Subject: [fem-women2000 607] Onsite Report from 45th Session of the UNCSW - No. 1
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 21:11:53 +0900
Seq: 607
3/5に開かれたＮＧＯコンサルテーション（相談会）からの報告です。 発信人：Mavic Cabrera-Balleza ＮＹは異様な寒波に見舞われており、空港閉鎖状態で未到着の参加者も 多く、3/6の会議が始まるかどうか不明とのこと・・・。週末に日程繰越か？ Forwarded by lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org> ---------------- Original message follows ---------------- From: Susanna George <susanna@isiswomen.org> To: apwomen2000@isiswomen.org Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 17:59:20 +0800 Subject: [apwomen2000] Onsite Report from 45th Session of the UNCSW - No. 1 -- Distributed by Isis International-Manila - linking women, sharing knowledge, engendering change -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Onsite Report from 45th Session of the UNCSW - No. 1 source: Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Isis International-Manila <mavic@isiswomen.org> <fgballeza@yahoo.com> date: 03.05.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear APWomen2000, Please find the attached onsite report from today's NGO Consultation held to prepare NGOs attending the 45th Session of the UNCSW. The day was divided into panel presentations on Racism and HIV/AIDS in the morning and breakout sessions on the same topics in the afternoon. Tomorrow will be the start of the official sessions-if the weather permits. The snowstorm is so strong and according to New Yorkers, they haven't experienced this in years. Temperature ranges from 25-28 F. The Asia-Pacific women I've met so far are Pawadee Tonguthai, Virada Somswadi, Hiroko Hashimoto, and a couple of Taiwanese women. Others are apparently unable to get into New York because the airport has been closed down temporarily due to the snow storm. Daily APWW meetings is scheduled to start tomorrow from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Church Center. All for now, I'll write again tomorrow. Mavic Cabrera-Balleza ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05 March 2001 - Onsite report from the NGO Consultation for the 45th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) The NGO Consultation took place today at the New York University Medical School addressing the areas of Racism and HIV/AIDS. Carolyn Hannan, Principal Social Affairs Officer for Gender Mainstreaming of the UN Department of Economic and social Affairs, delivered the keynote address. According to her, there are important gender perspectives in relation to the prevention of HIV/AIDS; the risks of infection with HIV/AIDS; the social impact of infection on individuals, households and communities and possible means of addressing these consequences; and access to and quality of care. Hannan stated that there are clear gender differences and inequalities related to the factors identified as increasing vulnerability to infection such as health and nutritional status and poverty. The risk of mother-to-child transmission is a particular feature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic which also has gender dimensions, she added. Hannan also stressed the importance of understanding and highlighting the direct impact of the roles and relations of women and men on differences and inequalities between women and men in relation to vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, access to care, and responsibilities and burdens imposed by infection to HIV/AIDS. She also said that it is equally important to identify the impact of globalization, in particular through increased trafficking of women, and situations of armed conflict on the spread of HIV/AIDS and the particularly vulnerable position of women and girls in these situations. Hannan also underscored the persistent poverty in many parts of the world and the need to consider the gender perspectives in terms of the causes of poverty, impact of poverty and possible survival strategies. With regard to the issue of racism, Hannan said that factors such as age, disability, socio-economic position, membership of a particular, ethnic, racial or religious group can lead to different forms of discrimination for women and men, girls and boys. "There is increasing recognition that failure to address the differences between different groups of women can obscure serious issues of double discrimination for some groups of women, including situations where women are denied normal means of redress and human rights protection," Hannan said further. It is important to understand the complexity of situations of discrimination of women, according to Hannan. For example, characterizing trafficking of women as solely an issue of gender discrimination while ignoring the racial, ethnic and class dimensions of the problem, does women a disservice by ignoring essential elements in the analysis of causes and possible means of addressing the problem. Similarly, analysis of situations of domestic violence must take into account the total socio-cultural background of victims and the impact of other factors such as race, ethinic group or religious affiliation, if adequate preventative measures are to be added, said Hannan. Meanwhile, Carolyn Awasu of the Social Sciences/Social Work Department of the Nyack College Manhattan Center in New York highlighted the UNESCO statement on race that all human beings descended from one specie and therefore are all equals. Awasu said that race is actually a social construct that has no scientific basis and often functions globally as a justification of exploitation. She presented a number of recommendations including working with community groups in providing training on how to combat racism; provision of capital to start up sustainable income generation activities for women; and utilizing the media as a tool for raising awareness on issues and pressuring governments into action. Breakout sessions that further discussed the issues of Racism and HIV/AIDS took place in the afternoon. It was stressed in the breakout sessions that the CSW session should have more intersectionality in addressing these issues and not discuss them separately. At the end of the meeting, Leslie Wright, Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York and Coordinator of the NGO Consultation announced that the Division for the Advancement of Women is trying to make it possible for NGO intervention to take place earlier during the two-week official sessions and not just before the end of each day's session. The meeting started about 40 minutes late from the 10:00 a.m. schedule because of delays in the arrival of participants and speakers due to the snowstorm that is now hitting New York. As of 5:00 p.m. today, it was announced that there is still a possibility that the official session might be cancelled for tomorrow (06 March) due to the storm. - 30 - Report prepared by: Mavic Cabrera-Balleza 05 March 2001, New York =============================================================== APWOMEN2000 is a general announcement list created to facilitate information and resource sharing for the NGO review process in Asia and the Pacific for the Beijing Platform for Action. Send postings to <owner-apwomen2000@isiswomen.org>. 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