Compilation report
Compilation report
This report is a compilation of the perspectives of feminist and civil society organisations from more than 45 countries in the region that participated in the preparations and during the civil society forum itself, on the 28th of October 2019 in Geneva.
About
About
Five-hundred feminists from 55 different countries are gathering in Geneva, 28 October 2019, for an entire day of movement building, advocacy strategising and solidarity action. On this day we want to share our rage and address the structural barriers in the region that are still stopping us from realising our full rights. We will build hope, and map out successes, such as progressive legal frameworks, and make sure they are implemented on the ground. We want to inspire to action, by outlining our common recommendations to our decision-makers. These demands will be shared at the official intergovernmental meeting, Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting, 29-30 Oct, Geneva, following our civil society forum.
Our core framing principles are gender equality and justice, women’s human rights, respect for planetary boundaries, and social, economic and environmental sustainability. We will work together to overcome structural economic, social and environmental crises that disproportionately impact women, girls and non-binary persons.
We work to tackle intersecting inequalities and multiple forms of discrimination based on gender, age, class, caste, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics, disabilities, and other status.
We are coming together to ensure government accountability to commitments of gender equity and empowerment that was set out in CEDAW and in the Beijing Platform for Action. All this, we will do, while striving to create diverse, vibrant, equal and just societies for all people.
We speak with a collective voice. It means that we will strive to reflect all the diverse intersecting experiences of our region and not focus on single issues. Even if you cannot attend the forum in person, you can still feed into our common positions. There has also been several preparatory sub-regional meetings to ensure as many as possible can feed into this process.
Women’s Major Group has been asked to facilitate the organisation of this civil society forum ahead of the UNECE regional review meeting. We will building on our inclusive approach, as used in other United Nations processes, to create a space for our diverse civil society, in particular for marginalised groups. We will also coordinate closely with our feminist colleagues who are organising regional forum’s in Bangkok, Addis Ababa, Lebanon and Santiago de Chile.
How do I engage?
How do I engage?
We are using Women’s Major Group regional mailing list as our main avenue for communication, as it ensures a safe space for feminists and activists to strategise around Beijing+25. We have a master spreadsheet with links to all our position papers and interventions, which you get access to if you are part of the mailing list. Everyone who signs up, confirms that they have read and agreed to our principles & values. Read the statement sent to the UN ECE on our decision to exclude one person from the civil society forum.
Safe space protocol
Safe space protocol
We speak with a collective voice, we will build on our inclusive approach, as used in other United Nations processes, to ensure that this is a space for our diverse civil society, in particular for representatives from marginalized groups.
Key priorities
Civil society organisation have identified priorities and prepared statements from their regional and thematic perspectives. These statements were prepared in the 3 months prior to the conference by all who had joined the listserve, as input for the discussions in the break out groups during the CSO forum. They laid the foundation for our common interventions at the Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting. The input from the CSO forum is still being added and when ready, the final statements are uploaded onto the website. We greatly value all the input given! Disclaimer: the statements reflect the perspectives of the authors and contributors as stated at the top of each factsheet. These are not negotiated consensus positions, but give an overview of priorities and diverse views of the women’s and feminist movement in the UNECE region.
Thematic position papers
Ending discrimination against women and girls in all their diversity
| Rights of LBTI & gender non-conforming women and people | Download |
| Women migrant rights | Download |
| Indigenous peoples’ rights | Download |
| Widows | Download |
| Women with disabilities | Download |
| Older women | Download |
Guarantee equal participation and decision-making
| Women’s political participation | Download |
| Others to come |
Ensuring women’s bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive health and rights
| Sexual reproductive health & rights | Download |
| Sub-group: sexual and reproductive health and rights of sex workers | Download |
Ensure feminist economic policies and climate justice
| Structural economic barriers to women’s rights | Download |
| Tax justice and gender equality | Download |
| Corporate and institutional accountability to the Beijing+25 process | Download |
| Rural women & economic empowerment | Download |
| Climate, environment & women’s rights | Download |
| Women labour movements | Download |
Ensure peace, justice and accountability
| Peace & security, and displaced women | Download |
| Accountability and monitoring for women’s rights and gender equality | Download |
| Financing for implementation of BPfA | Download |
Ending violence against women, girls and women human rights defenders
| Violence against women & girls (VAWG) | Download |
| Addressing anti-women’s rights groups, shrinking spaces, neo-conservatism and women human rights defenders | Download |
| Sub-group: eliminate trafficking in women and assist victims of violence due to prostitution and trafficking | Download |
Ensure women’s rights in media, education and technology access
| Women in the media | Download |
| Others to come |
Artivism
Artivism
For gender equality – these 25 art pieces celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most visionary agenda for women’s rights and empowerment everywhere. This exhibition was displayed at the regional Civil Society Forum (410 participants) and official Regional Review Meeting (867 participants) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 28-30 October 2019.
Organised by
Organised by
Other organisers
Donors
