News & information on GEAR campaign » News

GEAR Campaign Participates in the UN Millennium Development Goals Informal Interactive Hearings

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:23:47 +0000

[New York, 14-15 June 2010] Charlotte Bunch, on behalf of the GEAR Campaign, spoke to the UN General Assembly, civil society organizations and the private sector on Monday, June 14th about the urgency in establishing the new gender entity. Ms. Bunch articulated the linkages between gender equality, human rights and the MDGs in an effort to address the gaps on the ground in implementing promises that have been made by governments and the UN. She noted the overall interest of international actors such as the World Bank and national development agencies in gender equality and the need for them to not only look at MDG 3, but rather see gender equality and women’s empowerment as an underlying aspect of all the MDGs. Civil society inclusion was another critical feature of Ms. Bunch’s presentation. The meeting was convened in order to provide input to the preparatory process for the ‘MDG summit’ (High-level Plenary Meeting) on September 20-22, 2010. For Charlotte Bunch's full presentation, visit http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=amdg10&id_article=2638.

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Debate about the leader of the new UN women’s agency in Guardian

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:45:27 +0000

[London, 2 June 2010] The Guardian has published an opinion text by Hibaaq Osman called "Let an Arab woman lead way at UN," advocating the new UN gender equality entity should be led by an Arab woman.

[Read the whole article in Guardian website]

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Governments met to negotiate resolution on UN GEA

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:40:55 +0000

[New York, 26 May 2010] Member States met at an informal consultation yesterday to negotiate the part of the draft System-Wide Coherence resolution that is related to the new UN gender equality entity.

One of the issues discussed was civil society participation. The new draft resolution includes a reference to recognizing the work done by women's movements in relation to gender equality and women's empowerment, but some countries expressed that the resolution should include stronger language on concrete civil society participation mechanism.

The Member States will meeting again to discuss issues of contention, such as the Executive Boar.

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Second version of the draft SWC resolution available

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:33:21 +0000

[New York, 25 May 2010] New draft of the resolution on System-wide Coherence that the UN General Assembly needs to adopt to establish the new UN gender equality entity was sent to the Member States last week. The current version builds on the comments and suggestions made by regional groups and Member States during the informal consultations earlier this spring.

In what come to the section of the resolution on the establishment of the new UN gender equality entity, the new draft includes several clarifying additions, for example regarding the transitional process, the regional support centers, securing the links between normative and operational work.

From the point of view of GEAR Campaign’s demands, positive changes include a new paragraph about the role of women’s movements in promoting gender equality. However, suggestions made by EU and Canada about creating mechanisms for ensuring CSO participation have not made it to the new draft.

The Member States will discuss the new draft in a series of informal consultations already this week, on 25, 26, and 27 May. The next round of negotiations is set to start in mid-June.

[Read the second version of the draft SWC resolution]

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Sign Amnesty International petition on the new UN women’s agency

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:23:51 +0000

[New York, 20 May 2010] The Amnesty International petition to the President of the United Nations General Assembly on the new UN women's agency will be delivered to him in June. Take action now and sign the petition by 10 June!

The petition urging the President to to prioritize the establishment of a new UN women's agency was launched last December.

Sign the Amnesty International petition on the new UN Women's Agency

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GEAR Campaign ECOSOC ARM statement

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:13:44 +0000

[New York, 11 May 2010] GEAR Campaign submitted a written statement for the Annual Ministerial Review (ARM) on gender equality and empowerment of women that will take place during the High-level Segment of the annual session of ECOSOC (UN Economic and Social Council). The High-level Segment of ECOSOC will meet from 28 June to 2 July.

[Read the GEAR Campaign ECOSOC ARM statement]

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Governance of the new UN women’s agency divides Member States

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:41:53 +0000

[New York, 10 May 2010] No agreement between Member States was achieved in the detailed discussion of the draft resolution on the new UN women's agency that took place at the UN on Friday 30 April and Monday 3 May. In the meeting the Member States went through the draft paragraph by paragraph, making suggestions for new language.

Egypt who spoke on behalf of the Joint Coordination Committee (G77 countries, the Non-aligned Movement & China) presented some very hard positions, requiring for example that the new entity should respect national and regional cultural particularities.

On the other hand, many countries made substantial improvements to the draft text by suggesting among other things language on civil society participation and a deadline for when the entity is to be operational (1 January 2011).

