EU Presidency Statement - Advancement of Women

Statement on behalf of the European Union, by Mr. Taisto Huimasalo, Ambassador Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, 61st session of the General Assembly, Third Committee Item 61: Advancement of Women, UNITED NATIONS, New York

Chairperson,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, as well as Ukraine align themselves with this declaration.

Chairperson,

The 2005 World Summit was a significant step forward for the United Nations, giving it a strong mandate to implement decisions taken on global commitments to gender equality. The Summit reaffirmed the importance of full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action and the outcome document of the twenty-third special session. The year 2006 has been a year of implementation and the Third Committee has devoted much of its attention on ensuring that reaffirmed commitments will be put into action.

The European Union greatly valued the opportunity to participate in many important debates at the 50th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW50). The EU highly appreciated the agreed conclusions on the theme "Enhanced participation of women in development: an enabling environment for achieving gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of education, health and work" as well as "Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels".

The full and effective implementation of these commitments, as well as women's empowerment more generally, is an essential prerequisite for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development

Goals and peace and security in the world. There is growing evidence that the greater involvement of women in the labour market, business and politics is also associated with lower levels of corruption and better governance. Promotion of women's participation in all levels of decision-making, especially in economic decision-making, should be seen as a key issue for the improvement of global democracy. Women's participation in political and economic processes will ensure that the goals and objectives of economic policies are better tailored to women's realities.

In the CSW50, the EU emphasised constituting an "enabling environment" for achieving gender equality. Legal and regulatory frameworks play an important role in shaping an enabling environment for the advancement of women.

However, discriminatory practices and traditional and stereotyped attitudes may not change at the pace in which these frameworks have changed. When addressing this gap we should pay special attention to the eradication of violence against women and girls, to education, to sensitization and to the need to involve men and boys in the implementation of our commitments.

Chairperson,

We have seen a gradual improvement in the social and economic status of women and in gender equality in many parts of the world, with respect to education, health status, labour force participation and wages. However, in spite of considerable advances, gender discrimination due to inequalities with regard to rights, resources and voice persists in all countries.

A large body of evidence from a range of countries indicates that gender inequalities undermine the effectiveness of development policies in fundamental ways. Societies discriminating their members on the basis of gender pay a significant price in terms of higher poverty, lower quality of life and slower economic growth and development. The costs of gender inequality are particularly significant in low-income countries, affecting mostly the poorest. Yet the gender perspective is often absent from strategic policy dialogue and policy-making. This applies also to economic liberalisation, trade and investment policies, which have major implications for women.

The EU's Development Policy Statement "The European Consensus on Development", approved in 2005, provides for the first time a common vision on EU action in the field of development co-operation, both at the member state and at Community level. It is the first EU policy on development cooperation to recognize that gender equality is a goal in its own right. The document also refers to gender equality as one of the five common principles of EU development cooperation.

In the context of development cooperation, the EU wishes to emphasize the importance of integrating gender perspective into the new aid modalities and discussions around the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The EU has supported this work by organizing a conference entitled "Owning Development: Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships" together with UNIFEM. The conference provided input to a Commission's Communication on Gender Equality and Development cooperation that will be finalized by the end of 2006.

One of the major international challenges is the integration of a social dimension into economic policies and globalisation. Sectoral and occupational segregation, a gender wage gap, as well as an increase in women's share in part-time work arrangements and in the informal sector have contributed to the deterioration of women's economic situation in many countries. Privatisation of national assets has in many cases had a strong male bias, with women receiving few privatised assets, limiting their opportunities in the private sector development. Globalization, when well managed, has the potential to generate unprecedented well-being for all and in all countries. However, without respect for women's and girls' human rights and social and economic policies actively promoting gender equality, this promise will not be realised. Transforming the existing gender relations into a more egalitarian direction through the redistribution of resources and responsibilities is an important part of this process. In developing countries, we need investment especially in genderinclusive pro-poor growth.

Improved gender equality is an important sign of the effectiveness of the new aid modalities and partnerships. In the context of budget and sectoral support, we need to avoid priviledging economic and fiscal management issues over social equity and gender equality considerations. We still have a plenty of challenges in terms of integrating gender issues into national development plans, including poverty reduction strategies. Without a proper gender analysis, poverty will not be effectively tackled.

Integrating gender equality effectively into poverty reduction strategies and related direct budget or sectoral support mechanisms also requires new skills and capacities, from all development partners, including donors, but especially from the national public institutions, which have to be in driver's seat in order to ensure national ownership. These skills cannot be taken for granted but have to be built through adequate investment. In addition, gender sensitive planning requires relevant tools, gender disaggregated data and economic policy frameworks that are gender responsive. The connection between policies, spending commitments and actual implementation needs also to be strengthened.

