LETTER ON THE OCCASION OF MARCH 8th 2008
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
To:
The High Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Ms. Benita Ferrero - Waldner
The Foreign Affairs Ministers of the countries members of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP)
The Ministers in charge of gender equality of the countries members of the EMP
Dear High Commissioner,
Dear Ministers,
The Euro- Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) celebrates 8th of March and wishes you a happy International Women's Day.
On this occasion we wish to recall the holding of the November 2006 EMP Ministerial Conference "Strengthening the Role of Women in the Society" and the Common Framework of Action developed at this conference (the ‘Istanbul Action Plan’) to strengthen women’s role in political, civil, social, economic and cultural spheres, as well as to fight against discrimination
We also wish to recall the important declaration and Five Year Work Program adopted at the tenth Anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration (Barcelona+10) where Euro-Med countries confirmed their will to adopt measures to achieve gender equality, preventing all forms of discrimination and ensuring the protection of the rights of women.
However, realities on the ground indicate that women in Europe still suffer violence and discrimination and that gender equality is bound by many difficulties and deficiencies. According to the EMHRN report released in November 2006 (Achieving Gender Equality in the Euro-Mediterranean Region: Change is Possible and Necessary) despite several gains and advances there are critical gender deficiencies in all countries of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region.
The report identified key challenges to gender equality in the region as follow:
· The implementation of the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is fraught with difficulties, poor investment and lack of political will
· Hardly any changes have taken place in lifting states’ reservations on several clauses in the Convention whilst the ratification of the CEDAW Optional Protocol does not seem to be on the agenda of current states in the region
· Law reforms were not accompanied by the setting up of efficient implementation mechanisms
· Women’s political participation remains abysmally low
· Women remain vulnerable to violence, discrimination and poverty
· Gender based discrimination continues to be reproduced and perpetuated by social institutions which remain by large patriarchal
The EMHRN believes that there exists a strong and sincere intention to promote gender equality in the Euro-Med region, however lack of a specific implementation plan for and shortcomings of the Review Mechanism of the Istanbul Action Plan hamper proper implementation , monitoring and results so far.
The EMHRN also notes with concern that gender equality is yet not at the core of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and of the European Neighourhood Policy (ENP) and needs to be given more significance in policy dialogues and programming.
Limited number of public, government bodies and civil society organizations is aware of the ENP action plans and the Istanbul Action Plan. Accordingly only a limited number is involved and would benefit from the opportunities these plans offer to help improve human rights and women's status. Hence awareness-raising activities addressing ENP Action Plans and the Istanbul Conclusions are badly needed ensuring that concrete involvement of NGOs is pursued.
ENP Action Plans need to be translated into specific reform actions that are operational. Explicit time frames should be developed. Clear responsibility for implementation should be assigned.Specific progress indicators and development goals should be defined as well as the implementation and monitoring process.
We hope that the above mentioned concerns and recommendations would receive the consideration they deserve, marking a different March 8th in 2009 full with achievements of the Istanbul Action Plan that we aspire to.
Yours Sincerely
On behalf of the EMHRN
Kamel Jendoubi, President
Eva Norstroem, Vice President
Rabea Naciri, Executive Committee member in charge of gender equality
Annex 1
EMHRN Recommendations in relation to implementation of the Plan of Action for ‘Strengthening the Role of Women in Society’ Conference 2006 (Istanbul Action Plan):
1. The EMHRN recommends that a Work Plan is developed to accompany the Five Year Plan which should be clear, explicit and specific in the goals it wants to achieve in the short, medium and long term and the time frame within which to achieve these goals. It should develop clear indicators and benchmarks in order to measure progress towards its goals. It should make recommendations for working tools to be used in the implementation of the proposed plan.
2. A Follow-up Committee should be established to clarify the composition, and mandate of the review mechanism and ensure regular input in and monitoring of the implementation. The reporting process as well as the financial resources at is disposal should be specified. The Plan should entail a periodic and systematic evaluation.
Representatives of relevant civil society organizations with track record in this field should be part of the Follow-up Committee.
3. The Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference in 2009 evaluating the progress in the implementation of the 5 Year Plan of Action, should ensure the participation of NGO and that an important role is given to the NGOs to enrich exchanges between civil society and the Ministerial conference.
