October 21, 2008 Priority Theme Subcommittee Minutes

Minutes
October 21, 2008
Sub-committee on Priority Theme
Bahá’í International Offices 12:00-1:00pm

Present: Lois Beilin, Deanna Chitchayat, Winifred Doherty, Madeleine Brecher, Ani Kalayjian, Lillian Oats, Mary Ann Strain, Kate Twohy, Joan Woods, Caroline Themm, Polly Woodard, Loretta James, Mariam Nigosian, Krisy Moore, Laily Mesbah, Zelia Cordero, Soon-Young Yoon, Janet Stovin, Anita Wendew

At the second meeting of the sub-committee on the priority theme for the 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Catherine began by mentioning that the NGOCSW53 blog is now live. Please visit it and post your comments. There is no password and people from all over the world can be informed as to what we are doing.

Visit: http://www.ngocsw.org/en/main

Catherine also responded to Deanna’s question about what should be the end product of the subgroups by stating three main points:

o Determining what the different themes are in relation to the UN context by educating yourself.

o Developing talking points that the different NGOs would like to see included in the negotiating documents of the CSW 53.

o Coming up with a written intervention to present to the CSW 53 six weeks in advance, and each group with a specific emphasis.

All of those present then broke up into the groups they had signed up for in the previous meeting. Those who had not been present previously were asked to join one the four groups already established. In each of these groups the point person was asked to report back what they had discussed in their group.

Women and Poverty:
Poverty is a cause of unequal sharing and responsibility.
It’s key to address poverty first and head on.
Women in Health:
What has been the impact of HIV/AIDS on mind/body/spirit
Overcoming discrimination so that access is for all
Education and healthcare coupled together as a solution
Really looking at the mind/body/spirit continuum and not only focus on healing the body.

Education and Training:
It has been determined that 2/3 of HIV/AIDS caretakers are girls.
Thinking about ways to keep girls in schools.
What are some of the good practice model programs that have been used in other places.

Women in Power and Decision-Making

After these discussions the meeting then came to an end.

Next Priority Theme subcommittee meeting will be held on November 4, 2008 at
Bahá’í International Community Offices from 12-1.

October 21, 2008 Minutes from the CSW 53 NGO Planning Committee

Please note deadlines for CSW 53 written interventions as included in the minutes.
Minutes
October 21, 2008
Planning Committee Meeting
Bahá’í International Community Offices 1:00-2:00pm

Present: Madeline Brecher, Zelia Cordeiro, Winifred Doherty, Carolyn Donovan, Joan Woods, Kate Twohy, Omolara Sofol Martins, Linda Stillman, Janet Stovin, Ani Kalayjian, Polly Woodward Laily Mesbah, Deanna Chitayat, Lois Beilin, Caroline Themm, Catherine Ferguson, Soon-Young Yoon, Carolyn Donovan, Marian Nigosian, Lilian Oats, May Ann Strain, Victoria Edmonds, Anita Wendew, Joy Peterson.

Welcome by Loretta James.

Reminders: Consultation Day will be March 1, 2009 NYU Medical Center, First Ave
CSW53 will be March 2-13, 2009

Remarks and Questions:
Vivian Pender, Chair of NGO CSW NY:
We expect everything to be more organized and smoother than last year, but we certainly need everyone’s help to make it go well.

Up Coming Events of Interest:
The 5th Annual Jazz Brunch sponsored by The Metro NY Chapter of the US National Committee for UNIFEM
Women Ambassadors Luncheon Nov. 3rd, 2008. Keynote speaker Steven Lewis, former Advisor to the Secretary General on HIV/AIDS.
For more information visit www.ngocsw.org

Carolyn Donovan and Mary Ann Strain of the Working Group on Girls requested that girls orientation be a part of the Consultation day prior to the CSW. The Working Group would like to enable girls who attend CSW 53 and their chaperones to both be able to attend the consultation day. If the proposal is accepted, part of the orientation for the girls would be a the New York Medical Center but during part of the day the girls would have their own orientation. The WGG will be making a proposal to the executive committee of the NGO CSW.