The main issue that continues to divide the developing and developed countries is the Executive Board. EU, USA, Canada, and Japan were very clear that they want the new entity to be governed by the UNDP/UNFPA Board. Egypt on behalf of JCC, as well as Russia argued consistently that a new Executive Board should be established. Furthermore, they demanded that the new governing body should have the geographical representation of Commission on the Status of Women or the Human Rights Council. This would mean that more seats would be allocated for developing countries and less for donor countries than currently in the UNDP Board.

The facilitators of the System-Wide Coherence process who prepared the first draft are expected to send a new version of the whole draft System-Wide Coherence resolution, including the section on the gender equality entity, to Member States later this week. The Member States are going to meet to discuss the new text on 25th May.

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Search for the head of the UN women’s agency begins

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:19:29 +0000

[New York, 5 May 2010] The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has asked Member States to put forward names of possible candidates for the post of the Under-Secretary-General who will be the leader of the new UN gender equality entity.

Since the negotiations about the creation of the new gender equality entity started in February, many Member States have been calling for the Secretary-General to start the recruitment process of the Under Secretary General without delay. Other Member States have been saying, that he does not have a mandate to go forward with the nomination before the General Assembly has passed a resolution entitling him to do so.

At the moment it seems that the Secretary General’s office is planning to have a short list of candidates ready by the time the resolution creating the new entity would be passed by the General Assembly. This would mean that the head of the entity could be appointed immediately after the Member States have reached agreement about the details of the entity.

GEAR Campaign is not at the moment endorsing particular candidates, but will monitor the appointment process closely. Last autumn the Campaign developed a recruitment criteria, that were sent to the Secretary-General and that have also been circulated to the UN Member States.

[Read the GEAR Campaign's USG selection criteria]

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Negotiations about the draft SWC resolution begin

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:34:26 +0000

[New York, 23 April 2010] United Nations Member States met on 16 April in the first informal consultation to discuss the draft resolution for System-wide Coherence. The draft text that includes language on governance, common country programmes, funding for operational activities, and creation of the new UN gender equality entity. The Co-chairs of the SWC process, Estonia and Tunisia, invited Member States to give their first comments on the draft.

Statements delivered in the meeting by Governments and regional groups shed some light on what can be expected in the forthcoming negotiations on the resolution setting up the gender equality entity.

The Joint Coordination Committee (G77, Non-Aligned Movement & China) emphasized again that there should be a single resolution on all the clusters of the System-wide Coherence process, and that tangible results should be achieved in all the clusters. The statement included several detailed revisions and additional suggestions to the draft text about the new gender equality entity, for example the following:

Beijing Platform for Action should be the main framework to guide the work of the entity, and Commission on the Status of Women should be the body to give the policy guidance
The entity should have exactly the same mandates than the existing four entities, and any additional mandates should be decided upon by the General Assembly
New Executive Board should be established, autonomous segment of the UNDP/UNFPA Board is not an option. Executive Board of the entity must have the geographic distribution of General Assembly, as for example Commission on the Status of Women and Human Rights Council have.
The text should put more emphasis on operational capacity
Under-Secretary General to lead the entity should only be appointed after the resolution has been adopted by the General Assembly. The USG should be someone from the South.
Funding for the entity must be multi-year core funding. The resolution should leave open the possibility to use also regular resources for funding operational activities, and it should state that programmes implemented in developed countries should be funded by each country.
Secretary General should report to the General Assembly annually about the developments of the new entity.

European Union emphasized that the reform is not only a merger of the four existing bodies, but that the new entity will lead and coordinate the UN system to deliver on gender equality and support Member States in the implementation of intergovernmental agreements. The EU also stressed that the entity will work with, support, and ensure the participation of civil society organizations.

[Read all the Government statement made in the meeting of 16 April 2010]

[Read the compilation of all the elements for the resolution]

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Co-Chairs release elements for resolution on the new UN women’s agency

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:17:59 +0000

[New York, 13 April 2010] The facilitators of the UN System-wide Coherence process have put together the elements that could be included in the resolution that the General Assembly will have to pass in order to create the new UN women's agency.

The document containing the draft elements of the resolution on the composite gender equality entity, along with similar drafts related to other tiers of the System-wide Coherence reform, will be introduced to the Member States on 16 April. The next intergovernmental meeting on the new gender equality entity will take place on 30th April. This is when the Member States will start to negotiate seriously about the content of the upcoming resolution.

We have heard that the aim is to have the Member States agree on the texts in the end of June or on the first week of July.

[Read the draft elements for the resolution on the new UN gender equality entity]

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