[APWW-Meet]

[luz <luz@isiswomen.org>]

Yukiko Oda

From CSW 48 -- Mach 5
(Friday)

Sorry for delay. I wrote this on my way back home. Now I am sending from
my home in Japan.

At the morning NGO Briefing, one of 4 Vice Chairs of Bureau of CSW (I did
not get the name) gave us the progress of the CSW48 session as to what
government's reaction to the agreed conclusions.  

The bureau had already received some of the conclusions and
resolutions.  6 resolutions were submitted this year. They are on
women in Afghanistan, Palestine, HIV/AIDS, INSTRAW and so on.
The CSW schedule has delayed for half a day. Discussion on review and
appraisal of BPFA, the method of work and future work of communication,
which was originally planned in the afternoon on Thursday, was held on
Friday morning. 

In the NGO Briefing, there was a section that each regional caucus
briefed about their activities. From Asia and Pacific, Ms. Jane Prichard
reported about the APWW interactive workshop held the previous day and
the AP NGO Forum in coming July and a "purple book". The AP
Caucus took a group photo. But there was no time to discuss on our ideas
about what Beijing + 10 should be. 

The NGO Brainstorming Sessions on the 2005 CSW Review and Appraisal of
BPFA, MDGs and the
5th
World Conference on Women was held from 10-12 am on March 5 (Friday) at
Church Center and was facilitated by Bani Dugal (NGO/CSW), Charlotte
Bunch (CWGL) and June Zeitlin (WEDO). Due to time constraint, the
discussion was focused on the 2005 CSW and the others were left for the
following day session, which will be held from 10am -1 pm on March 6,
Saturday. 
The fist round of discussion focused on the Goals of the 2005 CSW.
Participants expressed what they want to see in 2005 and Ms. Bunch wrote
down on paper. 
Some of them were review of implementation of BPFA, regional reports,
identify new challenges and issues, mobilize and energize women's
movements, assess the impact of gender mainstreaming, strive for equal
voice, peace, government accountable, mobilize resources for women, BPFA
and MDGs. 
Then the discussion went on about strategies. They were no-negotiation of
documents, strategic use of MDGs, to use existing regional frameworks and
process, special raporateur for CSW, shadow report, monitor government
procedure (questionnaire), global monitoring report, keep alive
5th
WCW, mainstreaming strategies, strengthen institutional mechanism,
utilize electronic process, participation of NGOs and others. All the
ideas that emerged will be typed out and distributed on Saturday meeting
for the NGOs to discuss and decide. Information related to the
Brainstorming session will be available at
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ecosoc/CSW/CSW2004.html

During the discussion, it was also informed that if we send our 'shadow
reports" either national or regional to the NGO/CSW, they will
compile them and send back to us in August.

What shall we will celebrate in 2005 was another issues at the NGO
session at Church Center. One is Beijing plus 10 and 30 years after the
International Women's Year in 1975 was also proposed. Since this is the
first round of brainstorming discussion, nothing was decided. There
report and discussion was to continue on the following day.

What was discussed at the Intergovernmental Meeting at CSW (UN building)
was reported during this meeting. According to the report, a delegate
proposed to have 2 days meeting with attendance of Ministers at the
general assembly around March 8, 2005. But this idea was argued that it
is difficult for ministers to get out of the country on the day. It was
pointed that from NGO viewpoint, if it is held at General Assembly, NGOs
participation will be extremely limited. After hearing the report, we
realized we also need to strategize how to make sure the real
participation of NGOs in the 2005 process. 

In the afternoon, I attended the US briefing. The priority of US at
CSW  was said to be trafficking. During the Q&A session, someone
questioned the US position of using the language of "affirmation of
the BPFA", but the answer was not positive. Another issue raised by
a participant was that (a or some) Iranian government delegates were not
issued visa to attend the CSW. This visa issue may affect the NGOs
participation in 2005. 

This is the part of report of the
5th
day and I am going back to Japan. Monday and others will report about the
next week.