Thursday, March 19, 2015

Thurs March 19. 2015

Well I have finally resurfaced.Monday evening I went to the urgent care walk in clinic and for $300 cash I got excellent care including a chest xray to be sure that I did not have pneumonia, a Rx for Zithromax and an RX for more Alvesco and I will run out by doubling the dose.
So acute pharyngitis and acute bronchitis added to my moderate COPD - no fun at all.
the Alvesco at the first drug store was going to cost $420 or so but we managed to fine it nearby for $260.
Amazing, It costs me $4.11 at home.

Any way I went into seclusion, sort of, until last evening when I crossed the street for a planned supper - mostly I was tired of pumpernickel bread with PB and cheese. I also chaired the dinner reporting.
Dinner was good and they had too much so for lunch I have pasta and meat to look forward to.

It has been an unusual CSW this year as the agreed Declaration was introduced and signed on day 1. Since that tome the Commission has been hearing what they call "high level" panels and also been negotiating the "Working Methods" paper. There have been some key issues here as some countries would like to abolish the involvement of NGOs and Civil Society groups. I guess they think that we get in their way when they are deciding what is best to do. But then is becomes decision making without background information and without  that balancing conscience. I hear that the draft today has given NGOs and Civil Society groups our old role back but we will have to wait for the release of the document to see.

You can tell that things are winding down now. Chapel was about half full. we had the salvation Army band and they are terrific. Then I went to the second floor to wait for a meeting that never happened but got to meet a nice Soroptimist woman from Long Island. who was also waiting.
Well I will try to catch up more later. in less than 48 hours I will be back in Toronto
Miss those grandkids,  and the kids too.

Blessings Judy

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thurs March 12 2015 part 2

 Finally back in my room after a busy evening.

At 6 pm there were 4 places that I wanted to be but I could only do one.
I went to the Canadian presentation sponsored by the National Council of Women. It was a presentation entitled "We used to be Number One"
and now we are number 23. In terms of womens rights, education, violence issues etc.
Five women presented parts of the Canadian Shadow report.
A Shadow report in this case is a report by non governmental organizations about the conditions in Canada related to the Beijing Platform for Action. The government submits a report to the UN telling them how wondeerfully we are doing, but, we used to be #1 in the world and now we are #23. In part we have fallen back a bit but mostly other countries have moved ahead better than we have. Iceland for example has come forward a lot despite having had their economy shattered by the crisis a few years ago.
Vicky Smallman talked about the labour union issues. Equal pay, decent work, childcare,and the impact of trade agreements upon jobs were among the issues she brought up.
Other topics included: homelessness, housing first, the shelter system, young women, legal issues and policy issues,
Timing being what it is here, there were also 2 other presentations being given by Canadians at the same time: one on tax laws and finances and the other on aboriginal issues. And I had already purchased a ticket to a dinner with Ecumenical Women.
And the soroptimists went to Gilda's house at the invitation of SI Manhattan. It is truly impossible to do all the things that one wants to here.

After the presentation I travelled to the hotel where other Canadian Anglicans are staying to have some social time with the other Canadian anglicans. We are few this time but we have a Bishop with us, Bishop Michael Bird from the Diocese of Niagara. We got to know each other better and we talked about how to let more Canadian anglicans know about the importance of what we do here.

OK enough for  tonight I need to soon go to bed. I will try to catch up the missing days soon.


Blessings Judy

Thurs. March 12,2015

Sorry to be so long in posting but I could not remember how to do this.

Thanks Suzanne for the remote lesson.

Lots to catch up but first wonderful news. Someone that I have known since my first year here, Beth Adamson, received the Global Service Award from the Anglican Communion. This is only the second time that this award had been given. She has been a tireless volunteer for the Anglican Communion at the CSW and founder of the Working Group on Girls  which she still works on. Apparently they were working on this presentation for a year and even had her husband present by surprise. They could not have known that today sometime, Beth will also become a grandmother for the first time.
A day that she will never forget I am sure.

The day had a wonderful start. At chapel this morning the Anglican Communion was in charge.
Many delegates took part in the service including an african woman who chanted the psalm and serveral prayed in their native languages and it is very powerful to hear the Lord's Prayer said simultaneously in multiple languages. The Archbishop Sir David Moxon gave a brief homily. He is the appointee of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See. In March 17,2014, there was an historic meeting including the religions heads of all major religions at the Vatican. The result is an historic agreement toput forth a  concereted effort by all major religions to rid the world of human trafficking by 2020.

The Archbishop also held a seminar in the afternoon where he talked about the The Global
Freedom Network which was formed after the signing of the agreement. He talked about slavery and trafficking and about some of the plans to combat it. Big business will also be involved. For example, retailers will investigae producers to be sure that they are not using "slave" labour and, if so, stop using that producer. There will also be some microfinancing programs to help people find freedom.
I very much enjoyed his presentation.

