Aim for human rights gives workshop on human rights impact assessment tool in New York
From March 1-12 2010 the Commission on the Status of Women (a commission of the economic and social council of the United Nations, ECOSOC) held their yearly convention in New York. The theme of this year’s convention was ‘Beijing +15’, referring to the current implementation level of the 1995 Beijing declaration that stipulated several critical areas of concern in the area of women’s rights. National governmental delegations discussed their progress, identified problems and decided on policy aimed at improving gender equality and emancipation. More than 7000 civil society representatives were present during the convention in order to lobby for a stronger policy on the position of women worldwide.
During this year’s gathering a total of seven resolutions was adopted. A strong lobby of the International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition ensured the strengthening of particularly two resolutions. For instance, in the resolution on HIV/AIDS a reference to the connection between human rights and HIV was re-introduced and the importance of access to reproductive health and sexual education was emphasized. The initially weak resolution on maternal mortality was altered, mentioning unsafe abortion as an important cause of maternal mortality and confirming the connection between women’s human rights and maternal mortality rates.
In addition to the official activities and gatherings, the convention also offered so-called ‘side events’. This gave civil society organisations the opportunity to organize workshops on specific topics. Loeky Droesen en Marije Nederveen from Aim for Human Rights organised a workshop on the Health Rights for Women Assessment Instrument, HeRWAI. Through a HeRWAI analysis, organisations can explore what the impact of a policy is in terms of women's health rights and build up arguments to improve the policy. Civil society organisations can use the results of this analysis to strengthen their lobby for a better implementation of women’s health rights.
Organisations and experts from all over the world attended the HeRWAI workshop on March 8. They received an introduction on the practical use of HeRWAI followed by two speakers, Aigul Alymkulova from Kyrgyzstan and Mariete de Vos, from South Africa. They spoke about their experiences with the instrument and its results. The response after the workshop was very positive; the instrument was considered to be a valuable asset in the area of women’s rights.
For more information on HeRWAI click here
