STATEMENT OF THE LINKAGE CAUCUS AT THE 49TH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

The Linkage Caucus represents a diverse group of NGOs from all regions of the world gathered at the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

As long-standing supporters of and advocates for the United Nations and the multilateral system, we believe that the UN Member States and the UN leadership need to take strong action to advance gender equality within the UN system and to make the promotion and realization of women's empowerment and human rights a priority.

Based on the discussion at this 49th Session of the CSW reviewing implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, we note that the UN system needs both more effective, results-driven gender mainstreaming, and effective, adequately resourced women's units to bring us closer to implementing the Beijing Platform, to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, to ending the pandemic of violence against women, and to reflecting the UN's unequivocal commitment to the world's women in all their diversity.

In this regard, we would like to emphasize the need to upgrade and better resource the gender architecture and its related mechanisms within the UN. The UN system must elevate gender equality to its appropriate place within its own organizational chart. The status of the personnel and funding of the units that work on women's issues within the UN should reflect the high priority that the system says it places on gender equality. Women's participation and equality is essential to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, as well as to fulfilling the myriad other commitments the UN has made to combating gender inequality and discrimination.

Over the past two decades, Member states have steadily expanded the mandates and expectations that they put on UNIFEM and the Division for the Advancement of Women in particular. Furthermore, the status of the personnel charged with the advancement of women must be raised to the level of others dealing with equivalent concerns.

In additions, it is urgent that the low percentage of women in high level posts within the UN be addressed. There is currently no Under Secretary-General dedicated to and only one Assistant Secretary-General working on gender issues. Thirty years after the first International Women's Year Conference, it is shocking that only a handful of approximately sixty Secretary Generals Special Representative(SRSGs)s and Deputy Special Representatives are women. This and the lack of progress in appointing women heads of agencies underscores the problems with implementation if gender equality policies within the UN system.

The UN should be setting an example for gender balance and assisting Member States in achieving the BPFA goal of at least 30% women in decision-making positions—a goal which is far from being realized one decade later. Furthermore, we note with concern that there are only 11 women ambassadors at the UN and that Member States have been slow to put forward women candidates for SRSGs and heads of UN agencies.

A clear commitment on the part of Member States to nominate and the SG to appoint more women to leadership positions would show strong commitment in the area of gender equality.

We hope that in the context of UN reform Member States and the UN leadership will propose and implement structural changes that would have a real impact on the work of the United Nations on gender equality as well as serve as a model for Member States.

The time to act is now.

March 9, 2005
New York, NY, USA