CSW2005-OPENING DAY
Governments urged to commit to BPFA to achieve MDGs

February 28- The 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women opened yesterday in New York, NY, USA--attended by high-level delegations of UN member states as well Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan and heads of the various UN divisions and agencies as well as the host countries of the first four women's world conferences.

This session's theme is to be a review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), a document that set forth goals for women's development.

“There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women,” remarked Annan at the opening session. He he outlined seven target goals from the Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality which he hoped would be prioritised by governments seeking to further their efforts at BPFA implementation: These strategic priorities are:

strengthen girls’ access to secondary, as well as primary education.
- guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights.
- invest in infrastructure to reduce women’s and girls’ time burdens.
- guarantee women’s and girls’ property and inheritance rights.
- eliminating gender inequality in employment.
- increase women’s share of seats in national parliaments and local
government.
- redouble efforts to combat violence against girls and women.

Munir Akram, president of the Economic and Social Council, reiterated the importance of states' commitment to the goals of women's development, and that implementation of the BPFA were to be the best way to achieve the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are also to be reviewed this year in September of 2005.

Eva Kjer Hansen, Minister of Social Affairs and Gender Equality of Denmark, spoke as representative of a country that hosted the third women's world conference. She spoke emphatically about the need for stronger commitment to the BPFA and urged her fellow delegates for their governments to reaffirm their commitments. “The Millennium Development Goals can not be reached, unless the Beijing Platform of Action is implemented -- not partially, but in its totality” she said.

In the afternoon, plenary session continued with governments presenting summaries of their reports on implementation. Occurring simultaneously were the NGO side events being held across the street from the UN building, at the Church Center. Similarly, some side events had been organised by the UN agencies.

NGOs organised a Linkage Caucus, to discuss the most critical concerns at the CSW and to be more effective in lobbying efforts,. The first caucus meeting was held at 3pm on February 28. This meeting was highlighted by the efforts of some government delegates to dialogue with women's NGOs attending the CSW. At this caucus, the government delegates from Denmark and as well as from the ECOSOC shared how they were working with CSW secretariat to draft a declaration affirming their commitment to the BPFA as a succinct outcome for the 49th session. However, as of the afternoon of Feb28, they still could not get a full consensus among other member delegates, because of opposition to the document coming from the United States and the Vatican, states that have reservations on specific issues such as sexuality and reproductive rights. They urged the NGOs to lobby their own governments towards committing fully to the BPFA.