Beijing +10 meets WTO +10: assessing the impact of trade liberalization on women's human rights

Regional analyses of gender and trade from 1995: Beijing plus ten meets WTO plus ten

Published by: IGTN Sectretariat / International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) , 2005
Via: Eldis

This document focuses on the impact of trade liberalisation on women’s economic security and its contribution to the Beijing +10 review. The report argues that since 1995, there is evidence that economic and political forces have been responsible for measures and policies which run counter to the commitments made by governments for implementing the Beijing Platform for Action. This document presents a compilation of reports which reflect on what has happened and/or what is happening in the following regions in relation to the liberalisation process ten years after these two major events: Asia (focus on the Philippines), Central Asia Sub-region (focus on transition economy - Kyrgyzstan), the Caribbean, Latin America (available in Spanish and English), and the United States of America.

A new blog on Same-Sex Marriage

Dear Readers

In the light of the recent developments regarding Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa, I have added another blog to my little family. It will deal with all matters relating to Same-Sex Marriage, especially regarding legislation.

A link to it has been added in the breadcrumb, and several links to informative websites have been added to the link menu.

News from the Librarian

Dear Reader

Yet another year has flown by. And it was a busy year indeed! I am going to take a well-deserved break, and will start posting again at breakneck speed in the New Year.

I hope that Thread and Thrum and its sister blogs have been of some help to you, and will continue to do so in the future. So look forward to a bumper crop of posts early in January 2006, as I will endeavor to bring you all up to speed with what has been happening over the holiday season.

Have a great time, and a Happy New Year!

Regards
The Librarian

Update

Dear Readers

I will unfortunately not be updating the Blogs until the 21 November, due to work pressure. I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Regards
The Librarian

Progress of the World's Women 2005

UNIFEM's latest report

Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work & Poverty (full text), was released yesterday. The report marks the fifth anniversary of the UN Millennium Declaration and the tenth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and argues that governments and policymakers should pay more attention to employment and its links to poverty. UNIFEM, the women's fund at the United Nations, provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality.

Gender Equality

Report of the Secretary-General on measures taken and progress achieved in follow-up to the implemetnation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly

This short Secretary-General's report reviews steps taken by the General Assembly and its Committees during its fifty-ninth session to promote the achievement of gender equality through the gender mainstreaming strategy (A/60/170). This report serves a good reference guide on this topic and how it relates to various issues on the UN agenda.

Agenda: focus on Beijing +10

Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity. Issue 64.

This journal reports on the progress in the 10 years since the Beijing Conference in 1995. It reflects on the deliberations at the Beijing+10 Review held in March 2005 in the US, picking up on many of the issues outlined as critical areas of concern in the Beijing Platform for Action.

Articles include:

• Women and the economy: how far have we come? Daniela Casale and Dorrit Posel
• Beijing +10: women and the environment – how close are we to Earth Democracy?Lliane Loots and Harald Witt
• Looking back, looking forward: analysing gender equality in South African education 10 years after Beijing Relebohile Moletsane
• Feminism and globalisation: the promise of Beijing and neoliberal capitalism in Africa Vishanthie Sewpaul
• Globalising the women’s movement agenda in South AfricaMaretha de Waal

Report of CSW, 2005

Commission on the Status of Women, Report

The report on the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held from the 28th of February and 11 and 22 march 2005, has just been published.

Accountability upside down: gender equality in a partnership for poverty eradication

Examination of the relationship between reviews of the Beijing Platfrom for Action and the MDG's

By: M van Reisen
Produced by: Social Watch, 2005

This report argues that the ten-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) must be linked to the review process of the and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as it provides a major input into the that process. The report specifically makes the link with MDG 8 – advocating a global partnership to eradicate poverty - and highlights the need to bring the well-established connection between poverty eradication and gender equality to the centre of that partnership.

Engendering policy coherence for development: gender issues for the global policy agenda in the year 2005

Greater policy coherence is needed to facilitate implementation of UN development framework like Beijing Platform for Action

By: Floro M, Hoppe H
Produced by: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V. (FES) 2005


Using case studies, this paper explores the distributional consequences and gendered outcomes of the current international trade and financial policy regimes. The authors find that currently, coordination of macroeconomic policies, principally trade and financial policies, is dominated by the multilateral trade and financial institutions, namely the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank instead of the UN-led follow-up mechanisms. They argue that this concept of policy coherence is incongruent with internationally agreed commitments, particularly with the Beijing Platform for Action and the MDGs, and governments are being denied the autonomy to formulate and implement people-centred domestic policies and strategies.

Focus on Human Rights and gender justice

Linking the MDG's with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing PFA

By: Neuhold B
Produced by: UN & NGLS, 2005

This paper aims at showing the interlinkages between the CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and to emphasise that the MDGs must be developed further from the perspective of human rights, poverty eradication and the empowerment of women.

Gender Equality: Striving for justice in an unequal world

Policy report on gender and development: 10 years after Beijing

Based on the findings of UNRISD ongoing gender research and over 60 specially commissioned studies, the report’s analysis is centred on the economic and political reforms of the 1990s. If most of these reforms did not directly address gender equality, they nevertheless received considerable scrutiny from a gender perspective. And whatever their intentions, they had significant and mixed implications for gender relations and women’s well-being.

Girls cant wait: Why girls education matters, and how to make it happen now

Briefing paper for the UN Beijing +10 Reveiw and Appraisal

As a response to failure of achieving the MDG for gender parity in education in 2005, this paper proposes a new action plan to get every girl in school and learning.
The paper argues that the 2005 girls’ education target was neither unrealistic nor unaffordable, but rather it has not been met because both the international community and national governments have given insufficient political attention and inadequate money to meet it.

Beijing Betrayed

Women worldwide report that governments have failed to turn the platform into action

Produced by: The Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) 2005

The fifth global monitoring report by WEDO assesses governments' progress in implementing the commitments they made at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) in Beijing, 1995. It brings together the diverse voices of women in over 150 countries in sub regions across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, Latin America and the Caribbean and West Asia to influence the United Nations 10 Year Review of the BPfA

Promoting gender equality in and through the media: A Southern African case study

Expert Paper by Collen Lowe Morna from South Africa

Deliverd at the Expert Group Meeting on "Participation and access of women to the media, and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women" Beirut, Lebanon 12- 15 2002

Report of the Expert Group Meeting

Achievements, gaps and challenges in linking the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Developmeng Goals

Peace Agreements as a means for promoting gender equality and ensuring participation of women

A framework of model provisions : The South African case study

Prepared by: Baleka Mbete. South Africa
Delivered at: Expert Group Meeting on Peace agreements as a means for promoting gender equality and ensuring participation of women - A framework of model provisions

ECE Outcome Document: US position

US Explanation of Position on the Outcome Document

ESCAP Outcome Document: Reservations

Reservations on the ESCAP Outcome Document

• Explanation of position by the United States of America
• Explanation of position by France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern ireland and new Zealand, and Observer States Canada and Sweden

ESCAP Outcome Document

Oucome Document produced by the High-level Intergovernmental Meeting held in Bangkok from 7-10 September 2004