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The Commission on the Status of Women’s 57th session and IAW

All Human Rights of Women, as laid down in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), were invoked in the Agreed Conclusions of this year’s CSW. They were all brought in relation to this year’s subject: the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls (VAWG).The Commission went even further because it recalled the inclusion of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ad hoc criminal tribunals. It also acknowledged the important role of regional instruments in the prevention and elimination of VAWG.

The Commission saw as root for VAWG the historical and structural inequality in power relations between women and men. It urged the States to refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligation with respect to the elimination of VAW as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of VAW. The Commission recognized that all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women and girls of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

IAW (Rosy Weiss) submitted a statement to the Commission which said just that, she spoke of ‘slaughtering Eve”. The Commission expressed concern for gender-related killings and recognized the fact that ‘femicide’ or ‘feminicide’ as a separate crime was incorporated in the law of certain countries.

Worrying IAW also were the effects of the economic crisis on VAWG. It is a proven fact that women and girls are exposed to much larger risks during times of crisis, which amplify the inequality between women and men. There is ample proof that there is a link between violence and joblessness, homelessness and bad housing. It is also proven that the more economic resources diminish, the greater the risk of violence, and that because governments spend less on social services, women and girls, who are the first to be hit by such measures, become likely victims of violence. Poverty is also a cause for the worst form of violence, trafficking and forced prostitution. There should be, according to IAW (Joanna Manganara) in a written statement, a systematic gendered analysis of the causes and the impact of the financial crisis on women and the answers to it. It is not enough that the right to take part in economic and social life and jobs is recognized again, that older women are identified as possible victims of violence; it is necessary that women participate on an equal basis in the decision making in the spheres of politics, economics and finance, as well as in private companies. We need to advance to an economic order based on more justice, which promotes gender equality and human rights, and ends the constant search for profit maximalisation to the detriment of the survival of humanity.

I had the opportunity to introduce our 10 point plan to eradicate violence (this should be linked to the current letter of the President, where this 10 point plan is written out in English and French) during the side event of our Indian Affiliate, the AIWC, about strategies and partnerships.

In the beginning I mentioned the ICC, Susanne Riveles organized a side event on those crimes and the role ICC can play. Speaking of regional human rights instruments, the IAW held a very informative side event, organized by Anje Wiersinga, about the Convention of the Council of Europe on the prevention and the fight against the violence against women and domestic violence of 2011, CAHVIO. Two things stand out there: all states can accede to this Convention and a Group of Experts has been created to supervise the execution of this Convention.

Many things are lacking in these Agreed Conclusions, lesbians are not mentioned and the right to abortion is not recognized, though the Cairo document is, but it is a document to build on further, especially because in the last paragraph it says that gender equality must be a priority goal for post-2015.

However, “It takes the whole village to end violence against women and girls”. A holistic approach, which includes the United Nations, is necessary. That was the message of the side event of our South-African affiliate, the Mmabatho Foundation for Women’s Development.

Even though the emphasis was on VAWG, the importance of CEDAW is pre- eminent. At our Congress we will take CEDAW as our guideline for a new programme of action, holding our governments responsible for implementing both the Convention and these Agreed Conclusions.

It was a harrowing two week period, with the risk of failure up to the last moment, when the president of the Egyptian Council of Women withdrew the proposal that would have undermined the human rights system in favour of national sovereignty.

We should stay vigilant though: a draft resolution before the Human Rights Council about the rights of the family, which would have delivered women to the whims of patriarchy, was withdrawn in March, but may be reintroduced in June.

The NGO CSW/NY, headed by our representative Soon-Young Yoon, organized a Consultation Day and a reception. It also held morning briefings where the progress or the stalemates of the day before were discussed by members of UN-Women and the Bureau of the Commission and where strategies were set out by NGOs.

We will sorely miss Michelle Bachelet whose diplomacy made it easier to reach these conclusions. However, having heard Mrs Lakshmi Puri, the acting head of UN Women, both on Consultation Day and at numerous morning briefings, we are convinced that her openness and knowledge will serve the women of the world. Thank you very much!

Lyda Verstegen IAW President