Commission on Status of Women (CSW) 47th
Session was held at the United Nations in
New York on 3-14 March 2003. It was preceded
by an NGO-CSW meeting on 1-2 March 2003.
Almost 20 BPW members attended, including
three members of executive board –
President Antoinette Ruegg from Switzerland,
First Vice President Chonchanok Viravan
from Thailand, and Second Vice President
Ilse Spritzendorfer from Austria.
At
CSW, NGOs are encouraged to work together
to add weight to our contributions. Typically,
BPW International would work together with
“Project Five-O”, which consists
of 5 international women organizations,
namely BPW International (still officially
known to the United Nations as IFBPW –
so we will refer to ourselves as IFBPW from
here onward), International Federation of
University Women (IFUW), International Council
of Women (ICW), Soroptimist International
(SI), and Zonta International (ZI).
BPW made numerous contributions at the Commission
on Status of Women 47th session, in part
as joint effort with Project Five-O and
in part through our own initiatives. BPW
members gave talks, organized workshops,
wrote statements, and made recommendations
as follows:
As the 47th Session
came to a close, CSW had arrived at an Official
Final Agreed Conclusion on Women in ICT
and Media  ,
but failed to agree on the draft conclusion
on Violence Against Women as it closed the
Forty-Seventh Session.
STATEMENTS
- BPW
International Statement on the Fifth Women
World Conference
During
NGO-CSW session at United Nations on
4 March 2003, BPW International presented
our statement on the Fifth Women World
Conference both orally and in written
format. Our statement weighted both
pros and cons based on feedback from
member countries, and proposed the nature
of the Fifth Women World Conference
that can addresses the concerns from
both sides. This statement was very
well accepted!
This statement strongly influences the
opinion of other NGOs and at the end
of CSW 47th Session, CONGO (Conferences
of NGOs) agreed to adopt several recommendations
from this statement as a consensus of
other NGOs.
- Joint
Project Five-O statement for CSW 47th
Session on Violence Against Women
BPW
International made the final revision
to Project Five-O statement on Violence
against Women. This statement was distributed
to government delegates and NGOs who
attended CSW 47th Session as United
Nations statement E/CN.6/2003/NGO/12.
- Thailand
statement for CSW 47th Session
As
BPW International’s UN chair,
Dr. Chonchanok Viravan, was also one
of the government delegates from Thailand,
she wrote a part of Thailand statement
for CSW 47th session in part of Women
and ICT. Her input addressed Thailand
strategy in ICT policy; its gender-sensitive
ICT indicators on Internet usage and
the impact of executives training on
ICT which has impact on ICT planning
at National level. This statement was
present to CSW by Thai Ambassador on
6 March 2003.
TALKS
- Keynote
Speech on “Women and ICT”
by
Dr. Chonchanok Viravan, IFPBW First
Vice President and Chair of UN Status
of Women Committee, at NGO-CSW session
on 1 March 2003
The
talk covered the current status of the
digital divide and the questionable
status of the “gender” digital
divide. . Many supportive evidences
and data were also presented. Though
several policies at international levels
refer to this problem, most of the National
ICT policies fail to address the gender
aspect. The talk traced the problem
back to the lack of gender-sensitive
ICT indicators on the access, usage,
and impact of ICT and the readiness
of government The need to prioritized
ICT issues for women for the upcoming
World Summit on Information Society
in December 2003 was also emphasized.
- “Good
Practices on High Priority Issues in Violence
Against Women”
by
Maureen Eardley-Wilmot, Chair of IFBPW’s
Ad Hoc Taskforce for CSW on Violence
Against Women, at Joint Five-O workshop
on 4 March 2003
Maureen Eardley-Wilmot addressed practical
approaches to handle violence against
women. She gave a few examples, such
as TeRito project and Domestic Violence
Act in New Zealand, and suggested that
these good practices should be stored
in a database for other countries to
reference and adapt for their own countries.
- “Toward
Equal Access of Knowledge for Women through
ICT and Media”
by
Dr. Chonchanok Viravan, IFPBW First
Vice President and Chair of UN Status
of Women Committee, at Joint Five-O
Workshop on 6 March 2003
In order for women to have equal access
to knowledge through ICT and Media,
two critical needs to attain the goal
for each country are (1) leaders who
have vision and commitment in using
ICT as strategy to develop the country
and (2) a strategic ICT plan that is
gender-sensitive. Three supporting elements
for such plan are gender-sensitive ICT
indicators, ICT Education, and ICT infrastructure
(both physical and content development).
Several examples were given. The talk
also addressed why many Telecenters
failed and gave examples on the one
that succeed in extending access to
knowledge to the rural areas.
WORKSHOPS
- "Good
Practice to handle High Priority Issues
in Violence Against Women"
Jointed
Project Five-O Workshop on 4 March 2003,
3:00-5:00 pm Church Center
IFBPW
organized this workshop on behalf of
Project Five-O. Three speakers were
Indira Patel (nominated Patron of the
United Nations International year of
Culture of Peace for her work with women
in Armed Conflicts), Maureen Eardley-Wilmot
(chair of IFBPW’s Ad Hoc committee
for CSW on Violence Against Women),
and Joan Cromer (president-elected of
Soroptimist International). The moderator
was Dr. Chonchanok Viravan.
-
"Toward
Equal Access to Knowledge for Women
through ICT and Media"
Jointed
Project Five-O Workshop on 6 March,
10:00 am – noon, Church Center
IFBPW
organized this workshop on behalf of
Project Five-O. Four speakers were Dr.
Chonchanok Viravan, Susanna George (Director
of ISIS International), Dr. Young Joo-Paik
(Director of Korea Women Development
Institute), and Dr. Aunya Singsagob
(Assistant professor in Law, Bangkok
University, Thailand). The moderator
was Young Hai Park, BPW member from
Korea.
RECOMMENDATIONS
-
Intervention
at Panel session on Women in ICT and
Media on 3 March 2003
As a government
delegate from Thailand, Dr. Chonchanok
Viravan intervened with question to
panel speakers on the lack of commitment
at International level on setting gender-sensitive
ICT indicators for Internet access,
usage and impact. As International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), which officially collects
internationally comparable statistical
data on ICT, still has only one gender-sensitive
ICT indicator (Telecommunication staffs
by gender), data to substantiate gender
digital divide and to support National
ICT strategy are not readily available.
One of the speakers Mr. Khan, responded
that the UN ICT Taskforce is currently
working on a set of ICT indicators which
crosses between ICT usage and United
Nations Millennium Goals. The addition
of gender aspect has been planed.
-
Recommendation for
UNIFEM regarding their strategic plan
for 2004-2007
As a government delegate from Thailand,
Dr. Chonchanok Viravan attended a brain
storm about UNIFEM role for 2004-2007.
Her recommendations evolved around UNIFEM
roles is raising awareness about CEDAW,
coordinating NGOs effort to formulate
shadow reports, encourage women to exercise
their rights, and use key performance
indicator to measure UNIFEM’s
success.
-
Recommendations
to revise draft agree conclusions
Dr. Chonchanok
helps formulated lobbying statements
for IFBPW with respect to draft agreed
conclusion on Violence Against Women
and Women in ICT and Media, which President
Antoinette distributed to BPW members
to go lobby their government delegates.
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