Chairperson,

Globally, women contribute significantly to economic growth and are critical to the achievement of sustainable economic development in any region. This year, the issue of international migration and its linkage to development has been a central concern. The EU has welcomed the UN High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development and the CSW session on this topic.

Migrant women play an important role in the economic development of both their country of origin and as well as of their country of destination. They are often the poorest residents in their destination countries, but responsible for a significant portion of remittances. The EU stresses that the lack of access to rights that men and women may experience when they migrate can determine the extent to which they can benefit from the development potential of migration. As a result of being both female and foreign, migrant women can face discrimination and limited access to formal employment, social security and health programmes.

A gendered human rights approach is required towards migration.

The EU emphasises that a gender perspective should be integrated into migration policies. Sufficient and accessible legal channels for women's migration need to be ensured, to avoid them being pushed into more risky illegal channels.

It is essential to strengthen the protection system for women's rights at the national level, with increased attention to the elimination of violence against women and human trafficking. A gendered perspective is essential for analysing and understanding the causes and consequences of international migration.

The EU supports the establishment of the Global Forum for International Migration and Development as follow up to the UN High Level Dialogue. The EU believes that a proposed Global Forum on migration and development can bring added value, provided that it is informal, voluntary, non-binding and driven by interested UN Member States and participants. The EU emphasizes that promoting women's rights and gender equality should be crucial in the work of this forum.

Chairperson,

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was a landmark resolution for establishing human rights guidelines concerning women's rights in conflict situations. The resolution recognizes the importance of analysing the impact of armed conflict on women and girls and stresses the need for effective institutional arrangements to guarantee their protection and full participation in peace processes.

In order to strengthen the practical implementation of the resolution at the national and regional level, the EU has taken several steps to ensure that a gender perspective is integrated in the European Security and Defence Policy and into its crises management operations. An exchange of national best practices on gender mainstreaming has taken place resulting in case studies, a checklist and guidelines being developed, as well as measures adopted to cover all planning and implementation processes from pre-conflict to post conflict phases. In January the EU also launched a worldwide campaign on women human rights defenders for 2006, in order to strengthen women's human rights.

In this context, the European Union wishes to underline the important role of women in connection to the establishment of the UN Peace-Building Commission, as mandated by the World Summit of September 2005. It is of utmost importance to have an adequate representation of women as well as sufficient gender expertise in the Peace-Building Commission.

As stressed in our statement for CSW, gender equality cannot be achieved without guaranteeing women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in accordance with the ICPD Cairo Agenda. The EU would also like to draw attention to sexual violence in conflict situations, which is a fundamental human rights violation. In the international conference on Sexual Violence in Conflicts and Beyond in June 2006, the EU stressed the importance of paying adequate attention to health-care services, including sexual, reproductive and maternal health care and scaling up of effective prevention programmes and measures to ensure that different agencies can provide a well coordinated multi-sectoral response on the issue of Gender Based Violence.

Women and girls are also disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDs infection during conflict and post-conflict periods. The EU underscores the need to take accelerated measures to fight against the HIV/AIDs pandemic and to develop effective strategies for prevention and provision of care, support and treatment for affected women and girls in conflict settings.

The use of rape as an organized and systematic weapon of war is a phenomenon that the international community must address with greater vigor. All parties to a conflict must refrain from actions such as gender-based violence. The EU welcomes the adoption of Security Council resolution 1674 (2006), in which the Council condemned in the strongest of terms all sexual and other forms of violence committed against civilians in armed conflict, particularly women and children. The EU also welcomes all the efforts undertaken by United Nations agencies and peacekeeping operations to implement a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual abuse and exploitation, human trafficking, or other related acts and urges the UN to work even harder in implementing this policy. The EU has taken similar steps through the adoption of generic standards of behaviour for personnel of EU crisis management missions.

Chairperson,

At the European Level, the European Commission has issued a Communication entitled "A Roadmap for equality between women and men", outlining six priority areas for EU action on gender equality for the period 2006-2010, namely equal economic independence for women and men; reconciliation of private and professional life; equal representation in decision-making; eradication of all forms of gender-based violence; elimination of gender stereotypes; and promotion of gender equality in external and development policies. Actions to be taken include increasing awareness of gender equality in schools, promoting female entrepreneurship, establishing in 2007 an EU network of women in economic and political decisionmaking positions, publishing a Communication on the gender pay gap and highlighting gender issues during the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for all. In 2005, the Commission adopted a Proposal for a European Institute for Gender Equality. The institute should be operational in the course of 2007.

Thank you, Chairperson.


* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

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