PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN

Summarizing the first-ever civil society hearings with the General Assembly from a gender perspective, panellists at a Headquarters press conference today said there had been a strong recognition of the need to advance women’s human rights as a key to attaining the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.

In the two-day interactive discussions, an overwhelming number of participants, both men and women, had stressed the need to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment as key to achieving the time-bound targets of the Millennium Development Goals, the panellists told correspondents.  Participating in the press conference were:  Betty Murungi, Kenya, Urgent Action Fund for Africa; Vina Nadjibullah, Tajikistan, General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church; Alejandra Scampini, Uruguay, REPEM/DAWN; and Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University.  Moderating the discussion was Barbara Adams of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Describing the session on the freedom to live in dignity, Ms. Murungi noted that one of the key aspects of the discussion had been the centrality of women’s human rights and gender equality in attaining the Millennium Development Goals.  Speakers had also noted that the world was moving beyond the era of rhetoric and into one of implementation.  Women were asking governments to keep the promises they had made at Nairobi, Vienna, Cairo, Beijing and Durban.

Another aspect of the discussion, she said, had been the need to ensure that United Nations reform did not undermine the capacity of women’s organizations to participate in the Organization’s processes, particularly during the September Millennium Review Summit.  Speakers had also emphasized the responsibility of the State to ensure the freedom to live in dignity.  State sovereignty was too often used as an excuse to ignore gross violations of human rights.

Highlighting aspects of the cluster devoted to peace and security, Ms. Nadjibullah said it was remarkable that all speakers had focused on the connection between State security and human security.  Gender equality had also been a dominant theme and speakers in that cluster had stressed the need to move beyond rhetoric to action.  Women on the ground -- from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Sudan -- were being raped and violated with impunity.  There had been a clear message on the need to address impunity.

Speakers had also stressed that women were not just victims but also actors, she said.  In that regard, the proposed United Nations Peacebuilding Commission would fail to make a difference unless a gender analysis of conflict was integrated into its work.  It was moving to know that governments were finally beginning to understand that peace and security were not abstract but very much about human lives and dignity.

Describing the cluster discussion on freedom from want, Ms. Scampini noted that one of the key messages in the discussion on Millennium Development Goal 8 and financing for development was the understanding of the indivisibility of the goals and the other freedoms in the Secretary-General’s report.  Women’s empowerment and gender equality were cross-cutting issues, a point that had been raised by women as well as men.  None of the freedoms could be achieved without addressing the full array of human rights, including women’s rights.

Many speakers had criticized the current development paradigm, noting also the need to address the structural causes of poverty, she said.  There had been a clear message that debt cancellation should not be tied to official development assistance budgets and speakers had also stressed the need to focus on the way in which trade policies impacted women.

Noting that the hearings were taking place at a crucial time in terms of the draft outcome document for the September Summit, Ms. Murungi noted that women’s groups had developed a position paper addressing specific recommendations for the document.  Women were asking that it include concrete language on ways to address such issues as violence against women and the need to combat impunity on the part of the perpetrators, Ms. Nadjibullah added.

Presenting proposed amendments to the draft outcome document, Ms. Bunch noted that the document did not include such issues as land and inheritance rights; the importance of universal access to sexual and reproductive health rights; the need to invest in infrastructure in order to ease the pressure on the time of women and girls, as well as the need to strengthen references to violence against women and impunity.

In the area of human rights, speakers had stressed the need to eliminate discriminatory legislation, she said.  In terms of treaty-body reform, there was a need to ensure that the streamlining of the human rights system did not highlight only a few human rights issues but the entire spectrum.

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