Challenge Your UN Representative to Listen to Community Based Advocates & Remember Human Rights Frameworks
The Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights members is calling on all sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice advocates 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. Join WGNRR in raising these concerns by reading and signing the sample letter below. En Francais ici.
1. Paste the sample email into a new message. (posted below, and as a word file)
2. Address it to your UN mission (names and emails can be downloaded here). Insert the name of the ambassador at the top and add other modifications you would like.
3. Fill in your city/town, organisation and name in the spaces provided.
4. Cc: WGNRR's Campaign Officer.
5. If you don't hear from your representative, follow up with a phone call, or second email!
______________________________________
Sample Email Letter
To: ____@un.int
Cc: tanya@wgnrr.org
Subject: Urging You to Listen to the Voices of Human Rights Advocates and Remember UN Framework Agreements
Dear [UN mission ambassador],
I am from [city/ town] and work with [organisation]. I am also a member of the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights, an international network of over one thousand grassroots groups and advocates around the world working for the realisation of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). 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, _________________[Your name]