PACIFIC WOMEN’S WATCH (NEW ZEALAND) Inc.
Annual Report 2012-2013
Introduction
Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) Inc. (PWW(NZ)) can be justly proud of its outstandingly successful activities and projects during the last twelve months. A very full programme of work has seen positive outcomes for the advancement of women and girls in New Zealand and within the wider Pacific sub-region.
Highlights have been the presentation of our highly regarded Alternative Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Report to the 52nd session of the CEDAW Monitoring Committee (Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) held in New York in July 2012; the 2012 Annual Half-Day Conference in November with the theme Driving Forward Equality for New Zealand Women; the establishment of the CEDAW Coalition of NGOs launched at our annual conference; the preparation of an Alternative NGO Report for the Universal Periodic Review of the New Zealand Government’s performance on human rights to be reviewed by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva early next year; and the resoundingly successful CEDAW Consultation and Training Workshop facilitated by the International Women’s Rights Action Watch – Asia-Pacific (IWRAW AP) in April 2013 for 28 women from 19 organisations and groups presented as Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand)’s gift to the women of New Zealand in celebration of 120 years of suffrage.
PWW(NZ) reached out strongly at the international level when 14 representatives attended the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2013 in New York. We have continued our strong links to Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) with a representative on the APWW Steering Committee.
A grant was also made to assist the YWCA’s Mentoring Training Workshop Project in Honiara, Solomon Islands, to further develop our mandate under PWW(NZ)’s special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations to make the concerns of Pacific women heard more loudly at the international level..
PWW(NZ) Board members range widely in age and in ethnicity and we are an active member of the NZ Human Rights Commission Diversity Action Programme.
CEDAW Report 2012
A tightly focused NGO Alternative Report which also recognized the special discriminations suffered by the culturally diverse and younger population of the wider Auckland region was submitted to the CEDAW Monitoring Committee’s Pre-session Work Group in Geneva in October 2011. The Pre-session Work Group prepares questions for response by the New Zealand Government prior to the session. This was followed by an Addendum update in June 2012 for the 52nd session in July 2012 in New York. The Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) CEDAW Report informed many of the recommendations and challenges included in the Committee’s Concluding observations following its examination of the New Zealand Government’s Report.
These included issues related to the increasing levels of violence against women and girls; pay inequality and inequity; insufficient action to address under-age and forced marriage and dowry violence in migrant communities; lack of dissemination and promotion of the Convention; inadequacy of targets and benchmarks to advance women’s rights and specifically to develop a national action plan for women; and to establish a Parliamentary Select Committee on Human Rights. The New Zealand government was asked to report in two year’s time on the CEDAW Committee’s special concerns on disadvantaged groups of women, including migrant women, disabled women and women adversely affected by the Christchurch earthquakes. PWW(NZ) will be monitoring closely the Government’s performance on under-age and enforced marriage. Since PWW(NZ) submitted a Petition to Parliament on the subject in November 2009 there has been snail-like progress to review the laws related to marriage.
Five PWW(NZ) representatives from our member organisations attended the session including two from Women’s Health Action Trust (Julie Radford-Poupard and George Christy Parker) and three from Shakti Community Trust (Farida Sultana, Shila Nair and Shasha Ali).
We thank the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for providing funding for one PWW(NZ) representative to travel to the CEDAW session in New York.
To assist in making CEDAW known to Members of Parliament, the Justiciary, Police and civil society PWW(NZ) is preparing an information leaflet about the Convention that is understandable by all.
CEDAW Coalition of NGOs
The CEDAW Committee’s Concluding observations in July 2012 found a disappointing level of implementation of the Convention in the New Zealand Government’s performance over the four years since 2008. For this reason many NGOs saw the need to advance women’s rights in New Zealand in a different way. PWW(NZ) was asked to set up a “ginger group” based in Auckland to take forward a speedy implementation of the CEDAW Committee’s concerns and recommendations during the next four-year reporting period.
Universal Periodic Review 2014
In June this year PWW(NZ) contributed an NGO Report for the second examination of the Government’s performance on human rights by the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Jan/Feb 2014. It was the first time that we had prepared a UPR Report. We made nine (9) recommendations, a number of which reinforced recommendations made in other NGO Reports.
They covered:
A National Action Plan for Women and establishment of new Parliamentary Select Committee on Human Rights; Workplace Discrimination; Decent and affordable housing; Sexual Violence; Forced and underage marriage; Dowry and trafficking; Training all actors in the context of domestic/family violence; Increased training and legal aid – domestic/family violence; Improvement of sexual and reproductive health; Improved data collection in health service.
We anticipate the review will bring attention to these and other human rights discriminations for New Zealand women and girls which need urgent action by Government.
6th Annual Half-Day Conference
On 19 November 2012 we held our Conference under the title Driving Forward Equality for New Zealand Women. The Conference called for Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) to explore marginalization and to scrutinize human rights legislation. A challenge was also issued to the Watch to take action to reinvigorate the women’s movement on issues that matter. New Zealand led the world from 2000 onwards. In the last four years backsliding has caused our leadership to be eroded severely. The CEDAW Coalition of NGOs launched at the Conference will bring CEDAW alive and be a tool for activism It can be a very strong weapon in our increasingly limited armory.
