For example this year’s CSW has seen attacks on NGO access to the negotiation process. According to the NGO/CSW Committee outside the negotiations on Wednesday 22^nd of March UN Secretary Staff removed NGOs from the building after 6 pm while negotiations continued late into the night. CSW Agreed Conclusions’ negotiations were moved to the ECOSOC Chamber and Trusteeship Council Chamber twice that week. These rooms are on the second floor which is off-limits to NGOs. This has severely restricted NGO/ government informal discussions hampering their ability to support the progress of the negotiations.

IAW has signed together with many other organizations a letter to Ambassador Patriota, Chair of CSW 61, concerning NGOs access to the negotiations at CSW 61. In the letter they are saying that over the last twenty years they have seen significant change in the way they have been doing their work. Less than 15 years ago NGOs were able to observe the negotiations and approach delegations on the floor of the UN Conference Rooms. In recent years their collaboration has been subjected to increasing restrictions limiting their capacity to work with member states to deliver strong Agreed Conclusions that make a real difference to the policy and legal settings that are used to realize women’s human rights.

Finally they asked the cooperation of Ambassador Patriota in ensuring that the remainder of the negotiations is scheduled in Conference Room 4 or other accessible rooms to facilitate the working relationships of member states and NGOs in the final days of the negotiations. It is after all part of the critical legacy of collaboration between member states and civil society at the CSW which has delivered many advances for women’s human rights.

However it is not only in the UN that we face the shrinking space of civil society. In the last ten years human rights’ organizations, pro-democracy actors and wider civil society movements in many countries have been facing increased restrictions when trying to carry out their work. Governments make it more difficult to operate for civil society organizations who receive foreign support and funding. In many countries, human rights’ NGOs are restricted when they attempt to hold public gatherings, express their views or set up new organizations. In addition to this, individual human rights’ defenders are often subjugated to intimidation and harassment.

Space can start to shrink when governments see civil society as a threat. As a result they employ tactics to discredit and weaken them thereby shrinking the space in which they can work. This worrying trend is not limited to the authoritarian or dictatorial regimes. It is a global phenomenon that can also be observed in Europe including within the EU borders.

Finally the LGBTIQ community has been attacked through a bus which circulated in NY and spread hate messages. The International Organization for the Family, the National Organization for Marriage and CitizenGo were behind the bus and its hate slogans. Two of these organizations have been selected by the state to represent the US government at the CSW 61. The above organizations are well known for being notoriously anti-LGBTIQ. The orange bus was covered in the message “It’s Biology: Boys are boys… and always will be. Girls are girls… and always will be. You can’t change sex. Respect all”. OutRight Action International commented that broadcasting a message that erases and denies the reality that transgender and intersex children and youth exist is irresponsible, disrespectful and dangerous.

Under these circumstances a group of feminist organizations including IAW visited the Secretary General and invited him to attend the morning briefing of NGOs by UN Women. Soon-Young represented the IAW in the meeting in which he was handed a letter signed by 900 women organizations including IAW. In the letter among other issues they also reminded him that the UN has benefited a lot from women’s advocacy. Women raised awareness about domestic and other forms of violence, created the GEAR campaign that resulted in UN Women. The UN counts on women’s organizations to achieve progress in SDGs, in SC Resolution 1325 and its following, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development, etc. In turn for the above they asked that the UN strengthens its commitment and support to feminist and women’s movements, to continue to have a strong multicultural voice at the UN. They invited him for an open dialogue with women during CSW 61 on their concerns and how to strengthen their partnership.

The UN Secretary General came to the briefing of NGOs on March 17^th and discussed a lot of issues with them. What is very important is that Guterres acknowledges that there is a backlash today against many of the gains women made over recent decades. He said that we need to reverse this. There is also backlash against civil society in general and in many dimensions of human rights.

The explanation of this trend for Guterres lies in the following: as societies become more complex and as social media and governments feel less and less secure because they have less instruments of control, one of the attempts is to try to keep civil society under control. Limiting civil society space is a reaction to the feeling of governments that they are losing control of society. Mr.Guterres said he is trying to make governments understand that links with civil society are a way to improve governance, not limit the power of governments.

