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The XXXIV Congress of the International Alliance of Women meeting in Delhi, India, October 27 - November 1, 2007

Resolution 1

Considering the unmet need for contraceptives of hundreds of millions of women around the world (1) -

and considering that the percentage of women among the cases of new HIV infections is continuing to sharply rise in many countries

demands that governments and donors

  1. Take into account the unmet need and invest most in countries where this need is highest, concentrating quality counseling and services of family planning on target groups with the lowest prevalence of contraception i.e. rural women, poor women and women with little education. (2)
  2. Improve integration of family planning and reproductive health services into HIV/AIDS programs and thus produce synergy effects benefiting both women and men. (3)
  3. Strengthen by all appropriate means women’s power to negotiate condom use. Reach women and men with messages about the dual protection the condom offers: against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and against unwanted pregnancy.
  4. Empower women to decide freely and responsibly about the number and spacing of their children in accordance with Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Article 16(e).
  5. Reverse the current trend and quickly restore to effective levels funding for family planning as part of global reproductive health and population aid. (4)

Moved by

Gudrun Haupter
Convenor
IAW Health Commission

Seconded by

Mala Pal
Resource Member
IAW Health Commission

  1. Although they do not wish to become pregnant these women do not use contraceptives, the main reason being their unavailability.
  2. Recommendations of a study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute published in June 2007.
  3. This integration is requested by United Nations Fund for Population Activities, World Health Organization, International Planned Parenthood Federation, to name but the most prominent promoters.
  4. The figures: 1995 - 55 percent, 2003 - 13 percent, 2005 - 9 percent. Funding disbursements do not match promises. The focus on child survival, maternal health and HIV/AIDS (Millennium Development Goals MDGs 4, 5 and 6) unfortunately further reduces the funds available for family planning, which is not mentioned anywhere in the MDGs.

Resolution 2

Considering that denial of sexual and reproductive health rights through religious doctrine that is enforced by law or by custom has a devastating effect on women’s health and freedom -

And considering that Amnesty International has been criticized by religious leaders -

supports

Amnesty International in its campaign for women and girls to have access to abortion in cases of rape and incest, or where a pregnancy jeopardizes a girl’s or woman’s life or health.

Moved by

Kvenrettindafelag Islands

Seconded by

Ned. Ver. V. Vrouwenbelangen

Resolution 3

Concerned that, despite repeated requests, the United Nations governing body in Kosovo has not implemented UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) -

demands

that the United Nations authority fully implement this resolution and in particular that women be equal partners in the negotiations on the future of Kosovo.

Moved by

Ned. Ver. V. Vrouwenbelangen

Seconded by

Kvenrettindafelag Islands

Resolution 4

Dans le cadre de l’Année du dialogue interculturel, il doit être souligné à l’instar de la Déclaration de la Conférence Mondiale pour les Droits de l’Homme (Vienne 1993)

declare

que les traditions religieuses et culturelles doivent être respectées, mais qu’elles ne peuvent servir de justification pour des violations des droits fondamentaux.

in accordance with the United Nations World Conference Declaration on Human Rights (Vienna 1993) and within the framework of the Year of Intercultural Dialogue -

affirms

that religious and cultural traditions have to be respected, but they can in no way serve as a justification of violations of women’s human rights and all fundamental rights.

Moved by

Monique Bouaziz, AFEM

Seconded by

Lyda Verstegen

Resolution 5

Alarmed by the suffering of women and children under armed conflict, war and terrorism -

urges

governments and international organizations [governmental and non-governmental] to take concrete steps towards ending wars, conflicts and terrorism for the sake of humanity and prosperity.

Moved by

Horeya Megahed
The Hoda Chawari Association

Seconded by

Monique Bouaziz

Petition to the UN Human Rights Council: Integrating the Human Rights of Women

Integrating the Human Rights of Women

The Human Rights Council faces many challenges. One crucial challenge is to develop its work methods in a manner true to the sentiment repeated annually by the Commission on Human Rights: “acknowledging the need to integrate the gender perspective in a more systemic way into all aspects of [its] work.” The resolve for a comprehensive gender integration process was further consolidated during the debate at the Fourth Regular Session of the Human Rights Council on March 28, 2007, when 56 states called for gender integration of the Council’s permanent agenda and programme of work as an essential first step.

This paper sets out the minimum threshold for gender integration into the Council’s main mechanisms and work methods. The following concrete steps would preserve what the Commission on Human Rights began in terms of gender integration, while also strengthening the methods and mechanisms for doing so.

These steps constitute the absolute minimum for what the Council must do to be an effective protector of the human rights of women.

Agenda and Programme of Work:

  • Ensure at least one full day of discussion every year on the human rights violations suffered mainly or exclusively by women.
  • Ensure adequate planning and capacity-building for the Council to address the differential impact on women and girls of all human rights situations under its consideration.

