Putting Gender on the Agenda

Since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, numerous world conferences have taken place on such diverse subjects as disarmament, population policy, and human settlements. While the process for convening these conferences and for agreeing on the governmental commitments that they produce has evolved over the years, there are some common characteristics for all.

CONVENING A UN WORLD CONFERENCE

• WHEN
  • Conferences are convened when the international community agrees that the policy direction of an important issue needs to be reassessed, updated, or given special attention.
• HOW
  • Preparing for UN world conferences usually requires a minimum of two years during which the agenda, objectives, and scope of the conferences and their outcomes are determined by Member States of the United Nations. This process frequently involves national-and regional- level meetings, expert group meetings, data gathering, and drafting position papers, which are fed into the global discussions.
• WHY
  • The conferences vary in purpose, but the objective of most is to produce an internationally agreed-upon statement of principles and standards, and an action plan for implementation. This often involves policy changes and commitments by governments and provides direction for the work of the United Nations.

SETTING A WOMEN'S AGENDA

The three world conferences of the UN Decade for Women - held in 1975 (Mexico City), 1980 (Copenhagen), and 1985 (Nairobi) - were important mobilizing and awareness-raising events. The Decade resulted in a consensus document, Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the advancement of Women to the Year 2000 (FLS). This document contains a comprehensive set of strategies for advancing the status of women worldwide.

These conferences made women more aware of the valuable opportunities for organizing locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally, and for influencing policy-making. Recently, women's NGOs have begun to organize coalitions and petitions, undertake research, circulate position papers, and work collaboratively with national governments in preparing for and during UN world conferences that do not have women as a specific theme. Women are increasingly making an effort to attend and to find ways to influence these conferences. Their efforts are yielding results.

PUTTING WOMEN ON THE AGENDA AT THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (UNCED)

Rio de Janeiro, 1992

A number of activities throughout the preparatory process positioned women's NGOs to play a large role in UNCED:

NGO participation in the preparatory meetings enabled NGOs to mobilize for action. This resulted in women building alliances with each other and with governments and UN agencies to influence the Conference agenda. The women's caucus, which grew out of this alliance- building, contributed to the decision on "Women, Environment and Development," which was unanimously adopted by Member States. This landmark decision requested that "key elements relating to women's critical economic, social and environmental contributions to sustainable development be addressed ... in all the substantive documentation, particularly Agenda 21, the Earth charter and the Conventions." It further requested that "recommendations form the relevant meetings held by governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations be made available to he Preparatory Committee." This enabled the recommendations from key NGO initiatives to be integrated into UNCED documentation and, in particular, Chapter 24 of Agenda 21, "Global Action for Women Towards Sustainable and Equitable Development." The 1991 United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) meeting, Global Assembly - Partners in Life, showcased 218 success stories of women's roles in environmental management. The World Congress for Healthy Planet, sponsored by the women's environment and Development Organization (WEDO), was attended by 1,500 women (from 84 nations) who reached consensus on a women's Action Agenda 21. Both meetings contributed to the preparations for UNCED. This UNCED example of strengthening partnerships between governments, the United Nations, and NGOs illustrates a way to incorporate the gender dimension into international decision-making.

THE PARTICIPANTS

The United Nations is an international body with a membership of more than 180 Member States. Governments determine whether to hold a UN world conference and which issues they will address. They are the only voting members at UN world conferences and their preparatory meetings.

Governments

The size and composition of government delegations can vary greatly. In general, delegations include senior ministry representatives, technical experts, representatives from the mission or embassy where the meeting is held, and, increasingly, NGO representatives. It is important to note, however, that governments are not required to include NGOs on their delegations.

UN Agencies, Programmes, and Fund Various UN bodies contribute to the preparations of UN world conferences and monitor the implementation of conference results. They may also be responsible for implementing selected recommendations. They do not, however, vote at the conferences and cannot enforce resolutions that result from the meetings.

NGOs

NGOs are increasingly important actors at UN world conferences. Although NGOs do not have an official negotiating role or the right to vote, they do have a variety of opportunities to influence UN deliberations. These arc discussed at greater length in Part 3. The United Nations Conference Secretariat A Conference Secretariat is specifically established to service and administer a UN world conference. A special secretariat may be set up or the task may be given to an existing part of the UN Secretariat. The head of the Conference Secretariat is usually called the "Secretary-General."

The responsibilities of the Conference Secretariat include:

• preparing background and substantive documents
• preparing questionnaires that can serve as a basis for national reports submitted by Member States and collating national and regional information and data
• convening expert-group meetings compiling a draft programme of action
• overseeing publication of a regular newsletter providing updated information on conference-planning activities
• making available copies of official documents
• providing information on the status of national and regional reports
• servicing and facilitating negotiations between governments
• accrediting NGOs.

DOES THE CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT HAVE A WOMEN'S ADVISOR?

The appointment of Special Advisor on women to the Conference Secretariat for UNCED was important for a variety of reasons, including the access to the official process that it provided for women's NGOs. The Special Advisor on Women promoted awareness of gender issues among conference Secretariat staff and monitored all preparatory documents for their gender sensitivity. The Special Advisor on Women helped NGOs to understand the conference process and found ways to convey NGO experiences and concerns to Conference Secretariat staff and official delegates. She formulated a questionnaire on women's roles in environment and development, the results of which were included in the national reports submitted by Member States.