Guterres is of the view that we need to have a campaign to make sure governments understand that working with civil society is the best way to rule a country and that they understand that the UN needs to apply the same procedures within its work, because what is true at the national level in relation to the quality of democracy is also true at the global level in relation to the governance of democratic institutions.

Mr Guterres said that gender parity at all levels, political, cultural, economic and social, is a central objective and must be based on women’s empowerment. Gender parity will also be a central objective at the level of senior management as well as of the entire UN staff. We take it that parity refers to the full realization of women’s and men’s human rights.

The Secretary General sought suggestions and opinions of the civil society representatives on how the UN can move forward on its commitments on gender equality. He opened the discussion by sharing life lessons on the issue, telling the gathering that during his time as Prime Minister of Portugal one of his most difficult battles had been putting family violence on the national agenda. Antonio Guterres referred to women and children refugees, which are the most vulnerable among refugees because we live in a male dominated world and a male dominated culture. To be able to receive protection refugee women and girls should be empowered.

The representative of Baha’i International spoke about the shrinking space of civil society and asked for a highly positioned officer, an under Secretary General, to take civil society in his/her mandate. The Secretary General was very positive about it. He also recognized that the LGBTIQ community should be fully acknowledged at all levels and that the realization of sexual and reproductive rights is a question of social welfare.

He also said that human societies are the least prepared to help the young and that he would try to do his best in that respect as well. After a representative from an Iranian women’s organization described the situation of women in her country and said that stoning of women should not be possible in the 21^st century, he said that he would look after women in that country.

The Secretary General said that gender mainstreaming should take place in all UN policies. Through gender mainstreaming, financing in different fields of the UN could apply to women as well. He also stressed that there should be zero tolerance to violence against women among UN staff, including peacekeepers. Human rights are crucial in achieving gender equality. Human rights should prevail everywhere in the world, but we can only act with the instruments we have. We cannot make miracles, he said.

Agreed Conclusions

Negotiations:
There were a number of contentious issues. Some were the usual ones that are discussed every year, like family and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Both formulations are weak in the text. Moreover the US reserved its position saying that for them abortion is not part of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Civil society has also a weak formulation.

Other contentious issues have been:

• Unpaid care work. For some countries this is work done by women family members. Unpaid care work is a crucial component of this agenda. The Commission recognizes that it should be valued, recognized, reduced and it covers many aspects of it.
• Decent work. There was no consensus concerning its definition.
• Sexual harassment and how that affects women’s participation at work. Some people asked for an ILO Convention on sexual harassment at the workplace.
• Social protection floors have been omitted in the beginning by ILO probably because some governments did not want to accept them as they cover lots of people.

An achievement of this session has been strong language for migrant and indigenous women. Also many government delegations had youth observers, so youth was more integrated into CSW work.

During meetings organized by the Europe-North America Caucus, a number of NGOs challenged the role of UN Women saying that they were given more voice than women activists. They said that UN Women organize for us. They also criticized UN Women for not contributing to more knowledge on women’s issues.

According to Susan O’Malley, President of NGO/CSW NY, the word empowerment as used in the priority theme raises questions. The Oxford English dictionary defines empower as “to invest legally or formally with power or to permit as a person in power” an individual woman to achieve a gain without a sense of women collectively. Too often ‘leave no one behind’ is forgotten in discussions of empowerment when a woman is praised for breaking a previous economic barrier. According to O’Malley we need to see the priority theme in terms of human rights, a concept that works better horizontally than vertically.

Text of the agreed conclusions:
This year’s Commission drew the attendance of 162 Member States including 89 representatives at the Ministerial level. More than 3900 representatives from 580 civil society organizations came to NY from 138 countries.

The outcome document consisting of a set of agreed conclusions highlights barriers that women face, such as unequal working conditions, women’s overrepresentation in the informal economy, gender stereotypes and social norms that reinforce women’s concentration in certain sectors (such as health and social sector) and the uneven share of unpaid care work that women do.

