Denmark, Ireland and Norway
OWG 11 Comments from Ireland, Denmark and Norway on Gender for Focus Area 5
Check against delivery
Our team welcomes Focus Area 5, we are glad to see that the treatment of this area reflects the three pillars of sustainable development.
We feel that many aspects reflect the spirit of the consensus reached by Member States at the recent Commission on the Status of Women. We also recognise that we are at the juncture of the 20th anniversaries of both the Beijing Platform for Action and the International Conference on Population and Development and we recognise the importance of continued progress in relation to these processes. We note that in 10 of the 16 focus areas there is no reference to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
We welcome the emphasis on gender equality throughout the Open Working Group process and underline the critical importance of integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment across goals, targets and indicators. We also stress the need to ensure that men and boys are fully engaged in efforts to promote and achieve gender equality and the environment of women and girls. Our Troika Statements in other areas will seek to highlight how we think gender equality needs to be integrated.
In relation to the ‘Focus area’ on Gender Equality and its 10 target areas, we have the following comments:
• Following the recent CSW, we suggest that a Gender Goal could aim to achieve gender equality, women’s empowerment and the realisation of the human rights of women and girls.
• We strongly support the targets on addressing the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls of all ages including harmful practices and the target to end all forms of violence against women and girls. We note that we should take a closer look at the suggested timeline; we may not want to wait until 2030 to eliminate violence against women and girls.
• We fully support target (c) on education, which as we stated in the focus area on education, should be based on universal, free and equitable access to quality education at all levels.
• We also support target (d) on equal decent employment opportunities for women and men.
• We also support target e) on economic empowerment and, in addition to the points already captured under e), we would suggest strengthening it by capturing equal access to markets, justice systems and financial services, equal rights to own and inherit land, property and other productive resources and assets.
• We also support the target f) on decision making and feel it could be strengthened with points agreed at the recent CSW, which took a broad view to ensure full, equal and effective representation, participation in all fields and leadership at all levels and in all fields of decision-making in the public and private spheres
• We also support target g) and think that in addition to the points captured in the current draft that it could include ending FGM and honor crimes under the heading of ending all harmful practices against women and girls.
• We support target h) and suggest that this important issue could be better understood with a fuller description, such as achieving a reduction in the burden of unpaid care and domestic work and promoting the sharing of this unpaid work and promoting the elimination of the division of labour based on gender.
• We support target i) but suggest that it address ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights
• In relation to target j) we emphasize that gender-disaggregated data is essential for the entire framework and should form part of all goals and targets. Data disaggregation should capture gender, age, disability, income and social group, among other factors, to ensure monitoring of progress under each goal for women and girls, men and boys as well as vulnerable groups.
Check against delivery
Our team welcomes Focus Area 5, we are glad to see that the treatment of this area reflects the three pillars of sustainable development.
We feel that many aspects reflect the spirit of the consensus reached by Member States at the recent Commission on the Status of Women. We also recognise that we are at the juncture of the 20th anniversaries of both the Beijing Platform for Action and the International Conference on Population and Development and we recognise the importance of continued progress in relation to these processes. We note that in 10 of the 16 focus areas there is no reference to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
We welcome the emphasis on gender equality throughout the Open Working Group process and underline the critical importance of integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment across goals, targets and indicators. We also stress the need to ensure that men and boys are fully engaged in efforts to promote and achieve gender equality and the environment of women and girls. Our Troika Statements in other areas will seek to highlight how we think gender equality needs to be integrated.
In relation to the ‘Focus area’ on Gender Equality and its 10 target areas, we have the following comments:
• Following the recent CSW, we suggest that a Gender Goal could aim to achieve gender equality, women’s empowerment and the realisation of the human rights of women and girls.
• We strongly support the targets on addressing the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls of all ages including harmful practices and the target to end all forms of violence against women and girls. We note that we should take a closer look at the suggested timeline; we may not want to wait until 2030 to eliminate violence against women and girls.
• We fully support target (c) on education, which as we stated in the focus area on education, should be based on universal, free and equitable access to quality education at all levels.
• We also support target (d) on equal decent employment opportunities for women and men.
• We also support target e) on economic empowerment and, in addition to the points already captured under e), we would suggest strengthening it by capturing equal access to markets, justice systems and financial services, equal rights to own and inherit land, property and other productive resources and assets.
• We also support the target f) on decision making and feel it could be strengthened with points agreed at the recent CSW, which took a broad view to ensure full, equal and effective representation, participation in all fields and leadership at all levels and in all fields of decision-making in the public and private spheres
• We also support target g) and think that in addition to the points captured in the current draft that it could include ending FGM and honor crimes under the heading of ending all harmful practices against women and girls.
• We support target h) and suggest that this important issue could be better understood with a fuller description, such as achieving a reduction in the burden of unpaid care and domestic work and promoting the sharing of this unpaid work and promoting the elimination of the division of labour based on gender.
• We support target i) but suggest that it address ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights
• In relation to target j) we emphasize that gender-disaggregated data is essential for the entire framework and should form part of all goals and targets. Data disaggregation should capture gender, age, disability, income and social group, among other factors, to ensure monitoring of progress under each goal for women and girls, men and boys as well as vulnerable groups.