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

Wed Aug 11 12:14:55 PDT 2010

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

The Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights is calling on you to join us in writing to your country representatives at the United Nations Headquarters to raise concerns about the upcoming High Level Summit on the Millennium Development Goals. With the ongoing lobbying by advocates working on sexual and reproductive rights with access to the halls of the UN, and community level mobilizations for social change-pressure is mounting on state representatives to the summit to incorporate our suggestions into their position statements and negotiation points. Last moment negotiations amongst state representatives will happen over the next 4 weeks. So..there is still an opportunity to act if you haven't written to your country representative--or if you haven't forwarded this message to your friends and networks. The current process that our state representatives are engaged in to "affirm" the MDGs are unfortunately an indication of the ways in which grassroots people speaking up for basic rights are being systematically shut out of UN processes.  For example:

-Members of civil society, including grassroots social movement alliances, sexual and reproductive health &rights, 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 (addresses and names attached). Let us know if you receive a response, or if you have questions about this action.

In Solidarity,

Tanya Roberts-Davis, Campaigns Coordinator, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights
PS: please do circulate to your contact lists!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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, your city/town/organization.

4. Cc: 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

Dear Ambassador__________,

I am from ____ and work with _______]. 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 not well  attended by state missions, and not 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)ensuring reproductive health services are publicly available, affordable to all at low or no cost, non-discriminatory, non-coercive, sensitive to age and livelihood realities and sustained by sufficient government funding;
(b)the development of formal and informal comprehensive education programmes on sexual and reproductive health and rights; or
(c)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 within our lifetimes, 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 upholds 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,
____
::::::::::::::

Tanya Roberts-Davis
Campaigns Coordinator, 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  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20100811/c599cd6e/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: UN_StateRepresentatives_in_NY.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 309248 bytes
Desc: UN_StateRepresentatives_in_NY.doc
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20100811/c599cd6e/attachment-0005.doc>