• Governments committed to the implementation of equal pay policies through social dialogue, collective bargaining, goal evaluations and gender pay analyses, among other measures. The aim is to close the gender pay gap which is at 23% globally.
• They also addressed the issue of minimum and living wage as the majority of women are at the base of the pyramid. This means that the feminization of poverty can only be addressed if more women are to rise up the ladder of economic participation.
• The issue of care has been given attention as well as investment in social infrastructure in order for countries to be able to create sustained support for women.
• The text recognizes the importance of removing structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment, including ending all forms of violence against women and harassment of women and girls everywhere in the public or private space.
• Also the impact of the structures that hinder economic progress were viewed from the perspective of their impact on women migrants and refugees, older women, women living with disability and indigenous women and girls, discussing different intersectionalities that limit many women including those discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.

The following issues among others are also highlighted in the text:

• The plight of women in the informal sector, who have no social protection and the need for social reform;
• The importance of legislation that addresses the barriers that limit women’s economic empowerment as well as the norms than hinder women’s economic empowerment;
• The importance of data and statistics without which we are not in a position to address adequately progress and setbacks;
• The participation of women everywhere where decisions are made about them, in particular at policy making fields and in associations that address economic well-being including trade unions;
• A gender-aware climate change response;
• Gender-aware macroeconomic policies and tax policies;
• Education in STEM subjects and the readiness of women to participate, especially in the digital economy;
• Investing in the Women’s Agenda, including the availability of domestic resources for investment in the 2030 Agenda and more ODA directed to the agenda for women’s equality as well as for women’s economic empowerment.

Resolutions adopted:

• The Israeli resolution on ‘Preventing and Eliminating Sexual Harassment in the Workplace’ was adopted by consensus. This is the first Israeli resolution in the history of the UN that is being adopted without a vote.
• The resolution on ‘Situation of and Assistance to Palestinian Women’ was adopted with a recorded vote of 30 in favor, 12 abstentions and 1 (Israel) against.

IAW Delegation to the CSW 61.
This year I went to NY as head of a numerous delegation of the IAW to the CSW 61 (32 members). The Delegation had two meetings at the permanent Mission of Greece to the UN and discussed a number of issues: the Congress of Cyprus and its state of preparation, the state of play with Working Groups, developments concerning the database. People demanded to circulate a number of points to be taken over in the agreements to speed up the process. We also discussed: jobs of the Board, which does not seem to yield results; the state of play with the Action Program, which is doing well; our need to recruit organizations in Latin America and mobilize our member organizations in Africa and Asia.

Then I proposed a strategy of IAW for promoting accountability of governments at the national level, on the basis of the concluding observations of CEDAW on the reports submitted to it by national governments. During this meeting we also elaborated on a statement on the shrinking space of civil society worked out by Natalia Kostus, Tone Brekke, Susanne Riveles and others. Unfortunately this statement, due to be delivered during the meeting of NGOs with the Secretary General Guterres on March 17, was not delivered as there were too many people asking for the floor.

During the second meeting at the Greek Mission we also discussed the shrinking space for civil society at the UN and prepared another statement to be sent to Ambassador Patriota to do something to facilitate the participation of NGOs to the work of the CSW. One way could be to do so electronically, although this process would also face difficulties from a number of governments. Because of dissenting views among our members on what is the shrinking space for civil society within the UN, I did not forwards this letter to Ambassador Patriota.

We had a very nice dinner offered to us by Soon-Young, the head of our Delegation to NY and Vice President of NGO/CSW NY, where we met with some new friends who have recently become members of IAW: Nancy Kirshner-Rodriguez, Executive Director of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls; two representatives of the Canadian Federation of University Women, one of which is already individual member of ours, Cheryl Hayles; two trainees from DPI as well as the IAW Delegation in NY and a number of members of the IAW Delegation to the CSW 61.

In NY nowadays NGOs have the right to organize one parallel event per NGO. This year IAW had one organized by Signe Vahlun from Denmark on sexism’s effect on women in the workplace, which was very good and had a lot of attendance.

