July Updates

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is holding its upcoming, 49th session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 11-29 July 2011.

The Committee will hold a half-day general discussion and exchange of views on women in armed conflict and post conflict situations in an open meeting during its 49th session. The objective of this discussion is to gather input from various stakeholders for the purpose of elaborating a general recommendation by the Committee on the subject. The specialized agencies and other U.N. bodies, as well as non-governmental organizations, are encouraged to participate in the discussion and to prepare informal background papers as appropriate. More detailed information will be posted shortly here.

July 18: CEDAW Day of Discussion at the at the 49th session of the CEDAW (10:00 am to 1:00 pm)

WILPF has been part of a coalition working on this General Recommendation since 1997 including: IWRAW Asia Pacific, Women and Media Collective-Sri Lanka, Development Alternatives for Women (DAWN) and Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP). We hope to share documents on this process in the coming days.

The Committee will begin its consideration of country reports on Tuesday 12 July 2011, with Costa Rica. The following meetings will consider reports submitted by Zambia, Italy, Ethiopia, Republic of Korea, Nepal, Djibouti, and Singapore. For a detailed schedule of the meetings, please see here.

PeaceWomen will be monitoring the session and will be providing relevant information, documents and resources on the CEDAW section of our website.

Annual Executive Board Meeting and Strategic Plan

UN Women is governed by an Executive Board that oversees the organization's operational activities based on policy directions set by the UN General Assembly, ECOSOC and the Commission on the Status of Women. The Board engages with the executive boards of other UN development agencies to coordinate work on gender across the UN system.

The Annual Session of the UN Women Executive Board, took place from the 27–30 June 2011. The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign, a network of over 300 women's rights, development, human rights and social justice groups around the world that worked for over four years with UN member states and the UN Secretariat to help create UN Women, made a statement to the UN Women Executive Board during its Annual Session drawing attention to a number of concerns.

Further, highlighting the significance of UN Women's first Strategic Plan, the foundational document, according to GEAR, "spells out the vision, workplan and programmatic activities for the new entity globally, the strategic plan is an important step towards the development of a global agenda that will advance human rights, development, peace and security for all women."


Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice

Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice is UN Women's first major report, following the organization's launch in early 2011. The report, released on 6 July 2011, recognizes the positive progress made – 139 countries and territories now guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, for example – but also shows that too often, women continue to experience injustice, violence and inequality in their home and working lives.

To ensure justice becomes a reality for all women, UN Women calls on governments to:

• Repeal laws that discriminate against women, and ensure that legislation protects women from violence and inequality in the home and the workplace.
• Support innovative justice services, including one-stop shops, legal aid and specialized courts, to ensure women can access the justice to which they are entitled.
• Put women on the frontline of justice delivery. As police, judges, legislators and activists, women in every region are making a difference and bringing about change.
• Invest in justice systems that can respond to women's needs. Donors spend US$4.2 billion annually on aid for justice reform, but only 5% of this spending specifically targets women and girls.

“With half the world's population at stake, the findings of this report are a powerful call to action. The foundations for justice for women have been laid: in 1911, just two countries in the world allowed women to vote – now that right is virtually universal. But full equality demands that women become men's true equals in the eyes of the law – in their home and working lives, and in the public sphere,” said Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.

For the official press release, see here.

Last month's Open Debate, on The Impact of HIV/AIDS on International Peace and Security took place on June 7th 2011.

The Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1983 (2011) building on the Council's first HIV/AIDS Resolution 1308, which was adopted in 2000. The Council highlighted the key role of peacekeeping troops in educating civilian populations about contracting HIV/AIDS and various means for prevention. Specifically, a number of Council members noted that peacekeeping troops must be trained to effectively respond to cases of sexual violence against women. Sexual exploitation and abuse of women in conflict is highly prevalent and continues to serve as a catalyst for the spreading of HIV/AIDS. The disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on women was reiterated by the majority of speakers, as was emphasizing the significant role women have in the peace-building process and the need to eradicate sexual violence against women as a tactic of war. For a full analysis on the Debate please see here.

This month's Open Debates, on Children and Armed Conflict and Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Impact of Climate Change will take place on July 12th 2011 and July 20th 2011, respectively.

Please check our website for a full analysis of these debates, on our Security Council Monitor.

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Under Security Council Monitor, we have created a new sub-section "About Women, Peace and Security agenda in the Security Council" to provide some further background information.