I attended a closed door invitational meeting yesterday 6 March at 5
p.m. EST together with Bette Levy our SI NY UN Representative who is
also the Chair of the North American NGO Caucus. Our SI NY UN Chief Rep
Lois Beilin was also there in her capacity as Treasurer of NGO/CSW NY.
The meeting was facilitated by UN Women and attended by representatives
of several Government delegations including Ireland, UK, Canada, Norway,
Nigeria, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Malawi and Tanzania. 
Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Finland were also confirmed to attend.

At this meeting we were given the list of CONTENTIOUS POINTS RAISED BY
SEVERAL INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES and SOME CROSS-REGIONAL BROKERING COUNTRIES
in the current version of the Outcome Document version 4 March 2013.

They are as follows:
1. Sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (to be
qualified in the context of ICPD-Int Conf on Population &
Development).
2. Sexual and reproductive rights- this addition is being contested on
the basis that it was not agreed language and concerns raised on its
inclusion, particularly with reference to GIRLS.
3. Comprehensive sexuality education with those arguing that such
education had to be age appropriate and with parental/guardian guidance.
4. harmful practices versus harmful traditional or harmful customary practices e.g. female genital mutilation.
5. the role of media and how much regulation could be imposed without impeding freedom of the press.
6. child marriage versus early and forced marriage ( because of definition of "child" in many countries).
7. intimate partner violence.
8. men and boys taking responsibility for their sexual and reproductive
behaviour- the links between this issue and violence against women and
girls is being questioned and concerns with the inclusion of boys in
this statement.
9. debate on whether to use the term "services" or "programmes".
10. abortion and emergency contraception in the context of health consequences.
11. Global standards- whilst many indicated support for this
recommendation, some identified that the focus should be on
implementation of existing measures.
12. rejection of the inclusion of text from non-international agreements
and emphasising the importance of sovereignty in national efforts.
 
We received sound feedback from supportive Government delegations that
for us to succeed with our preferred Outcomes, we need to do the
following immediately:

1. Since not all Government delegations are being headed by a Minister
in charge of women’s matters and many are not assisted by country
experts on gender matters, it is critically important for ALL OF US to
provide evidence and draw attention to previously agreed language in
past UN declarations, conventions, treaties, statements that have been
previously agreed to by your country Government.

Example, "intimate partner violence" is already recognised in WHO report
and also UN Secretary General’s Report on Violence Against Women that
was mandated by the General Assembly. Also, it is implied in the Beijing
Declaration and used in UN reporting on HIV/AIDS.

2. Go meet the Head of your country delegation at their hotel location
or at the delegation’s daily meeting point and explain that the Zero
Draft Outcome Document prepared by UN Women is the MINIMUM STANDARD
Document based on previously agreed upon UN declarations, conventions
and treaties. 

Note: Please emphasise that the Draft Outcome Document gathered
consensus inputs of ALL STAKEHOLDERS via Expert Group Meetings in all
regional groupings around the world and with participation of Government
officials in countries in each regional grouping. This was done over
the past 9 months with full knowledge of all countries!

3. If your country is objecting to language in the Outcome Document,
verify this position by contacting the relevant Government officials
situated in the Federal capital of your country and ask them if these
objections are true. Increasingly, we are discovering that the
objections purportedly raised by countries ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL STANCE
but that of the personal opinion of the country negotiator or Embassy
official tasked with managing the process.

4. Be aware that a "bloc" of countries called G17 are mainly responsible
for these contentious positions and are carrying out cross-regional
brokering. Some countries in this "bloc" are 50:50 and there are
indications that they may pull out if we get persuasive evidence
materials across to them.

5. If your country is already in support of the Outcome Document urge
your country to be a ‘bridge builder" and reach out and convince
countries in it’s regional grouping.

6. This CSW57 meeting is about preserving and strengthening existing
agreements and NOT about unravelling or dismantling existing agreements.

7. We need to clearly and comprehensively address the rights of girls
and why it is critical that girls do not slip from the "safety net" of
CSW57 Outcome Document.

8. Next year CSW58 theme is Post 2015 Agenda and we are currently
involved in framing the Sustainable Development Goals and also finalise
the agreements on Climate Change. We must get our Governments to agree
to holistic and multi-sectoral approaches to eliminate violence against
women e.g. prevent land grabbing during conflict situations.

9. We need to put pressure through local and international media that
individual countries should not invoke sovereignty to exclude or exempt
themselves from provisions in the Outcome Document. Many countries are
afraid of criticism for not being able to achieve targets or previous
commitments, so they come to CSW with the purpose of weakening the
document to arrive at the lowest common denominator version! 

10. Maintain the strong language in the Zero Draft. Any significant
dilution or weakening of text would effectively nullify past agreements
and undo all the work agreed upon by countries in the past 30 years.

Soroptimist sisters, the overall consensus at this first in a series of 4
closed door Stakeholder meetings with Government delegation reps was
that it is better to have no signed outcome agreement than a bad outcome
agreement.

In the absence of an agreement at CSW57, the UN and all our countries
will have existing declarations, treaties and previous agreements to
rely upon and enforce. This is our last resort position.