to postpone as long as possible the final declaration or wait for the majority of governments high officers to leave in order to weaken the discussion.
The thing that appears clearly is that USA has approached some weaker countries to explain the proposed amendment and put pressure so as to obtain support in exchange of money.
Another clear conclusion is that this amendment has nothing to do with Beijings Platform for Action, as it never mentions the new creation of international rights or the right to abortion. Obviously, this is a maneuver on the part of the US to present its domestic policy and respond to its constituency.

US met with the new member countries of the EU and the Central American countries to get support to its amendment. We know that in terms of the political declaration of this amendment we could think that a consensus might not be reached, therefore we would end up with no declaration. This would not be good and would weaken the political capacity of the CSW. But one thing is true, it is better to have no declaration after having put a fight than because of the sole withdrawal of US from the negotiation tables.

Womens feelings around this political declarations draft is mostly of unease, weakness, sadness because of the insufficient, timid and so very little conclusive when compared to the PFA and the regional consensuses of Santiago and Mexico.
In relation to the US amendment, feminist and womens groups think that the strategy regarding governments is to convince them that they do not accept footnotes or explanations to the texts.

Today a statement from the feminist and womens networks, campaigns, articulations and organizations was made public. This statement expresses that the US amendment was not appropriate as it refers to what the PFA is not, instead of what the PFA is.

Regarding the case of Latin America, the Rio Group is working and strongly advocating for the Central American countries to feel supported and resist the pressure exercised by the US. The declaration that the Rio Group will read tomorrow has been enriched with the contributions of the NGOs delegates. This statement includes womens and sexual traffic and the reaffirmation and support to the regional consensuses of Mexico and Santiago.

In relation to the resolutions that the CSW will issue around the 7 issues mentioned in the previous report, today we received with stupefaction the draft proposed by the US on womens economic empowerment. This is an awful text that speaks about women entrepreneurs, including the language of the neoliberal market, and in its recommendations there is a clear intention of maintaining women in a status of subordination and complete dependence. We can provide this text in separate messages.
The important thing is that the rest of the governments have so many amendments to this proposal in all the paragraphs that they would opt for changing it radically or to take it off the negotiation table.

Theres a task force of feminist and womens NGOs that is already working with the official delegates around alternative languages in this regard.

In the afternoon meeting of the UNFPA, Ximena Machicao said that the feminist and womens movement will work to prevent the regional consensus of Mexico and Lima to move back. She also said that the Womens and Feminist NGOs, from the position they hold, have and want to express that the declaration should be more conclusive, that it is important to reaffirm the regional process, however, the global processes such as this meeting should be highlighted in our national contexts, alluding to the fact that the policy of the Bush administration impacts on the national policies of our countries. As well, it was acknowledged that the regional advances are due to the great support of UNIFEM and the UNFPA, among other agencies, and that we should accompany them in the reaffirmation of Beijing and Cairo in each step of the way.

There was recognition around the fact that the civil society and the UN agencies suffer the impacts of the global juncture, but the question remains: How do we express dissatisfaction? It is clear that the general feeling is to find out the way to express this unease and the disappointment before a weak declaration, as what was advanced at regional level loses profile.

The governments had a high level plenary on the revision of the implementation of the PFA and the challenges and breakthroughs at national level.

The statements of Norway and Denmark were greatly applauded in relation to removing any reservations to the ratification of the CEDAW. Norway called three times to withdraw the amendments to the ratification of the CEDAW and said that, in spite of the great advances regarding the status of woman in that country, there is still much work to do in relation to intersectionality and multiple discrimination, (for example lesbians and disabled),and in relation to mens contribution at home; the Millennium Goals will not be achieved if the PFA objectives are not achieved.

Finally, some developed countries, such as Sweden, Spain, or Norway, although having much advanced around the issue of domestic violence, this is still a big problem. The focus was on domestic violence as a public issue.

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CALLING ALL BLOGGERS, ONLINE PANELISTS AND FILMMAKERS

From: nicole@wedo.org

Beijing+10: Calling all Bloggers, Online Panelists and Filmmakers--Make Your Voice Heard!

Not everyone who cares about women's human rights and empowerment will be able to make it to New York next week to participate in the ten-year follow-up to the landmark Beijing conference. In order to bring the issues of Beijing+10 to a wider audience, OneWorld U.S. (http://us.oneworld.net) is organizing some interactive online activities: blogging, an online dialogue and online video sharing. For more information, email uspartnership@oneworld.net
If you are going to be participating in the Beijing+10 activities, we would like to invite you to share your ideas through an online blog, online dialogue or online video.

Online Blog
To participate in the online blog, email your photo and bio to uspartnership@oneworld.net
While the activities are taking place, email a paragraph about your experiences at the end of the day. You are not required to do it on a daily basis.

Online Dialogue
The online dialogue will focus on what happened during the meetings and next steps.
We will be accepting questions from individuals for the panelists until March 11.
The following week the panelists will email the answers to the questions to us.
We plan to post the dialogue the last week of March.
To participate in the online dialogue, email your photo and bio to uspartnership@oneworld.net

Share Your Video Online: Women's Issues in March http://tv.oneworld.net/
Global Week of Action: Beijing and Beyond http://www.beijingandbeyond.org/index.html
Share your video clips of Beijing+10 activities on OneWorld TV!

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The International Gender and Education Office (GEO) of ICAE creates

VOICES RISING

Email: voicesrising@icae.org.uy

Web: www.icae.org.uy

Tel/fax: 00 5982 401 00 06

Address: Acevedo Diaz 1600 / 1002.
11200 Montevideo, Uruguay

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