More about today later as it is only 5 pm and there is lots more to do today.

Blessings Judy

Sunday, March 1, 2015

2015 Commission on the Status of Women

The time has come to begin blogging for the 2015 Commission on the status of Women.
The commission begins on Monday March 9 but a lot of work has been going on for several months in  preparation for the estimated 10,000 women (the largest number since I have been going) to arrive in New York City shortly.

This year will be very different from previous years for several reasons. Firstly, the agreement will be finalized the first day of the Commission. UN Women has been convening regional meetings and leading negotiations since fall. A draft statement was released in the new yaer and several subsequent drafts have passed by me. What I believe may be the final draft was released last week. I will try to figure out how to post it here for you but it should be on the UN Women website and the Commission Website.

This is the 20th anniversary of the agreement called the Beijing Platform for Action.
In 1995, a reported 30,000 women arrived in a village near Beijing which had been created just for the First World conference on Women. This was a record size for any Commission before or since. The Platform was developed to improve the way of life for women all around the world. It advocated for the end to violence against women, equal access to health care, education, employment and much more. You can google the agreement if you want more details.

On Tues March 10 I plan to attend a presentation by 2 or 3 women who were in Beijing. One has become a friend and mentor for me and her story is thrilling. I will try to capture the essence of the presentation for you.

Watch the TV news a week from today. Several thousand women, men, girls and boys will march from various parts of Manhattan to Times Square to mark the World Woman's Day. They have planned it well and hope that it will be the largest such event in New York City. the march starts at 2:30 and arrives in Times square at 4 pm. there will be speeches etc until 5. It should be exciting.

I am actually leaving home tomorrow. I am scheduling 3 days of R & R on Long Island with wonderful friends that I made at the UN and will check into my hotel in Manhattan on Fri to begin work in earnest.

More later.
Now I have to remember how to post this


Blessings Judy

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Friday March 21

Today my daughter turns 40. Happy Birthday Dana.
Am I really old enough to have a 40 year old daughter?

Today I go home but she does not know. She thinks I am coming home tomorrow.

The day begins with the final chapel service at 8 am. A special service with more dancing and a dialogue about the 8 millenium development goals. Several members of the Ecumenical Women Steering Committee took part in the dialogue. It is sad to say goodbye again to so many friends.

The briefing this morning was interesting. We still do not have agreed conclusions.We were briefed by the the Facilitator of the Commission who commented that the negotiations went almost all night. In the morning 23 NGO (Non governmental organizations) made verbal presentations including Christine Mangale for Ecumenical Women with Ryan Smith there taking pictures of her. There was also a young woman who spoke very well on behalf of the young women with the Working Group on Girls.

The Chair of the Bureau is the Ambassador from the Phillipines. There are 120 + paragraphs that are agreed
The Commission will reconvene at 11 am  . There must be collective ownership he said. There are 8 issues outstanding: sexual reproductive health and services, "family" , comprehensive education, the effects of climate change,resources, crisis and its impact on women, sovereignty, "SOGI" which is sexual orientation and gender identity,.  He made a really great statement: "Don't forget the forest by looking at the trees".

 Lopa was recovering from the 4 am session and so Anne from Switzerland reported for UN Women. Several things seem to be problematical other than the 8 issues.  There appears to be a disconnect between some of the African negotiators and their NGOs and perhaps also their governments. Other countries  are slowing things by insisting that they check with their governments about the issues which one would assume they had done before coming to New York. She reported that no extensions will be allowed, (in the past they have been allowed to run over into Saturday.) She feels that all seem to be trying to find a solution, it is just that it is difficult.

At 10 am the advocacy committee met to pray for the Commission ( or maybe that was Thurs). All present spoke their own prayer and it was a powerful moment.

Back to the hotel to finish packing and check out.  They really did give me the agreed rate which was wonderful. Left the luggage in storage and off to closing Eucharist at the Episcopal Church Certer at 12:10 pm/ My roommate, Alice is leading worship and the priest from Africa, maybe Zimbowa, preached. It was a beautiful service attended by the Anglican Delegates from around the world and a few others. It is again hard to say goodbye to new friends and old.  

Joan Fraser from Long Island, Alice and I went to Fabio for lunch - a wonderful Italian restaurant. We ate slowly and just enjoyed being together. After lunch Joan picked up her car and drove us to LaGuardia. Alice managed to get on standby for my flight and got on it rather than waiting another 2 hours for her  flight.

