Friday, March 8, 2013

Friday morning! Snow!


Yes, snowing today in New York!

Just to get me ready to go back to Winnipeg,

It is the last day for me at the CSW, but things will continue here for the next week. There will be serious negotiations on the Agreed Conclusions, the outcomes document of the 57h CSW. The Agreed Coclusions are important asat hey are what the governments have agreed to, and at least in this setting are committed to. They can be used by NGOs and civil society as reminders to their governments back home.

This year, there are contentious articles, reproductive and sexual rights being one, and  harmful and customary practices, intimate partner violence, abortion and emergency contraception, men and boys taking responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behavior, debate on whether to use the term services or programmers, rejection of the inclusion of text from non governmental agreements and emphasizing the importance of sovereignty in national efforts, being others. In spite of a very serious commitment by many governments to see this as a strong document, there are other parties that are not so committed. The majority of NGOs say they must have a strong document, and if it is week, they want no document at all. They are putting pressure on their governments, including Canada, and putting forwards language they want to see.

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