4. The EMP should support the setting up of observatories in each country consisting of representatives of civil society to monitor the implementation of the Plan of Action and to make a yearly report on their findings.
5. The European Union and the Partner States should strengthen information and consultation with NGOs on the gender equality dimension of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP).
6. An important criteria for the allocation of the Democracy Facility should be progress in the field of women’s rights.
7. The European Parliament and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly should be encouraged to be more involved in the implementation of the Plan, especially at the level of follow-up of the implementation of the Plan.
8. The Euro-Med Foreign Ministers Conferences should regularly evaluate the progress made in the implementation of the Plan of Action and Gender should become a high priority on national levels as well as on EU levels, and it should be worked on by high level bodies.
9. Coherence and synergies should be ensured between the Istanbul Plan of Action and the EMP and ENP frameworks in relation to gender mainstreaming and promotion of women’s rights.
10. Funding necessary for the implementation of the Plan should be allocated by the Euro-Med governments.
Annex 2
Review Mechanism for the Framework of Action (Istanbul Action Plan)
The EMHRN welcomes the incorporation of a review mechanism proposed in the Plan (the annual meeting of the EuroMed Committee, a Euromed ad hoc meeting at expert senior officials level to review the implementation and to inform the EuroMed Foreign Affairs Ministers Conference; as well as a follow-up Ministerial conference in 2009). However, the EMHRN is worried about the lack of a clear mandate for such a review mechanism, and that, in lack of a clear mandate and lack of reporting mechanisms, there is a serious threat of lack of monitoring and implementation of the
Plan. Furthermore, the Plan of Action does not specify the level at which responsibility for the implementation of the different actions lies - whether at national level of individual Partner States, at EU level or at regional level, which also threatens to hamper proper implementation as none would feel ownership and responsibility.
Finally, a follow Euro-Med Ministerial conference in 2009 to evaluate progress made seems late as only one year of the 5 year plan would remain to redress possible short comings in implementation.
Recommendations regarding the adopted Review Mechanism for the Framework of Action *
- Clear specific explicit measures required in scope ofNational Work Plans
It is required to establish defined measures for each of the identified priorities in the framework of action. Each country can develop its own measures which will contribute to achieving the goals identified in the framework of Action. These measures can be reflected within National Work Plans for all EMP countries, which should be clear, explicit and specific in the goals they want to achieve in the short, medium and long term and the time frame within which to achieve these goals. They should develop clear indicators and benchmarks in order to measure progress towards their goals. They should make recommendations for working tools to be used in the implementation of the proposed plans.
- National Work Plans should be based on National Strategies on Women's informed by NGOs inputs
National Work Plans should be developed based on National Strategies on Women prepared by the governments in consultation with Nongovernmental organizations.
- Coherence and synergy with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and cooperation programmes
National Work Plans also should be linked in a coherent manner with objectives and actions underlined in the ENP Action Plans, the Strategy Papers and the National Indicative Programs (NIPs).
- Obligatory status for the National Work Plans
National Work Plans should be binding and the Review should be done on this basis.
- Monitoring and Evaluation are required to support the review
The Review Draft Report represents a Progress Report more than a Review Report with the lack of specific objectives and clear indicators and bench marks. The Report availed a comprehensive compilation of the conducted activities and the underlined achievements based on the completed national questionnaires. Thousands of activities and initiatives are being done in the EMP countries which are important and appreciated, but are these considered acceptable and enough and would they achieve the goals identified in the Framework of Action within the identified time frame ?
In short, the adopted review mechanism provided little general overview of the state of progress in implementing the Istanbul Action Plan and would not enable proper monitoring and evaluation. Hence, clear indicators and benchmarks should be developed in order to measure progress made towards the defined objectives.
* For the purpose of monitoring implementation of Istanbul Action Plan, European Commission (EC) decided to prepare yearly Implementation Review Reports based on contributions from Euro -Mediterranean partners. The first report entitled "Implementation Review Report (2006-2007) was presented at the "Strengthening the Role of women in the Society" EUROMED Ad Hoc Meeting held in Brussels on October 22, 2007.