Review of the Special Procedures:

  • Mandate gender integration and the explicit consideration of women’s and girls’ human rights under each relevant Special Procedure, and ensure adequate capacity building to allow for such integration.
  • Continually identify protection gaps in areas of human rights violations that mainly or exclusively affect women and girls, and create a means to address these gaps.

Universal Periodic Review:

  • Integration of the respect for human rights of women into the criteria on which states will be reviewed, whether qualitative or quantitative, with particular focus on gender-specific human rights violations.
  • Explicit evaluation of the gender-specific criteria of the review in the UPR outcome mechanism for each state, utilizing, inter alia, analysis and observations from treaty bodies and Special Procedures as appropriate.

Endorsed by the IAW; Representative Hélène Sackstein, May 2007

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Bettina Corke, IAW Representative to the FAO submitted the following remarks in e-consultation organized by the FAO Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions (SARD-M) Project in collaboration with the Mountain Forum to prepare for the Third Meeting of the Adelboden Group

Peter Trutmann and Medeb Kairi,

I am responding to your call for input as the International Alliance of Women Representative to FAO in Rome and as the IAW European Commission: Sub-regional-coordinator for the Mediterranean Region.

Firstly I would like if I may to address:-

Topic 3 ... “what messages would you like the Abelboden Group to make to policy and decision makers on SARD-M policies, institutions and processes?”

THE CHALLENGE is to reform and call for improvements in the UN system and in FAO in particular to “enable” and to “redress” the imbalances which exist between the need for just policies regarding social & economic development at the international and national levels. Only in this way can the disruptive consequences of the present approaches of the “economic development schemes only” as promoted by the World Bank and the corporate world of the transnationals be regulated and contained. Bad governance is at the top and at the bottom of this development ladder. To speak about “middle management” and what needs to be done to manage sustainable development within this context is not realistic.

It appears to us that the international community and National governments are unable to control in a correct manner their own Food Security, their own Social development, their own National Sovereignty goals, including that of Food Sovereignty and their own trading arrangements. This in turn renders all the fine and flowery words of FA0 Declarations, recommendations and other FAO documents to work towards Sustainable Development, Rural Development, Food Security, Employment, less dependency on oil, along with stated desire of the UN and the UN Agencies to fulfil the Millennium Goals ... UNACHIEVABLE.

Secondly to address Mr. Medeb Kairi’s most welcomed comment and input, we would like to open up just two aspects of this input:- On the question and the stated “importance of rural mountain women”. Do the policy makers of Tunisia take advantage of implementing the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Article 14 on Rural Women in place since 1981 when they consider Rural Mountain Women?

On the question of “decentralization”. What does that mean for Tunisia? What does that mean for policy makers and “would be” public sector partners at the local rural level?

Thank you very much for this opportunity to participate and contribute to the debate.

Bettina Corke. IAW UN Representative to FAO.
E-mail: decademedia@mclink.it

More detailed information on this exchange is available on
http://www.mtnforum.org/rs/ec/index.cfm?econfid=13

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The International Alliance of Women protests the human rights situation in Darfur in the following letter to Mr Cesar Mayoral, President UN Security Council and to the President of the UN Human Rights Council, Ambassador Luis Alfonso De Alba

Sir,

Rape of women and girls in the Darfur region is systematically used as a weapon of war. This is a crime against humanity as well as a war crime. Patrols designed to keep women safe have not been sufficient and have also been called off in many areas.

The African Union peacekeepers have tried to address this situation but their efforts have not been able to provide sufficient protection. It is our firm belief that the international community must now deliver on its responsibility to protect these civilians by providing stronger support for an international peacekeeping unit.

The International Alliance of Women while expressing its abhorrence against this situation adds its voice to those who are convinced that only the immediate deployment of a robust and effective international peacekeeping force under the aegis of the United Nations can keep the Darfuri women and children safe. A strengthened peacekeeping force is also aimed at stemming the further spreading of the violent conflict into the neighbouring countries. The pressure to support these peacekeeping goals must be stepped up and maintained. Every additional day Darfuri women lack effective protection will only enforce the message that rape can be committed with impunity for these repugnant crimes against humanity.

Sincerely yours
Rosy Weiss
President
International Alliance of Women

A Gender Perspective on Reporting and Exchange of Information

Statement by the International Alliance of Women and the International Network of Women against Tobacco [Second Conference of the Parties of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control].
June 30 to July 6, 2007
Bangkok, Thailand

Soon-Young Yoon, IAW Representative

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Conference of State Parties to the Convention Against Transnational Crime and its Protocols, 3rd Session, Vienna, 9-18 October 2006

Proceedings of the GAATW Panel Discussion: Protection of Trafficked Persons - A Human Rights Approach

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Submission to the Human Rights Council

The Statement of the IAW on “The eradication of extreme poverty as a condition to the full and effective enjoyment of the human right to peace”.

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Gender Budgeting Event we are sponsoring at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York

Gender Budgeting - good and bad practices. Gender Justice of public expenditures

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