Pacific Commonwealth gender experts meet in NY

Press release from the Human Development Programme, Secretariat of the Pacific Community:

Commonwealth gender experts focus on measuring equality and conflict resolution

New York, Sunday February 25, 2007: Weekend meetings of Commonwealth gender experts have ended with recommendations to simplify the way the 53 member countries measure their progress to equality and explored how an action-oriented Commonwealth working group could make women an effective part of conflict resolution.

The results of the Second Meeting of the Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action Monitoring Group (CGPAMG) will be presented at an important meeting later this year – the 8th Women’s Affairs Ministers’ Meeting (8WAMM) in Kampala, Uganda from June 11-14.

CGPAMG membership comprises representatives of 14 countries and five civil society groups. Among those attending from the Pacific were Lavinia Wainiqolo Padarath of Fiji, representing the Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women; Shenagh Gleisner, chief executive of New Zealand’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs; and Julia Burns, executive director of Australia’s Office for Women. Other current members attending included Uganda, India, The Gambia, Canada and Jamaica.

The meeting started yesterday by reviewing a draft monitoring and evaluation framework for the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015. The draft was based on the plan’s four critical areas -gender, democracy, peace and conflict; gender and human rights and law; gender, poverty eradication and economic empowerment; and access to economic resources, capital and land.

Australia’s Julia Burns reflected the debate when she said that the proposed framework was complex and would place a heavy administrative burden on some countries. Added Mrs Padarath: “The concern is for some of the smaller island countries that are way behind.”

A working party was set up to identify core principles, priority areas for measurement and to suggest a more action-oriented and practical structure which would dovetail with the yardsticks countries already use – such as the goals in the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

“We need something simple, practical, practicable and harmonised … not a new wheel,” said chairperson Ambassador Rosalyn Hazelle, of St Kitts and Nevis. “That is what makes it realistic for us.”

The next item on the agenda was the proposed creation of a Commonwealth Working Group on Gender, Peace and Security, for which suggested terms of reference were circulated in June 2006.

Discussion focused on the need for the committee to be an action-oriented body to help women be effective participants in peace processes, rather than simply a monitoring body on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which urges the involvement of women in peace-building.

A sub-committee revisited the draft terms of reference, coming up with practical ideas to assist member countries to integrate gender issues into areas such as conflict prevention and resolution, peace agreements, disarmament and reconstruction.

These ideas included fact-finding missions to ensure women’s needs in post-conflict processes are addressed; advising Secretary-General Don McKinnon on engendering peace; appointing special envoys, and documenting good practice.

A decision was also made that the annual rotation of membership of the Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action Monitoring Group would happen in alphabetical order. Should they agree, Pacific members from March this year would be Australia, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

Today, the Preparatory Meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of National Women’s Machineries to Plan 8WAMM, whose theme is Financing Equality for Development and Democracy, took place.

The previous day’s work was presented and discussed. The recommendations would be circulated to member countries for further feedback ahead of presentation to ministers at 8WAMM.

Among the Pacific representatives at the Sunday meeting were Saini Simona, director of Tuvalu’s Department of Women’s Affairs and Alisi Qaiqaica, Gender Adviser.

Representing Tonga were Polutu Fakafanua-Paunga, Head of Women’s Affairs, and Ilaisipa Alipate, Third Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Tonga to the United Nations

Ms Fakafanua-Paunga said it was “important to be in the loop” and said the proposed action committee on women and peace had assumed particular resonance for her following Tonga’s November riots.

Ann Keeling, the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Director, Social Transformation Programmes Division, said the meetings gave the organisation the clear direction it sought and also provided a platform for strong messages on gender equality not just to 8WAMM but also to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting that follows it in November, also in Uganda.

“Gender equality and the empowerment of women in the Commonwealth needs to move faster and further,” she says.

The meetings took place on the eve of the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, to be held at the United Nations in New York.

ENDS

* Pacific members of the 53-state Commonwealth are: Australia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Fiji was suspended after its December 2006 coup.

* For more information on the Commonwealth and gender issues, see www.the www.commonwealth.org.

For more information on CSW 51, see www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/51sess.htm

There is also information on the HDP website: www.spc.int/women/women_CSW51.html

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