PHM-Exch> Urge Your Country's Ambassador to the UN to Listen to Community Based Advocates; Stand by HR frameworks

[Tanya Roberts-Davis]

Call out to all people's rights, health rights, reproductive justice, SRHR, & economic and social justice advocates: 

The Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights members is calling on you to join us in putting state representatives at the United Nations Headquarters on notice that we are alarmed as the final preparations for the UN High Level Summit on the Millennium Development Goals proceed because:

-Members of civil society, including grassroots social movement alliances, SRHR, women's, youth and human rights advocates and groups representing systematically marginalised communities, continue to find our participation unacceptably limited at MDG negotiations, as well as in related implementation and monitoring processes;

-Language in the outcome document being negotiated does not match up to commitments made under the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, ICESCR and other binding UN human rights frameworks;

-The advisory committee for MDG 5 (maternal health, including universal reproductive health indicators) includes no women and is not representative of the Global South.


Below are instructions and a sample letter to be sent to your UN mission ambassador (representative of your country in New York who will be attending the UN summit). Join WGNRR by  signing it and emailing your country representative. Let us know if you receive a response, or if you have questions about this action.

In Solidarity,

Tanya Roberts-Davis, Campaigns Officer, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights

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1. Cut and paste the email below into a new message.

2. Address it to your UN mission. Names and emails is attached or can be downloaded by 
 scrolling down 
<www.wgnrr.org/campaigns>.

3. Insert the name of the ambassador and add other modifications you would like, the date, your city/town, organisation and name.

4. Cc: WGNRR's Campaign Officer, tanya at wgnrr.org

5. Feel free to follow up with a phone call, or second email.


:::::::::::::::::
To: ________
Cc: tanya at wgnrr.org
Subject: Urging You to Listen to the Voices of Human Rights Advocates and Remember UN Framework Agreements

[July __], 2010

Dear Ambassador[...],

I am from [city/town] and work with [organisation]. I am proud that our country was amongst the 189 states that adopted the Millennium Declaration ten years ago, and committed to work towards the progressive implementation of each of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  Representatives of international institutions and state officials have continuously highlighted the need to learn from the concerns, voices and knowledge of civil society in order for the MDGs to be achieved. Ten years later, the exclusion of the perspectives of critical members of civil society from meaningful forums related to the MDGs is disconcerting and unacceptable. In particular, I am concerned that the summit in September is proceeding behind closed doors. Unfortunately, the MDG Civil Society Organisation Hearings at the UN Headquarters in June 2010 were neither well attended by state missions, nor accessible to those of us who work at a community level with systematically marginalised populations. Despite the fact that the discussions on the MDGs will impact all of our lives and well-being, processes for open, ongoing dialogue between states and civil society members, and for public observation of the UN summit in September have not been developed. This level of exclusion threatens to close down-rather than open up-opportunities towards fulfilling commitments made under the MDGs and international human rights frameworks worldwide. Genuinely engaging with civil society members means not only opening spaces for consultation, but also continuous forms of collaboration to implement and monitor MDG indicators, along with other international human rights frameworks, including the ICPD Programme of Action, the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW and ICESCR.

As a human rights advocate working on reproductive and sexual health issues, I have been shocked to find out that none of the members of the UN high level advisory committee appointed to give recommendations on the implementation of MDG 5 (maternal health) are women, and that all are geographically based in North America and Europe, rather than being representative of the Global South. I am also alarmed that the draft outcome document prepared for the September summit does not mention:

(a)Millennium Development Goal 5b (universal reproductive health);
(b)ensuring reproductive health services are publicly available, affordable to all, non-discriminatory, non-coercive, sensitive to age and livelihood realities and sustained by sufficient government funding;
(c)the development of formal and informal education programmes on sexual and reproductive health and rights; or
(d)specific terminology pertaining to safe abortion or universal access to a full range of contraceptives.

If we are serious about achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and particularly universal reproductive health indicators, I urge you to:

1. Ensure your state delegation to the MDG Summit includes members of civil society groups, particularly those representing the concerns of marginalised communities.

2. Call for the modification of the high level advisory panel in order to respect principles of gender parity, to include women as advisors for MDG 5, and increase the number of representatives from the Global South, with an emphasis on those from civil society organisations.

3. Take a position at the outcome document negotiations to support language that genuinely uphold internationally accepted human rights standards outlined in the ICPD PoA, Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, ICESCR and other binding UN frameworks.

I await your response to these concerns, and will also look forward to hearing about the results of the MDG summit discussions in the months ahead. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
____
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Tanya Roberts-Davis
Campaigns Officer, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR)
Red Mundial de Mujeres por los Derechos Reproductivos
Réseau Mondial de Femmes por les Droits Reproductifs
13 Dao Street, Project 3 Barangay Quirino 3-A
Quezon City, 1102
Philippines
T: + 63 (2) 913 6708     
F: + 63 (2) 911 8293
www.wgnrr.org   
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