Gender Equality: Pacific GEAR Update from New York

Pacific GEAR Update from New York

Sunday, 26 June 2011 New York City

It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon in the city and the summer weather draws New Yorkers out onto the streets, walking just a little slower than usual without the pressure of rushing to the next meeting. In the West Village, a neighbourhood in downtown Manhattan, over a million people were expected this afternoon at the annual Gay Pride march – special this year after a New York state senate vote two days ago to legalise same-sex marriage.

But for a group of feminist activists from around the world, all the action was inside this afternoon as they strategised for the upcoming UN Women Executive Board meeting, to be held at the United Nations from 27-30 June.

The activists from Africa, South Asia, Latin America, North America and the Pacific are all part of the Global Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign, which has been working for five years towards the creation of UN Women.

Since the new UN entity is now up and running, the GEAR Campaign monitors how UN Women implements promises it has made, and works to ensure that civil society participation is formalized and women's rights groups are consulted about the programme and future of UN Women. (http://www.gearcampaign.org/ )

I’m here on behalf of FemLINKPacific, which is the Pacific GEAR focal point, monitoring what is happening at the regional level and sharing that information with the global group.

As in the Pacific, activists from other regions of the world are concerned about having strong UN Women offices in their countries, to deliver on UN and governmental promises of the last few decades.

For the Pacific, this also means making sure that we keep the Pacific sub-regional office, staffed by experienced feminists and women’s human rights experts.

Earlier this year there were alerts that our own Pacific sub-regional office may be dissolved. Activists and women’s organisations mobilised to raise their concerns, including lobbying Pacific UN Missions in New York.

The Pacific Missions may meet with Under Secretary General Michelle Bachelet, the head of UN Women this week to discuss regional concerns, including Pacific representation on the UN Women Executive Board.

There is currently no Pacific representation on the Board. The Pacific is still situated in the Asia region, which has 10 seats on the Board, and the island region may need to lobby for one of those spots in the next round of nominations. At a global level, one of the major concerns for the GEAR Campaign this week is funding for UN Women. A lot has been promised to the brand new gender entity but so far countries have contributed only half of the US$250million needed to run the global body.

This is far short of the US$500 million that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon initially called for, while the GEAR Campaign is calling for funding to eventually reach US$1 billion to truly make UN Women an effective body.

Coming up this week: Discussion of the UN Women Strategic Plan for 2011-2013 Possible announcement of senior UN Women appointments Pacific statement at the UN Women Executive Board meeting GEAR statement to the UN Women Executive Board The future direction of the GEAR Campaign

I’m signing off as the sun sets late on a typical summer’s day in the city. While the New Yorkers are still out there enjoying the city that never sleeps, this jetlagged Fiji Islander will need a lot of rest before the Executive Board meeting begins tomorrow morning.

Tara Chetty for FemLINKPacific

ENDS

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