Draft Document

What most here at this Commission at the UN on the Status of Women are working on feverishly this week is to submit changes to the draft document of the 51st Session of the UNCSW. What it consists of are amendments to the document submitted by various Caucuses organizing themselves here at the UN. I have been working on the North American Caucus and the Peace Caucus. There are many perspectives represented here and many with specific agendas they would like to see passed at the UN, but all seem in agreement that the document prepared for the 51st Session is very weak in every area. So, there is great effort to make the language clear and direct, especially in the areas of violence and sex/slave trafficking.
Apparently, two of the best Caucuses as far as organization and decorum are the Middle Eastern Women's Caucus and the European Union. These women came prepared with the document and pre-written suggestions as to changes and the meeting were conducted efficiently and with great respect for one another. I am sad to say that the North American Caucus was unorganized, loud, and sometimes rude. Not everyone in the Caucus, because it was very large, acted in this manner, but I think there is great opportunity for change in the future. Of course, when one suggests change, one is asked to head up that change!
The North American Caucus offered several suggestions to re-word, add wording, or eliminate certain statements such as, calling on the UN to ratify the UN Protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking persons and insure that these protocols are incorporated into national law and become fully applicable in domestic legal systems. It also addresses forced marriage and early childbirth by mothers who are still children themselves. It addresses the need for access to free education for all girls, the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (apparently a much larger problem internationally than I realized), urging strong action for the prevention and intervention of HID/AIDS, elimination and punishment of child labor practices, and the protection of girls in areas of armed conflict. Strong wording was implemented by the N.A. Caucus in the areas of violence against women in the US.
Our Peace Caucus formed this morning when various women involved in peace initiatives realized that there was almost nothing in the document regarding peace education, more forceful language regarding the forced drafting into armed conflict, and the rapes and sexual violence against girls and women before, during, and after times of armed conflict.
It is amazing to me how careful one must be. One word that can trigger our government to throw out the whole document, and how terrible it would be to not see the necessary changes because of our inability to know what our US Delegates will accept. And I can tell you that the US is barely engaged here officially at the UN. What I have learned here is appalling.
I am off now to a workshop on how Girls Can Become Social Change agents. Tonight I hope to write about the three girls we heard from this afternoon who have been involved in the sex slave trade and trafficking.