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The meeting was videotaped and can be watched here

In his introductory remarks and responses to questions from the floor the Secretary General among other things stressed

• that there is a backlash not only where women’s issues are concerned, but in all fields
• that parity is essential in order for women to achieve empowerment, but it is a struggle as some men will lose their seats or positions
• that parity is the best way to overcome resistance
• that a road map is being prepared for the UN to ensure gender parity throughout the UN system by 2030
• that there is a shrinking space for civil society at the UN and in the world as such. Consequently he would like to launch a campaign raising awareness about how  working with civil society is the best way to govern
• that equality creates wealth and welfare
• that there must be zero tolerance to violence against women among UN staff including peacekeepers

During the meeting a document was handed over to the Secretary General. It has over 900 signatories from 85 countries. In the document it says among other things:

Excellency, we are waging a battle alongside your efforts, to achieve a peaceful and prosperous world, one in which all members of society have the opportunity to live a life with justice, human rights and dignity. While current financial and political trends continue to hamper our efforts, we draw courage and hope from our long-standing relationship with the United Nations. We recognize that strong mutual support has propelled substantial progress for girls and women of all ages.

Read the whole letter and see the signatories:
NGO letter to UN SG March 2017_group edited FINAL (2)

Charlotte Bunch, long time activist for women’s rights,  Funding Director and Senior Scholar at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University welcomed  the Secretary General hoping that this would be the first of many such meetings.

She continued:

Many of us were involved in UN Reform and the creation of UN Women, and women are among the most important supporters of the United Nations.

 We welcome you as a MAN who stated in the opening of CSW that: you “will stand up for women’s empowerment and gender equality.”    We take you at your word, and we will work with you & work to keep your feet to the fire.

We thank you for the initiatives you have already taken in that direction, —–such as the appointment of the top UN Posts of the 3 great women leaders here today with you;

-your recognition of the importance of women’s equality to achieving the SDGs and all UN goals, especially in peace and security. 

– We were pleased to learn that you met with local women’s projects in the Mathare slums in Kenya on International Women’s Day.  We see this as a Best Practice and hope you will make contacts with diverse women’s groups on all your trips around the world… to see both our daily realities and  the amazing activism of women for change taking place at the grass roots.

Today we hope to explore with you how we can break down barriers to gender equality and make faster progress on the commitments to women’s rights made by the UN.  This is especially crucial now – in a time of growing populism, racism and other forms of intolerant extremism with backlash against women’s gains, especially around reproductive and sexual rights.

As members of civil society  we have many questions to ask, but we all share the concern of shrinking space for our advocacy at the UN and nationally.   As you can see, we have a Chair with the sign “WHY is this Chair Empty” to symbolize all those who tried to come to the CSW, but could not because they were denied Visas to enter.  We ask that you work with us to ensure this does not happen again.

 We also want to ask you about how the UN can better assist in the Protection of Women Human Rights Defenders(WHRDs) … women facing many threats, violence & death as a result of their activism for women’s and other human rights.

Many women have sent statements and papers to you about our hopes for what you will do as SG toward a more Feminist United Nations with women’s rights at its core.

 Today, Saphira Rameshfar and Susan O’Malley of the NGO CSW NY committee would like to present a letter to you, signed by more than 900 NGOs and individuals from 85 countries, pledging to work with you to support the UN and to strengthen its commitment & actions toward gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

We thank you for your time with us today. 

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Excellency,

We, NGOs, represented at the 61^st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, congratulate you on your appointment as Secretary-General of the United Nations. We also wish to thank you for your commitment to promoting gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide.

The most recent UN Women Progress of the World’s Women publication reported many advances in the status of women around the world. If Agenda 2030 is successfully implemented, we can expect these advances to accelerate. However, Excellency, as you are aware, the results are uneven. As we pause to assess the progress of gender equality worldwide at the 61st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the political panorama before us is one of great turmoil. Millions of women and girls have been impoverished and displaced due to environmental disasters and conflict. Protections fall short in upholding the rights of migrants and refugees — the majority of whom are women and girls. Corrupt economic systems continue to exploit the poor and weak for the benefit of the few. And most disturbing, a variety of forms of backlash against women’s rights are threatening the progress that has been made. This trend is building momentum so that women and girls around the world struggle to have their voices heard and respected.

Excellency, we are waging a battle alongside your efforts, to achieve a peaceful and prosperous world, one in which all members of society have the opportunity to live a life with justice, human rights and dignity. While current financial and political trends continue to hamper our efforts, we draw courage and hope from our long-standing relationship with the United Nations. We recognize that strong mutual support has propelled substantial progress for girls and women of all ages.

