UNCSW focuses on sharing of responsibilities

The global HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought greater urgency to the issue of caregiving. The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS, is a priority theme for the 53rd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which got underway at UN headquarters in New York on Monday (March 2).


Pacific representatives from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, as well as Australia and New Zealand are attending the meeting.

They heard specialist agencies of the United Nations, including UNAIDS, OSAGI (Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women) and the International Labour Organisation warn that despite commitments made in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (1994), the World Summit for Social Development (1995) and the Beijing Declaration (1995), women’s full participation in all spheres of life continues to be constrained by gender stereotypes, economic imbalances, and unequal sharing of responsibilities for unpaid work.

The UN Secretary General’s report (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw53/OfficialDocuments.html), which analyses the current situation and proposes recommendations for consideration by the Commission, builds on an Expert Group meeting on the theme last year. The report draws particular attention to both the importance of caregiving work and the need for effective public policies and programmes. Also highlighted is the need to address the many challenges faced by women and girls who bear a disproportionate burden of care responsibilities, often at considerable physical and emotional cost.

It is critical, the report says, for governments to adopt gender-sensitive policies and legislation and review existing policies and legislation to improve rights, social protection and working conditions and ensure effective labour representation of both paid and unpaid caregivers: ‘Women’s unpaid work needs to register on the policy radar,’ said UN Deputy Secretary General, Dr. Asha Rose Migiro.

Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, also said that governments must eliminate violence against women and enact appropriate legislation or gender equality would remain elusive.
Earlier on the opening day, Niue and Cook Islands were granted observer status at the Commission on the Status of Women, paving the way for Niue's Minister for Health and Women's Affairs, the Honourable O'Love Jacobsen, to deliver a regional statement on behalf of Pacific Islands Forum members.

Contact
For more information please contact Treva Braun, SPC Human Development Adviser (Gender Equality) by e-mail teab@spc.int or Tione Chinula, Human Development Programme Advocacy and Communications Officer by phone: +687 26 01 57 or e-mail tionec@spc.int .


Background notes
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of member states gather at United Nations headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide.

This year is the 53rd session of CSW. It runs from 2 to 13 March with the theme “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS”

For more information on CSW 53 visit http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/53sess.htm