Updates from DAW Representative Elenor Solo:
o There will be the opportunity to make suggestions to the Secretary General Report in the online discussion of the Priority Theme by November 10th, 2008. – If you have written information to share with the division it would be received but there would be no guarantee that it would be included in the report.
o Hard copies of written NGO interventions for the 53rd Session of CSW should be sent directly to Carolyn Hannon’s office by Nov. 17th 2008. Committee members expressed concerns for the extremely looming deadline for the statement and asked Eleanor if it could possibly be pushed back a few days. She agreed to look into this.
* Note: This date has been postponed several days in order to facilitate more NGOs preparing written statements – Please contact DAW for the final date.
o Joint statements from NGO have greater weight than those done by single organizations. Statements can be sent to the NGO CSW NY list serve to ask other ECOSOC accredited NGOs to sign on prior to the deadline. Please be sure that statements meet the limit for word count. All words, including the names of organizations and the title of the Commission are counted in determining if a statement is of the proper length.
o invitation letters for ECOSOC accredited NGOs have been sent out electronically. If for any reason you do not receive an invitation in the next couple of days please feel free to contact the respective UN office to find out if there is a problem.
o Online registering for the CSW 53 is still in test mode but will be up and running in the next couple of days.
o Yvonne Herbert fellowships being offered for NGO representatives from Developing Countries who have never attended the CSW before. If organizations want to apply for the fellowship for any of their members who meet the criteria, please contact Eleanor Solo at the Division for the Advancement of Women.

Sign up for Planning Committees for CSW 53 and for the Consultation day continued. The updated list will be available soon.

Next Priority Theme and Planning Committee meetings will be Nov. 4, 2008 at Bahá’í International Community Offices.

draft of working committees

WORKING COMMITTEE FOR PLANNING COMMITTEE
(October 21, 2008)
1. Registration – Vivian Pender
a. Joan M. Woods
b.
c. Pace students(?)

2. Program
a. Panel discussions or keynoters or…
Mariam Nigosian

b. Breakout sessions
Dr. Ani Kalayjian – Facilitator
Mary Ann Strain

Lillian Oats

c. Summary reports
Joy Peterson

d .Regional and other caucuses
Joan Woods
Dana Raphael

e. Networking coffee/tea

f. Packets
Kate Twohy
Joan M. Woods

3.Interpretation and Translation
a. Consultation Day – Diane Parevesian (?)

b. Morning briefings – Linda Stillman
b. Registration Materials – NGO CSW interns

WORKING COMMITTEES for PLANNING COMMITTEE
(October 21,2008)

4. Handbook – Wei Shan
Madeleine Brecher

Kate Twohy

Victoria Edmonds

Joan Woods

5. Round Tables
Feb 3 Prioirty Theme
Dr. Ani Kalayjian

Lois Beilin

Carolyn Donovan

Feb 17
Dr. Linda Stillman

Joan M. Woods
Carolyn Donovan

6. Reception (Tuesday, March 3) ? Turkish Center
Joy Peterson
(as helper, not chair)

7. Fundraising

8. Media Committee
Zelia Cordero (Photos only)

Mariam Nigosian

CSW PLANNING COMMITTEE – 7 October 2008 Notes 11 AM – 1 PM

Present:
Lois Beilin, Joey Bose, Madeleine Brecher, Zelia Cordero,Winifred Doherty, Carolyn Donovan, Victoria Edmonds, Catherine Ferguson, Loretta James, Dr. Ani Kalayjian, Adria Lee, Philo Morris, Mariam Nigosian, Lillian Oats, Joy Peterson, Linda Stillman, Mary Ann Strain, Mary V.Toumayan, Kate Twohy

Guests: Mildred Fernandes is the Acting Chief and Eleanor Solo is the Social Affairs Officer of the Coordination and Outreach Unit of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

This is the first Priority Theme & Planning Meeting for CSW 53, topic: Equal Sharing of responsibilities between men and women, including care-giving in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Loretta James, Planning Co-Chair introduced Eleanor Solo, the DAW officer who will be our NGO liaison. Her e-mail is solo@un.org if needed, but preferred we use csw53@un.org once this is established. Eleanor introduced the NGO Focal Point for the Division of the Advancement of Women who is her chief: Mildred Fernandez who will also attend our meetings form time to time.