We remember that when many governments would not listen, women raised awareness at the UN about domestic and other forms of violence against women—an issue that for centuries was shrouded in secrecy and shame. Through the UN conferences– and in the interim, supported by UN agencies like UNFPA, UNICEF, ILO, WHO and UNIFEM-we were emboldened to work to end violence against women in all its forms.

The UN has also benefited from women’s advocacy and human rights work that engage millions of women, men, boys and girls worldwide, and provides services at the grassroots. Twelve years ago, the growing importance of work on women’s rights led NGO representatives at the CSW to form the GEAR (Gender Equality Architecture Reform) campaign that resulted in the creation of UN Women.

The UN also counts on our partnership to achieve progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, Security Council resolution 1325 and its follow-up resolutions, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development and many more areas of work critical to the UN.

In this spirit of solidarity, we gratefully acknowledge your leadership to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment for women and girls-in all our diversity by age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, physical ability, socio-economic, cultural and political status and as indigenous people. We applaud your work to end sexual violence during conflict and efforts toward peacekeeping. We fully support your statement that “gender parity is a must” at the UN, which we understand includes hiring, promotions and appointments when setting up task forces and committees. We commend you on your appointment of strong women leaders and support for our work at CSW. We stand behind you for zero tolerance of sexual harassment in the workplace and a gendered approach to budgeting –particularly in difficult financial times. We, therefore, call on governments, the private sector, foundations, civil society, the media and all stakeholders to fully support the work of the United Nations. Together, we can raise the standard of gender equality for communities around the world.

In turn, we ask the UN to strengthen its commitment and support so that feminist and women’s movements can continue to have a strong, multi-cultural voice at the United Nations and that women’s and girls’ rights continue to advance. We respectfully invite you to meet with us during CSW 61 for an open dialogue with women about their concerns in our troubled times and how to strengthen our partnership.

Please accept Excellency, the assurances of our highest regard,

In solidarity,

Signed:

Baha’I International Community

Center for Women’s Global Leadership

Conference of NGOs (CoNGO)

Fundacion para Estudio e Investigation de la Mujer

International Alliance of Women/Alliance Internationale des Femmes

International Federation of Business and Professional Women

NGO CSW/Latin America and Caribbean

NGO CSW/New York

NGO CSW/Vienna 

Soroptimist International

Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)

Women for Water Partnership

World Federation for Mental Health

……and many more signatories expected here.

Note: This document  will be presented to the UN Secretary-General during CSW 61.

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Commons Photo Credit: Source

General Comment

Many provisions are fine, but the framework is very narrow. Where are the SDGs and sustainable economic concepts? It does not argue strongly enough that women’s economic empowerment also contributes to achieving other targets. Neither does it make strong enough linkages with other sectors, notably education, health, political and cultural rights.

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IAW Written Statement to CSW61 2017

Inclusive and sustainable growth around the world is the overarching vision of the 2030 development agenda.  Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment are central to this vision but progress has been far too slow.

What is the reason for this lack of progress? The early twenty first century’s global context with rising inequalities, poverty, hunger, climate change all of which are the result of prevailing economic models and paradigms pose unprecedented challenges for the realization of women’s rights and undermine further the sustainability of communities and societies. Dominant development patterns are based on gender inequalities, and have proved unsustainable as regards many issues including economic growth and work.

The underlying causes and consequences of unsustainability are deeply interwined and rooted in the dominant economic models. These involve economic liberalization, the concentration of the productive and financial activity to short term profits, and the privatization of public goods and services, all at the expense of state regulation and redistribution. The fruits of economic growth have also been unequally divided. Over the past three decades economic disparities between and within countries and regions have increased.

What has been the impact of these development patterns on women and work? Women have entered the labor market in large numbers. Free trade and the rapid expansion of market together with the expansion of many corporations supply chains in developing countries have undoubtedly created unprecedented opportunities for women to access paid work. However this has to often been on unequal and highly exploitative terms.

Gender based discrimination and segregation in the labor market, as well as the weak regulation of those markets have served to confine women to jobs that are low paid and of poor quality in terms of working conditions and access to social protection.

They reinforce the status of women as secondary workers within their households.

Women also suffer from lack of access to education, training, recruitment, and equal remuneration and have limited bargaining in decision-making power. Women have also unequal access to productive resources and are over-represented in informal work. The reality that underlies this new model is depressed wage levels, decreased job security, declining living standards, a steep rise in the number of hours worked for wages, exacerbation of the double shift, and rising poverty increasingly concentrated in female headed households.

