You've had your chance.....,

Jane Gabriel — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:37:09 +0000

Between sessions here at the CSW the choice is to sit in the hallways or what's called the Vienna café - the equivalent to sitting in a giant ashtray - while planning the next move. The Karama women barely had time for a cigarette between them today. At 9am they were in the Conference room ready to read the report of the Caucus meetings to the NGO Morning Briefing. They asked whether there would be an Arabic interpreter and were told by the chair "there is always an interpreter for every official language of the UN, unless there isn't." She beamed at them. At that point Nadia, their interpreter, did the planned 'Karama run' and made it to one of the interpreter booths at the back of the hall. They were the first to speak and Taryza Al Ryyen from Jordan gave their report of the work of the Western Asia caucus meetings. Nadia ended up interpreting for the whole session. The General Discussion session followed on immediately at 10am, Karama were told they had been accepted to speak for two minutes and Azza Kamel had the final document in her hands. At this session NGO's have to wait until all the delegates have said their bit, which today left the NGO's only 20 minutes of a 3 hour session. Azza was refused a glass of water. Only delegates are allowed to drink the water. The NGO's spoke one by one and there were just two more to speak when the chiar closed the session Karama was one of the two. So here is the statement on ‘Refugee and stateless women and financing for gender equality and women's rights' that they did not have the chance to make.

Western Asia Caucus Oral Statement - CSW52 General Discussion, 2/28/2008

Topic: Refugee and stateless women and financing for gender equality and women's rights

Session: Thursday, 2/28/2008, 10:00 am

Name of Speaker: Azza Kamel, Egypt, for the Western Asia Caucus

The Western Asia Caucus highly praises the effort exerted by the Secretary General in his report on the Status of the Palestinian Woman submitted to the 52^nd Session of CSW, and the assistance provided to her, which reflected the concern of the international organizations for the deterioration of the situation of the Palestinian woman and occupied Palestine, and the lack of information, limited resources allocated for dealing with the violation of human rights, and the halting of direct support extended by the donors.

However, the report did not allude to the situation of the Palestinian woman outside the Occupied Territories and their double suffering and her specifically needed human rights, foremost her self-determination and Right of Return. In this context and in the lack of absence of protection, support, and resources extended to deal with the situation of women refugees in the Arab region, we believe that it is necessary to address these issues and those of Iraqi women refugees which number 2 million, as well as the Sudanese and Somali women refugees, Moroccan women of the Tindof camps, and Kurdish women.

Recommendations-we are calling upon the United Nations to:

1) To support the UNRWA and all concerned international organizations with resources to increase efforts towards improving the living conditions and to empower and protect women

2) To provide sufficient and adequate resources for building the women's movement, networks, and NGOs in an independent manner and to call upon the governments to eliminate the obstacles impeding NGOs

3) To urge the government to set policies and resources for countering marginalization and discrimination-as in the case of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan-and to set mechanisms for monitoring and implementing the policies of these countries including the special programs countering sexual and economic exploitation and trafficking

4) To set policies to protect and codify the work of migrant women workers in the region and to enact mechanisms with sufficient financial resources to implement these policies and laws to protect all their human rights at every level.

We ask the CSW to amend the Agreed Conclusions with the following language in:

Paragraph 11j. Initiate transparent expenditure reviews, with the participation of civil society, which link the allocation of resources to overall development goals, including gender equality, and evaluate impacts on the poor, in particular women and vulnerable populations including refugee and stateless women and migrant women workers.

Paragraph 11l. Carry out gender assessment of labor laws and standards to ensure protection of migrant women under national and international codes with particular attention...on existing agreed multi-lateral instruments including the International Labor Organization conventions.

open Democracy News Analysis - You've had your chance....., - Comments

You've had your chance.....,

Western Asia Caucus Oral Statement - CSW52 General Discussion, 2/28/2008