Some of the key points they shared with us were:
• DAW has almost completed the switch to a data base that is consolidated with the NGO DESA data base. This should provide less duplication and make communication less confusing for all of us.
• Once this switch is completed – The letters of invitation to NGOs to CSW 53 should go out – hopefully during the week of October 13.
• Early registration is encouraged so that security badges can be made in advance and avoid the bottleneck that occurred during registration at CSW 52.
• Pre-registration deadline is 9 January.
• Registrations will primarily be done electronically, fax, and mail.
• NGO Consultation day will use an auto pay system.
• Round tables will be 3 & 17 February: The first is on the priority theme and the second on the review theme.
• The Secretary General’s report will be out before 2 March. This will be on the DAW web site to read along with other important documents such as the documents from the Expert Group Meeting.
• DAW cannot lobby but can assist the NGOs in ensuring that their written statements are disseminated to the delegates to CSW 53. It will also help in the preparation of the NGO speakers list during the commission meetings. Usually it is more effective for NGOs to work to provide input during the first week of the Commission as during the second week, the delegates will be negotiating text – often behind closed doors.
• At this point there is no plan to limit the number of NGO attendees from an organization.

Eleanor was asked how our members can have some input into the Secretary General’s Report for the priority theme as do the NGO Committee on Social Development Committee and the NGO Committee on Financing for Development. She will look into this.

The rest of the meeting was given over to an explanation of the committees which will be needed for the planning committee. A list was passed around and members were asked to indicate their interest. A summary of this list and further discussion to determine sub-committee members will occur at the next meeting.

Next meeting:

October 21, 2008
1:00 – 2:00
Baha’i International Board Room

Loretta P. James

Minutes subcommittee on priority theme

Minutes
October 7, 2008
Sub-committee on Priority Theme
Bahá’í International Offices: 11:00 – 12:00

Present: Lois Beilin, Deanna Chitchayat, Zelia Cordero, Carolyn Donovan, Winifred Doherty, Madeleine Drecher, Victoria Edmonds, Catherine Ferguson, Chair; Ani Kalayjian, Adria Lee, Catherine E. Moore, Lillian Oats, Dana Raphael, Linda Stillman, Mary Ann Strain, Mary V. Tounayan, Kate Twohy, Susan Weissert, Joan Woods
Regrets: Jackie Shapiro

As this was the first meeting of the sub-committee on the priority theme for the 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Catherine reviewed the purpose of the committee:
• To assist in education on the aspects of the priority theme that are important to us as NGOs
• To prepare talking points which may assist in visiting missions to advocate for policies and language which are important for our NGOs. There same talking points can be used in preparation for caucuses and lobbying at the CSW 53 itself
• To develop written interventions for CSW 53 which can be submitted prior to the session.

Many of those present had signed up last spring to participate in a specific aspect of this preparation. Although originally the sub-grouping had been according to 5 aspects of the Beijing Platform for Action, those present at the meeting grouped themselves into four subgroups on the following themes:
• Women and Poverty – Point person: Mary Ann Strain
• Women and Health – Point person: Ani Kalayjian
• Education and Training – Point person: Deanna Chitchayat
• Women in Power and Decision-Making – Point person: Linda Stillman

In each of these groups, the Aide-memoire for the Oct 6-9 Expert Group meeting in Geneva was reviewed to assess points relevant to the theme pertinent to the group.
In addition, several of the groups looked at the titles of the expert papers to be presented at the meeting and assigned members to study these papers prior to the next meeting. Papers can be found on the DAW website at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/equalsharing/egm_equalsharing.htm.

Next meeting: October 21, 2008
Bahá’í International Offices
12 – 1 pm

Attached below are the minutes from the subcommittee on women and poverty submitted by Lillian Oats:
Dear Friends,
The Subcommittee on the Priority Theme for CSW -”Women and Poverty” had a short organizational meeting today.
As a start to our work we decided to take the objectives of the EGM taking place now in Geneva that are set out in the Aide Memoire #28.
We agreed to study the documents listed on http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/equalsharing/egm_equalsharing.htm and ask;
1. How does poverty cause the unequal sharing of responsibilities between women and men?
2. How does the unequal sharing of responsibilities between women and men cause poverty?
3. Begin to think about good practice examples and possible policy responses to address unequal sharing of responsibilities between women and men.
We will meet again on October 21 at 12:00 p.m. at the Baha段 International Office to share the ideas we have surfaced.