The vast amount of women’s work that is either rewarded poorly or not rewarded at all is being used to subsidize the world’s economy and fuel unequal and unsustainable growth. Women’s exploitation in the labor market is further compounded by their disproportional share of unpaid care responsibilities which is mainly due to stereotypical gender roles. This burden of care responsibilities often excludes women from paid employment completely or confines them to part time positions which are not as well paid. The result is that women’s unpaid household and care work subsidizes the economy for free.

A lot of discrimination against women is supported by cultural norms, tradition, and religion. Women are powerless to change these norms. Governments should be expected to put resources towards mobilizing to change attitudes and norms. An example of the impact of the stereotypes on women and girls has to do with their education which contributes to higher economic growth. However the impact of stereotypical gender roles on downgrading women’s educational achievements and skills is evident when they try to access the labor market. For the majority of women, significant gains in education have not translated into quality jobs.

Violence which is the result of unequal power relations between women and men and stereotypes against women, has negative repercussions against women in the world of work. It also leads to lower productivity, increased absenteeism, and high turnover. In some cultures the threat of violence has been a reason for limiting women in the home’s sphere.

Recognition is growing world wide that our economic system needs profound reforms. There is also increasing understanding that economic growth alone is not going to lead to gender equality, alleviate poverty and reduce inequality for all.  Macroeconomic policies are all too often geared towards creating the conditions for growth without much attention to bringing societies closer to achieving gender equality and social justice. Gender analysis should also be used as a tool for changing the system, looking at what is valued and how this guides investment priorities, shapes business and economics.

Gender inequality at work can only be eliminated by addressing the discrimination that women experience in the labor market due to their reproductive function, in particular sectoral and occupational segregation, gaps in wages, working hours, and access to social protection. Governments should take measures to promote the equal sharing of unpaid care work between women and men and between family and society.

We should work for a new development model that is not based solely on economic growth but prioritizes people over profits. This new development model should be based on a reorganization of the relations between the production, the finance, and the reproduction sphere with the aim to create a sustainable and gender equal economy which should serve the needs of reproduction, that is care.

Recommendations: 

Addressing root causes and taking a transformational approach to the issue of women’s economic inequality
Governments should:

• ŸEnsure that human rights are the ethical framework for macroeconomic policies and review their impact on women. Ask trade unions, CSO’s and women’s organizations to participate in their elaboration including their implementation and evaluation.
• Implement agreed human and labor standards in national legislations and policies that guarantee and promote women’s access to decent and safe employment in the formal or informal sector (living wage, secure contracts, access to social protection, women’s right to organize and access to remedy, equal pay for work of equal value, equal opportunities and non-discrimination in the work place).
• Eliminate all laws that discriminate against women at work.
• Implement binding international and national regulations, policies and mechanisms concerning human rights standards that require the private sector’s full compliance with them.
• Recognize and value the contribution of unpaid care work to the economy and invest in infrastructures, time saving technologies and quality public services such as child care, care for the elderly and healthcare.
• Institute family friendly policies that enable women and men to balance work with their caring responsibilities.
•  Take measures to challenge discriminatory social norms and gender stereotyping that underpin inequality in women’s work.
• Promote women’s entrepreneurship including by providing them with training and financial support.
• Promote women’s leadership, voice and agency including through engaging with trade unions, civil society, and feminist organizations in economic policy making processes and spaces at all levels.
• Promote women’s access to formal financial institutions and saving mechanisms.
• Design progressive tax regimes and institute gender responsive budgeting that enhance women’s economic rights and access to public services while redressing discrimination and inequality.
• Promote women’s access to education that does not discriminate on the basis of gender and take measures to translate women’s educational achievements and skills in qualified work.
• Promote laws and policies to prevent and protect women against harassment and other forms of violence in the world of work. Establish complaints and monitoring mechanisms to protect women workers. Recognize social dialogue as a means to address such issues.
• Integrate the needs and rights of women refugees, migrant workers, rural and indigenous women and women with special needs in employment policies and social and health services.
• Increase support and funding for feminist and women’s rights organizations.

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