WGNRR Delivers a CSO Statement during Beijing +20 Review in Asia-Pacific

WGNRR’s Asia Programme Officer, Marevic Parcon, delivered a statement of Asia-Pacific CSOs during the review of the progress and remaining challenges in implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific at the Asian and Pacific Conference on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing +20 Review. The CSO statement calls for strong governments’ accountability for human rights of women and girls in the region.

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STATEMENT

Thank you madam chair. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Asia Pacific Civil Society Organisations Steering Committee for the Beijing +20. We really hope that the following areas will be addressed during this review process:

We would like to flag that the single greatest barrier to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action is the lack of binding and meaningful accountability mechanisms. Governments derive their mandate from their capacity to be accountable to their constituents. Accountability requires time-bound targets, transparent reporting and monitoring, adequate funding and resources and yet it requires so much more.

Genuine accountability means that governments at national and local levels should have a clear role in ensuring implementation and establish annual parliamentary reporting mechanisms. Genuine accountability means that civil society must be able to access government policies, data and decision-making process at all levels. It is unacceptable that civil society representatives are prevented from attending civil society forums by their own governments. National women’s machinery must have an all-of-government mandate to ensure all critical areas of concern are implemented in their entirety. They must have the mandate to review and amend policy that undermines the Beijing Platform for Action and other obligations.

Genuine accountability means that the least powerful amongst us are able to hold the most powerful to account for their actions.

Genuine accountability means that we can hold parliamentarians, officials, corporations and the individuals within them to account for their direct and indirect violations of women’s human rights.

But most significantly accountability requires access to justice, remedies, accountability requires reparations, and accountability requires justice.

This morning you heard our 4 key areas of concern. We would welcome to opportunity to work with the governments to strengthen the outcomes of this meeting as well as into the future.

Thank you.