10 November 2014
Every Woman, Every Right, Every Minute
28 Too Many were pleased to participate in the NGO Forum in Geneva which preceded the first high-level Regional Review meeting for Beijing+20 and was organized by UNECE and UN Women on the 3rd to 5th November in Geneva. The meeting brought together representatives from across the region to review progress towards the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most comprehensive plan for advancing women’s rights, in the lead-up to its 20th anniversary. After two very productive days the NGO Forum delivered key findings and recommendations to the intergovernmental review.
After a very productive meeting, the concluding recommendations were:
- Fulfilment of the Beijing commitments to all interconnected and universal human rights and systematic implementation of a women’s rights approach; buttressed by an accountability and resourcing framework.
- Women are at the heart of sustainable development and the post-2015 SDG agenda must include a clear and stand-alone goal on gender equality and women’s rights with clearly articulated means of implementation for women’s rights and empowerment. In addition girls and women’s rights must be recognized throughout the other SDG goals and specific strategies.
- CEDAW must remain the framework for monitoring and accountability of government commitments.
- We call for women’s equal access to resources including land, credit and funding towards an intergenerational social, cultural, development, environmental, economic, civil and political rights and justice;
- Invest in women and girls’ rights including Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights; end violence against all women and girls, particularly ending child, early and forced marriage as well as FGM.
- Urgent and systematic focus on women of all ages as users, shapers and leaders of new technologies.
“! was pleased to be able to contribute to this important review and to help ensure that tackling harmful traditional practices including female genital mutilation (FGM) was included in the overall summary as well as the more detailed section of the recommendation on violence against women and girls,” said 28 Too Many Executive Director Ann-Marie Wilson. “Whilst some progress has been being made, too many girls and women are still denied their basic human rights. This review must lead to a greater international effort to end these injustices.”
The conclusions of the regional reviews will feed into the global review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action at next year’s fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.