Advocating for change


A Global Voice at the highest levels


Anna Aiken, SI Programme Officer, reports Soroptimist International UN Rep. Yoko-Komori Olson with Michelle Bachelet, Director, UN Women Soroptimist International has a team


of representatives based at each of the main UN centres in Geneva, New York, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Nairobi. SI is also affiliated to the Commonwealth. Here is an update of activities since the last issue of TIS. In June, the UN Women Executive Board was held in New York. SI UN rep Yoko attended to promote the Soroptimist International name to UN Women. She did a fantastic job - as the photo shows! At the end of the first day of the meeting, Yoko was able to give Ms Bachelet an SI leaflet, and share with her who we are. In Nairobi, our reps have also been doing


to Education” – a perfect match for the SI theme of education and leadership. Also, for the second year running, our written statement was selected for distribution. Many thanks to our Geneva representative, Sina Stiffler, who attended the meeting and delivered SI’s statement.


Rome In Rome, Cinzia Palmi, UN


some excellent networking. As a result of SI’s attendance at the UN Environment Programme’s Governing Council meeting in February, our UNEP rep, Alice Odingo, was asked to give a paper on Disaster Risk Reduction, Gender and Youth by the Director of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Alice has also been successful in securing funding to attend a UNEP consultation in Germany this September. She will be joined by International Assistant Programme Director, Anusha, at this event. We’ll be reporting back soon!


Geneva


to see the Convention on Domestic Workers adopted at the 100th Session of the ILO. Domestic work is mainly carried out by women and girls, many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged and marginalised communities. Without legal protection, domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to work based discrimination, and to other abuses of human rights. This resolution is therefore hugely significant. In July, SI was delighted to be selected to deliver an oral statement at the annual ECOSOC High Level Segment. The theme was “Implementing the Internationally Agreed Goals and Commitments in Regard


TIS September 2011 Page 12 In Geneva, our UN reps were delighted


representative to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), coordinated a side event for International NGOs at the FAO Conference. The meeting focused on rural women, microcredit, land tenure and cooperation. The main speaker was Marcela Willarreal, Chief of the Gender Unit. A number of Soroptimists took part in the event, including SI Past President Marie Jeanne Bosia, who spoke on microcredit and the Swiss Union quadrennial project. The President of the Italian Union, Wilma Malucelli, spoke on the importance of supporting and equipping rural women.


New York In New York, our UN representative,


Lois Beilin, reported back from the 49th Session of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the general recommendation up for discussion concerning the protection of women’s human rights in conflict and post conflict situations. The recommendation was presented during the session in New York to allow global consultation and discussion. This recommendation, when final, will allow individuals, NGOs, international agencies and representatives of civil society to report violations to the CEDAW experts in Geneva and New York. In August, Carol Themm, Kathy Mayer


and NGOs for and against. Because many governments have either not implemented human rights legislation or do not have anything specifically on older persons, the Civil Society and NGO community will be pushing hard and meeting with governments that are undecided between now and the next meeting in early 2012. Finally, we have a new page on our website all about our UN reps. Visit http:// www.soroptimistinternational.org/si-at- the-un/learn-more-about-our-un-reps to find out more about them! Remember - for more details on any story mentioned here, visit the news pages of www.soroptimistinternational.org, and if you want to receive monthly updates on the latest advocacy, action and awareness news, please visit the SI website to sign up to our newsletter, Global Voice!


Forthcoming UN Rep meetings and events


September: 1st – 2nd: UNEP Consultation Event in Bonn 3rd – 5th: Annual DPI/NGO Conference in Bonn 5th – 7th: IP Alice and IPD Hilary meet with UNESCO Reps in Paris


October: 25-27th:Commonwealth People’s Forum, Perth


26th-27th:Audacia Conference, New York 28 – 30th: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Perth


and Lois attended the Working Group on Ageing in New York. One of the big discussion points was whether to have a “new” convention on protection of ageing persons. The debate was not conclusive with approximately equal numbers of states


November: 25 October – 10th November: 36th Session of the General Conference of the UNESCO 21st – 25th: 143rd Session of the FAO Council


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