NGO meeting with GEO 16th February 2015
Present
GEO Helene Reardon Bond
Charles Ramsden
Louise Sheridan
DFID Magdalena
Representatives of:
GADN
CSW NGO Alliance
National Committee UK for UN Women
Charles welcomed everyone indicating this year at CSW would be different and hence preparations had been different, with the lead in being quieter so there had not been the same level of engagement as in previous years.
- GEO
Charles outlined the UK Government plans for CSW59. These include:
The attendance of 2 Ministers
Nicky Morgan for the first half of the first week and Baroness Northover possibly for 2-3 days from mid-week in the first week.
Also attending would be Permanent Secretary Sue Owen (DCMS)
Helene Reardon Bond first week
Charles Ramsden for 2 weeks
Magdalena for 2 weeks, the one before leading up to CSW for negotiations on Political Declaration and possibly Working Methods resolution, and during the first week
Fiona and Aaron would be leading from the UK UN Mission.
There will be a meeting of Commonwealth Women ministers (WAMM) in the middle weekend.
The UK Government have organised events:
On Monday 9March
3pm with Swiss Government on Women in Politics chaired by Nicky Morgan
4.15 with Danish Government on On-Line Abuse with Danish Minister and technical expert Laura Higgins
Baroness Northover will probably be involved in a DFID event with Canada on Forced/early marriage
And possibly another event with Plan UK on young women
The NGO briefings will take place at the UK UN Mission each evening Tuesday to Friday in the first week with the Ambassador's reception probably on the Tuesday. Arrangements still to be finalised.
The UK Government objectives were set out in the recent GEO newsletter and remain the same.
UK takes a relatively small delegation to New York where colleagues in the UK Mission work together, and tries to work collaboratively with other countries, EU and a wide range of CSOs including women’s organisations.
NGOs to let GEO know who their UK delegates are so invitations can be issued. There may need to be a limit on numbers from each organisation.
In the second week contact would be with a small group, conduits for information for both weeks being Annette Lawson, Zarin Hainsworth, Jan Grasty and Heather Barclay.
There will also be a group of five Parliamentarians from IPU who will take part in side events
Diane Abbott
Baroness Hodgson
Baroness Ece
Roberta Blackman-Woods
Gavin Shuker
- Political Declaration
Charles summed up the position for CSW 59. The main discussion is a review of the Beijing Platform for Action 20 years on. There will probably be no Agreed Conclusions as the Political Declaration is intended to be agreed in advance.
A zero draft and a compilation text had been received by all.
Annette said the Alliance group felt there had not been a lot of point spending time on this document since this was being negotiated ahead of CSW. Comments had already been sent to GEO building on those of the GADN and further text had been provided by Equality Now and Eiman – delivered to Charles.
All NGO s stressed the necessity of ensuring there was no regression on language.
If a list of the 12 critical areas were to be included in the text for example this could lead to parts being dismissed. It was also suggested that the UNW existing language on emerging issues could also be included. Charles agreed this was a good point. This would also apply if additions were made to such a list. Charles felt that it would be possible to pick up on previously agreed language such as that in para 28 of the Agreed Conclusions of CSW 58.
On CSW emerging issues Zarin suggested that those identified by UN Women: migration, men and boys etc - could be in the PD.
- Working Methods Resolution
There is some effort going on to agree the resolution on Working Methods but there is less urgency about this and negotiations will probably continue during CSW.
Jan Grasty (UN Women) read a note previously emailed to Charles indicating that emerging issues should be properly researched and discussed with CSO prior to being brought forward for CSW consideration. Annette said that a red line for NGOs was to be able toparticipate at all levels within CSW methods of working – for example in the identification of emerging issues and in discussions. She drew attention to the wording within the draft Working Methods Resolution and sought reassurance that ‘women’s organisations’ should be named rather than relying on the generic ‘civil society’ or ‘CSO’s.
NGOs stressed
- it was important to strengthen the work of CSW at every level, and to especially ensure the involvement of NGOs and women's organisations.
- it was suggested an Advisory Group to CSW of experts including NGOs could be established (see Task Force above)
- it was proposed that rather than Governments spending a lot of time presenting statements, better use of time and resources could be achieved by presentation of best practice cases on how agreements at CSW had been implemented
- it was important that not only statistics but women's stories should be presented and could be done effectively by women' s organisations
- there should be opportunity to demonstrate learning through failing
- the Agreed Conclusions should continue
-consensus should be the way forward
- NGOs
The GADN talked through their current activities and raised issues on the two papers (Compilation text for Political Declaration and Working methods resolution) and key problems (see paper)
CSW Alliance
Zarin talked through plans from the Alliance whichwill:
- Collate UK side events
- Has a media strategy (and would be very happy to add quote from GEO to press release template)
- Has a social media strategy
- Has a lobbying strategy
- Develop schedule of member's networks with other countries
- Will run a closed CSW59 Google group for those attending to connect with each other
In response to a question from Annette following the telephone conversation with EEAS on Friday at the second preparatory meeting held with CSW Alliance members, on the ‘Ministerial segment’ in the political declaration, Charles outlined the EU position. There is a wider question - should Ministers be there for the first or second weeks. What do they bring to the table? Ministers are not experts nor necessarily negotiators. Some find it hard to change a line. Should there be a separate Ministerial segment of 3 or 5 days? Currently the peak attendance time for Ministers is in the first week.
There had been a wide range of views and it was still under discussion.
It was something on which EU had to reach a view.
Zarin said that the Alliance members felt strongly that CSW activity should not just be for two weeks. How do we work together for the rest of the year?
Should we start working together earlier?
The Alliance intended to have a CSW follow up event in June (following the election) but when should we start working towards CSW 60?
How was this all to fit with the finalisation of the post 2015 agenda and the agreement on the SDGs?
Lizzette(Progressio) asked how can the agreements reached at CSW be enforced? There needs to be coherence across all areas. It was fine to talk about gender mainstreaming but how was this to be implemented and seen to be implemented?
Charles indicated that the UK Government sees this CSW as a key milestone on the way to agreeing the post 2015 agenda but there is not universal agreement on the role of CSW post-2015.
Heather (GADN) suggested that it could be better not to try to rush through the working methods resolution this year with so much else going on. Would it be a better outcome to set up a shared Task Group which could report to CSW 2016. Annette added that this proposal had been made in the Alliance original contribution by way of comments to the WMR.
Charles indicated GEO would be happy to hear from NGOs with any comments on text, including reasoning, whenever new text appeared and irrespective of deadlines. He said it was important to hear the motivation and thinking about particular language as it helped when in the midst of negotiations.
Charles proposed that the conduits for the second week continue to be Annette, Zarin, Jan and Heather.
Possible further resolutions
Heather indicated that they had heard of 2 possible worrying resolutions
HIV Aids – this had failed at a previous attempt for good reasons and is being presented again
'Family'
On the latter a new group has been formed in New York: ' Friends of the Family'. There are a lot of unanswered questions on this. This is seen as a dangerous attempt to undermine women’s rights approaches at CSW and to then have language to take to the post-201 agenda discussions.
Charles thanked everyone for attending.