March 2, 2009
Beijing +15 Minutes
1. Introduction
- Vivian Pender introduced herself and Jackie Shapiro and welcomed all attendees. Afaf Mahfouz sent her regrets. Vivian, Jackie and Afaf are the Co-Chairs of the Planning Committee.
- Any Beijing +15 activity will be in addition to something that the UN does, we will be working separately from the UN but partnered with the UN
- For practical purposes, the Beijing +15 event will be in New York, other venues were considered but since we will be working with the UN it makes the most sense to have it in New York
- The best way to be informed about this activity is to look for the blog on NGO CSW’s website- www.ngocsw.org
- We want to encourage everyone to go to the blog, check it out and leave your thoughts on the blog
- So far, we’ve discussed having a taskforce with two representatives from each region making up the taskforce. This taskforce will go into all of our respective networks so we can get good representation from the grassroots for the Beijing+15 event.
2. Logistics of Beijing +15 event
- This process of planning can take 2-3 years so we need to start organizing right now
- This planning process should be very inclusive, there are many people from non-accredited NGOs who are a part of the Beijing +15 process and it’s important that we reach out to them. Consequently we will have a Friday meeting at 4:00pm at the Church Center so people without UN credentials can meet there.
- We want to emphasize that we’re also trying to get an auxilliary process going in each region- we have skype and technology to connect this process with any auxilliary process.
3. Fundraising
- Sell CSW pins, pens, and other merchandise and use this money strictly for the Beijing+15 conference
- Talk to artists and singers and get them involved in getting the message out. Too often talking about human rights can seem boring, if we get the message out in song people might be more interested.
- Art auction
- A signature scarf
-A logo
4. Goals and Format of Beijing+15 Conference
- We wanted to start out with a large scale event, perhaps at Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Gardens (noting that it is February so it could be really cold)
- We’re considering the global economy and trying to be realistic about what we can achieve- this can be a platform for the whole women’s movement.
- The UN will have a celebration, but this should be more than a celebration, we should actually be trying to achieve our goals
- There should be a a clear political line to everything that we do as part of this event- it is a shame that 15 years on there is still so much more to do. We need to get support from politicians but also be realistic about what this support means.
- We need to have an exciting agenda that does something for women.
- In contrast to using politicians we need to think about not engaging governments too much to show that things can be done without government support. Women’s rights can be won even in difficult situations. This is a constructive and realistic approach.
- We should show that implementation works in a variety of contexts and now there are no excuses to not have the Bejing Platform implanted.
- Perhaps include a mobilization, outside event
-We should think of 12 successes and 12 challenges
5. Challenges
- Beijing doesn’t have a lot of awareness in some places, before planning the conference everyone should try to do some awareness work and advocacy
- use awareness of National Gender Action Plans as a means to create awareness about the Beijing Platform.
- we need deadlines; Dec 10 was one proposed for a pre-event
- create awareness through the media and faith-based organizations