We had a good flight to Toronto and said goodbye for a while. My daughter Jennifer picked me up[ and we got home after 10 pm, watched a little curling and went to bed. Tired - yes and those grandsons get up early.
Glad to be almost home and hope that my cough goes away now.

Blessings Judy

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Thursday March 20

OK It is really monday but I will try to catch up in sequence.


Thurs chapel was the Salvation Army with the band and a wonderful liturgical dancer. I think that there are pictures on the facebook page United Nations Women Adventures. We were all dancing in the aisles and definitely energized for the day.
The morning briefing was done by Jackie Shapiro, the former chair of NGOCSW (nongovernment organization of the Commission on the Status of Women) and Ambassador Gonsalves of El Salvador and Vice Chair of the Commission.
There are 4 resolutions being debated as well as the Agreed Conclusions:
One on Palestine, one on Malawi, one on natural diasters and one on HIV/AIDS. At 10 am tomorrow the Commission will adopt the resolutions and then between 4 and 7 the plan to announce the Agreed Conclusions.
El Salvador has a program and budget to ensure inclusiveness in a public services ie: they use radios to reach out to rural women and have set up sites for "one stop shopping" for services including up to 32 services in one site.
The Ambassador explained that UN Women had held regional meetings prior to the Commission for discussion of the issues in order to make discussions less contentious in New York. He stated that some countries had gone back on the agreements that were made at these regional meetings and were no longer agreeing to previously agreed language andere slowing down negotiations.

The next speaker was the head of Civil society for UN Women. the negotiations on Wed went from 11 am to 12:45 am with brief meal breaks. 10 paragraphs were discussed and 60 are left. The Executive Director of UN Women attended as did the Ministers of South Africa and Egypt which helped to speed things up a bit.She described the vice chair as "heroic" in her strong desire to move ahead. However "the crucial issue now is time".

Immediately after the briefing we held a North America/Europe caucus meeting.We discussed the upcoming meetings on Women's issues. One member brought the legalities of some member states not following treaties which they have signed and a discussion ensued on whether the caucus could do anything about this. Finally it was decided to work on the Agreed Conclusions by working with our missions and negotiators and supporting them in any way we can. At the end of the meeting I was honoured to be asked to consider becoming a co cordinator of the caucus. I asked for time to consider this.

At 4:00pm  the core group of the SI (Soroptimist International) met in a hotel room to have an opportunity to visit socially and to discuss the latest reports from the negotiations. I met some pretty awesome women in that group and I really enjoyed working with them.

At 6 pm we had an Ecumenical Women debrief at the Episcopal Church centre. We watched the webinar of Christine Mangale delivering an verbal "intervention" to the Commission as well as a young woman from the Anglican youth also speaking. We discussed the lastest release from the Commission. The day ended with packing because I am going home tomorrow so that I can go to  my daughter's surprise birthday party.

Blessings Judy

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Wednesday March 19th

Unfortunately I had typed up my wed report and somehow deleted by accident and so I will try again today.

As usual I started my day in Chapel. Our numbers are fewer but  the worship is wonderful and it starts my day in a good way for me. Next comes the UN briefing where we learned that the negotiations are moving in the right direction but very slowly. Tues they worked until 11 pm  and completed only 7 pages of the 28. This will be the last review of the draft the fascilitator had stated .No more wording changes from NGOs only moral support. The speaker, The deputy director of UN Women, outlined that the "tough" subjects are sexual and reproductive rights and education,"family" the definition of it, and care-ie caring for ssomeone who is ill or disabled or old.

Lopa The head of NGO for UN Women spoke next about how some people are turning their frustrations about the slowness of progress   against UN Women. UNWomen is doing all it can to keep things on track. She suggested that instead of being angry that  we should support our delegations in any way we can, letting then know we appreciate their hard work.The oral presentations scheduled for Tues are now scheduled for thurs but not all selected may get to speak due to the intenseness of the negotiations.She warned us to be waryof rumors especially negative rumors - "We need positive rumors" UN Women tried to smooth the waters for CSW by holding regional meetings prior to CSW where the topics for CSW were discussed. The intent was that once there was agreement at a regional level that things would go more smoothly at CSW - but it seems that despite agreements that some feel the necessity to speak, often at great length, about the various items.

Because of the importance of the issues, I decided to make the trek over to "meet the Canadians" despite my cold, so that I could be up to date, Our new staffer, Erin Quibell, told us about the 7 pages from yesterday and that things were slow but moving ahead. It is her first time here and she only arrived Sunday so that I can barely imagine her stress during these negotiations.

Lst evening was our second "Ecummenical women" dinner. there were a lot less that last week but the "Indian" food was a bit spicy so I ate mostly nan bread and salad. Back in the room we had a lively discussion and then headed to bed.


 Blessings Judy