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Open Letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

concerning the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

New York, March 2, 2010

Your Excellency, 

We are writing this open letter to express our outrage with the process and substance of the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  At this CSW meeting, we are representing more than 200 million members of the International Trade Union Confederation, Public Services International, Education International and UNI Global Union.

This gathering of the CSW marking Beijing +15 is a critical forum for us to reflect upon the 12 areas of the Platform, assess gains made, and determine what still needs to be done by Governments in partnership with unions and civil society to achieve equality between women and men. Engaging civil society in this assessment process is critical to the success of this UNCSW, but also to our collective success in achieving gender equality.  

Unfortunately, to date, our effective participation in this UNCSW has been impossible.  At every juncture in the process, civil society members have faced significant roadblocks – from the outcome documents having been agreed upon ahead of time and adopted by the second day of the CSW54 meetings, to the line-ups at registration, to the lack of sufficient space, the difficult and unhealthy conditions in the meeting rooms, the lack of interpretation in conference rooms, and so many other obstacles in between.  

Women from around the world have come to the CSW in hopes of being heard, and have invested considerable time and resources to get here.  They have experienced discouragement and a profound sense of disrespect.  Most of these difficulties go well beyond the logistics associated with the ongoing renovations at the UN Headquarters.  

Your Excellency, you have been consistent in affirming the important contribution of civil society in the work of the United Nations, and you have so eloquently stated that our times demand a new definition of leadership – global leadership, which includes civil society in our work towards the collective global good. Yet, at this year’s CSW, civil society has been silenced.

The effective engagement of civil society at this 54th session of the CSW is all the more important as we look ahead to the September summit on the Millennium Development Goals.  Moreover, in this time of global economic crisis, it is all the more essential that all voices are heard and that Member States consider the very legitimate issues brought forward by representatives of civil society.  

We stand here as members of civil society, and we believe the United Nations should be OUR United Nations too.  

We call on the United Nations and on governments to make social dialogue a reality, to ensure that civil society, trade unions and NGO’s assume their rightful place in the process, and we submit that what has transpired at this year’s CSW must never occur again. Your Excellency, your recognition of the critical role of civil society in advancing women’s rights has been appreciated, and we look to you to address and remedy the grave concerns we are bringing forward to you today 

UNCSW Delegates from the International Trade Union Confederation, Public Services International, Education International, Union Network International

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Comments

[Nancy Furlong]

I was very surprised to find the lack of organization and respect shown to our delegations. Women traveled for many hours, some for days, to get to this conference. We were all supplied with invitation letters, which would lead you to believe you were expected. Yet 5 - 9 hours of waiting and standing room only at events is not unusual. Women are patient and we perservered however that does not make this acceptable.

[Lucina Kathmann]

On behalf of the Women Writers Committee of International PEN, I join with the trade unon women to protest the conditions for delegates from NGOs coming to the meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women. This is not the first year that conditions have been terrible. Last year, on hearing that I had waited in line so many hours to register, the chair of my committee advised me to protest. This year there are building renovations and a larger turnout so the situation is more acute, but it is nothing new that the UN has not done anything to expedite matters for women's NGOs. There is no lack of good suggestions, easy to implement. (For example, people could be given numbers to indicate their place in line. I have heard dozens more.) No suggestions have been implemented. It is simply a digrace.
Lucina Kathmann

[Leontine Bijleveld, on behalf of WO=MEN]

WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform fully supports the open letter. We commend the trade union delegation for this initiative.

[Kerstin Bjurman]

The Africa Groups of Sweden fully supports the open letter.

[Lenie Janssen]

A good initiative, women needs respect.

[Sophie Wales]

If the aim is real dialogue then time is a resource that needs to be maximised. Women's rights are a global issue and hugely important so I urge the UN to organise things accordingly and respect the women who have given up their time and resources to create a real dialogue in the first place!

[wendy]

I support the open letter.

[Conor Brian Scott]

As a man and as a human being, I support your letter.

[Mara E. Martínez Morant]

I fully support the open letter

[Fríðbjørg Hammer]

I fully support the open letter

[Dr. Marsha Scott]

From Engender, Scotland's feminist information, networking, research and training organisation (www.engender.org.uk).

We have come to CSW for the first time this year, after three years of planning and resource gathering. We heartily concur with the contents of this open letter. It is very difficult to believe the UN's professed respect and support for NGOs and civil society in the context of our treatment in New York this year.

[Tim Woodcock]

Greenwich Division of the National Union of Teachers (UK) commend the trade union delegation for this initiative.If the aim is real dialogue then time is a resource that needs to be maximised. If waiting is necessary then this should be short and conditions should not be minimal but comfortable.

[Ron Atkins]

I fully support the open letter

[Jorid Østvik]

I support the open letter!

[Douwe Buwalda]

I support the letter with full respect

[Eva Schachinger]

I fully support the open letter as a woman, retired teacher and Trade Unionist!

[Rita Fagan]

We the Family Resource centre Womens Community Development Project St. Michaels Estate Dublin, Ireland work with the most marginalised women in our society. We attended the Beijing Conference in 1995 and we brought the voices of women from marginalised communities across Ireland into that large Global space, since then we have been following the progress of the 12 areas of the Beijing Platform. We support our Irish Delegates to be at the 54th session of the commission of the status of women which is representing more then 200 million members. We see it as a critical forum to reflect and gatekeep the issues very close to the heart of communities like ours for women. We are outraged that affective participation is being blocked. The voice of civil society must be heard and must be allowed to be heard instead of just bureaucrats who never experience the terrain and experience of people who live in sub human conditions. Women who are heros of those spaces whose lives are only led from day to day, that experience is so vitally invaluable to any process where decisions are being made about their lives. We call on the UN and on governments to make social dialogue a reality. to ensure that civil society, trade unions and NGO's assume their rightful place in the process and we submit that what has transpired at this years CSW must never occur again. Your excellency, your recognition of the critical role in advancing womens rights has been appreciated and we look to you to address and remedy the grave concerns we are bringing forward to you today Rita Fagan

[Janice Nutter]

I fully support this open letter and strongly urge His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon to respond actively.

[Aashild Berg Brekkhus]

I fully suport the open letter.

[Nicky Coninck]

India Committe of the Netherlands fully supports this open letter. Time is short and a lot needs to be discussed and done.

[Diana Covell, Member, National Tertiary Education Union, Australia]

I fully support the open letter of complaint. It is unacceptable for women delegates to the UN to be treated in such a way. It is clearly not simply a matter of poor organisation or logistics but a continuation of the sidelining of women and women's human rights and rights at work and in public life that the UN appears to have allowed for far too long. It is time to stop the exclusionary and unfair practices. It is time for the UN to conduct a respectful and sincere dialogue with informed women about how to address the urgent global issues of poverty, inequality and violence suffered by women and girls on this planet.

[ALEXANDER CHESNOKOV,Seafarers and Maritime Workers Union of Western Russia]

I fully suport the open letter.

[Dan Thompson]

I fully support the open letter

[Lyn Jacomb]

I fully support the open letter - it shows a lack of respect to the women waiting and to the cause in general

[Natalia Gogava]

I fully support the open letter