Fifth World Conference on Women.

Background Information

The Director of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women informed NGOs at the Commission on the Status of Women that there would be a review of implementation of the Beijing Platform for action by the CSW at its regularly scheduled 49th session in 2005. Participants were also informed about a UN General Assembly process to review the "integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow up to the outcomes of the major UN conferences and Summits in the economic and social fields." In its Resolution 57/270, the CA established in January 2003 an ad hoc working group co-chaired by Belgium and Ghana to identify how best to move forward on implementation of existing programs and plans and the specific roles to be played by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and the functional commissions in this regard. The resolution reaffirms that while each conference has its thematic unity, major UN conferences and summits should be reviewed as interlinked and contributing to an integrated framework for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals agreed at the Millennium summit in 2000. However, the resolution establishes that individual conference outcomes should hot be renegotiated in the follow-up phase. All decisions on follow-up to conferences whose ten-year anniversaries are imminent are pending while the Committee works (GA resolution 57/ 270). The GA will examine the proposals of the committee at its 2003 session based on a report due in June 2003. The ECOSOC session in Geneva in July of 2003 will also discuss this question and report its recommendations to the GA. Discussions of a fifth world women's conference and parallel NGO forum have been ongoing among NGOs since the Beijing+5 review in 2000. A wide range of views bas been aired on the pros and cons of holding a fifth world conference, on the timing of such an event and on its possible objectives. Notably, similar debates are taking place regarding the Cairo+10 process. The outcomes of these processes will be a critical indicator of the effectiveness of such a process in the current political environment as it relates to the question of a fifth world conference on women and attention should be paid to what happens in this process. Overall the discussions held by the NGOs differentiated between the question of a fifth global conference or summit and parallel NGO forum at some future date, and the review by the CSW et its session in 2005. In addition a number of alternatives were discussed. The following summarizes the main points of these discussions:

Future Fifth UN World Conference/Summit on Women

The majority of women present were in favour of holding a fifth UN world conference on women at some point before 2010. They cited the need to keep up momentum and inspire a new generation of women activists and bring them into the global arena. Also, international conferences represent a critical place where women can demand accountability from their governments.

Those questioning the advisability of holding a fifth conference, especially at this time, noted conference fatigue, the lack of implementation resources, and the geo-political climate and backlash which poses a danger of losing ground on these issues.

At the CSW session practical problems with holding a conference in 2005 were also discussed, as the necessary lead-time to prepare for a global UN conference in 2005 is not available. Such a global event requires a minimum of three years to prepare once legislated by the General Assembly. Other obstacles to holding a UN conference as early as 2005 include the moratorium by the General Assembly while awaiting proposals from the ad hoc committee on how to integrate conference review processes and the fact that there has still been limited implementation of the existing recommendations adopted at Beijing. There was discussion of the timing of a world conference and the importance of choosing an auspicious political moment for such a gathering, but the results were inconclusive. Some suggested 2007 and others no later than 2010.

In light of practical and political constraints and recognizing that there was not yet a consensus on holding a fifth world conference, as an NGO community, it was agreed that we would not push for the conference in 2005. It was agreed, instead, that NGO discussions should continue on this question of timing both online and in various for a and to consider new innovative approaches.

NGOs were of the view that the review in 2005 "to assess progress and consider new initiatives as appropriate, 10 years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action and twenty years after the adoption of the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies." (Political Declaration adopted by the 23rd Special Session of the GA in June 2000) should concentrate on reports on implementation and that there should be no negotiated text. The review should be a reporting exercise on implementation with emphasis on best practices and effective strategies being employed by the various actors accountable for implementation. It should focus, for example, on institutional arrangements and legal and administrative procedures employed and look et obstacles to implementation.

But none of this should be done in a manner that results in negotiations over written text since this is a process that can open the door to backlash as well as lead to endless hours of unproductive exchange as illustrated in the Beijing+5 process and by the CSW's inability to come to agreed conclusions in its review of violence against women at this 2003 session. Women's human rights gains in the Beijing PFA and the International Conference on Population and Development were also recently threatened at the regional review of ICPD in Bangkok, Thailand and at the Children Summit in 2002.

Information for the review in 2005 will be based on a questionnaire to governments and to UN agencies, funds and programmes that will be prepared...