Heather Henare, Chief Executive, Women’s Refuge NZ gave the keynote address. A panel of presenters which included Dr Janet Fanslow, School of Population Health, The University of Auckland; George Christy Parker, Senior Policy Analyst, Women’s Health Action Trust; Shila Nair, Senior Advisor, Shakti Community Council; and Debbie Hager, Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children contributed a wealth of up-to-date information on domestic and sexual violence, the health of women and girls, transgender issues and ongoing outstanding concerns for migrant and refugee women.
The Report Driving Forward Equality for New Zealand Women is on our web site www.pacificwomenswatch.org.nz
IWRAW AP CEDAW Consultation and Training Workshop
After reporting back on the 2012 CEDAW session we were aware that only a small number of NGOs really understood the reporting process for CEDAW and other treaties to which New Zealand is a signatory.
Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) therefore hosted a CEDAW Consultation and Training held on 12-14 April in Auckland and entitled New Zealand Women in Leadership and Decision-Making: Understanding the Human Rights and Gender Dimensions of CEDAW through the committee’s Concluding Observations in July 2012. The training was an outstanding success.
PWW(NZ) considered the Workshop to be so valuable for the future empowerment of New Zealand NGOs that it decided to provide the funding for it as a gift to the women of New Zealand in celebration of the 120th anniversary of Suffrage. Two highly skilled facilitators, Dorathy Benjamin and Tashia Peterson, came from The International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia-Pacific office in Kuala Lumpur to deliver the intensive three-day training to 28 women NGOs, none of whom had had the opportunity to attend a session of the CEDAW Monitoring Committee. All will be involved in gathering data and NGO writing for the CEDAW eighth reporting round in 2016.
The Workshop programme which had been specially designed for New Zealand purposes in consultation with PWW(NZ) fully met the expectations of all those participating. There was a real feeling of excitement in the room every day. The diverse mix of cultures saw Maori, Pacific Island, Asian and European NGOs working together. All age groups were represented. At least one-third were young women who brought their own unique perspectives to the discussion.
Expected outcomes were fully met providing:
· A solid foundation of education on the human rights embedded in CEDAW
· A framework for monitoring not only CEDAW but also other UN treaties e.g. the Convention on the Rights of Children – also the NZ Second Universal Periodic Review
· A more holistic engagement with the CEDAW review process, which encompasses pre-review and post-review strategies
· Strategies for collaboration with government and non-government agencies in promoting the implementation of CEDAW in a positive way
· A very much enlarged constituency of NGOs knowledgeable about CEDAW.
The IWRAW AP CEDAW training will stand as a milestone for NGO skills enhancement and a fitting contribution to the celebration of 120 years of Suffrage for New Zealand women.
Commission on the Status of Women, March 2013 session in New York
We took full advantage of our ECOSOC status to register 20 NZ PWW(NZ) representatives of Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Indian and Pakeha (European) ethnicities and 14 were able to access funding to attend. Our contingent was over half the number of NZ NGOs present. PWW(NZ) presented a parallel NGO speakers’ panel entitled Unique indigenous, non-indigenous and Pasifica approaches to violence against women and girls in Aotearoa/New Zealand which was very well received.
Asia-Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW)
PWW(NZ) is represented on the APWW Steering Committee by Beverley Turner. She has maintained our strong links by attending APWW Steering Committee meetings in Bangkok, 2012 and New York, 2013. Input into APWW Reports to CSW 57 was provided by PWW(NZ) members.
YWCA’s Mentoring Training Workshop in Solomon Islands
In line with our planning to provide one development project each year from our funds we provided $1,000.00 for the YWCA (SI) Network to provide mentoring training for women in Honiara. We also contributed $1,000.00, a donation by a family trust, which recognized the training as vital for Pacific women’s development as decision-makers. The project carried forward our mandate from the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to help the women of Pacific Island countries to make their voices heard more loudly at the international level. Currently there is no NGO in Pacific states with ECOSOC consultative status.
The Report of the project shows just how valuable the training was in taking women forward in new leadership roles.
Thanks
We wish to thank all those who have served on the PWW(NZ) Board this year. Our programme has been particularly busy. Board members have accepted many challenges and given of their best.
Our first Patron, Marilyn Waring, is beginning one year of sabbatical leave. She may well rejoin us after that. Thank you Marilyn for your great interest in our work during the last two years. We wish you a very fulfilling sabbatical.
I wish to thank Beverley Turner most sincerely for heading up the Board while I was forced to take a break for at least three months last year due to effects suffered from a super bug.
Marni Gilbert, who has been PWW(NZ) Secretary this year, a writer for CEDAW and the UPR Reports and a member of the Action Group for the CEDAW Coalition on NGOs has been very much valued. We bid her farewell as she takes up a new role with Volunteer Service Abroad in the Pacific. She will remain an associate of PWW(NZ). We wish you well and thank you for your expertise in helping to carry forward our programme.
CONCLUSION
In 2012-2013 new signposts of performance have been embedded for PW(NZ). Some promising initiatives have added brilliance to our aim of achieving advancement for New Zealand women and girls. We have had the full support of our growing membership.
News just in announces that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has named 50 per cent women in its new astronaut group – four women and four men. The latest generation of astronauts will travel to new destinations in the solar system, including an asteroid and Mars. For the first time in its history half of the new candidates are women. In 2013 women are “reaching for the stars” beyond traditional horizons. Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) looks forward to another year of reaching out to broader horizons in training and mentoring of women to scale new heights of achievement for women’s equality. Let us also “reach for the stars”.
Jane Prichard QSO 26 June 2013
President
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