Message from Dawn Marie Lemonds
This week starts the 51st session of the Commission of the Status of Women – this year’s topic is Elimination of Discrimination and Violence Against the Girl Child.
Already, with only two official days underway, we are in a swirl of activity between official CSW sessions and parallel events that are organized by the NGO community, receptions and the meetings we organize for ourselves. It is pretty impressive to be part of this event - particularly knowing that 4,800 people attempted to register for this event, representing over 1,700 NGOs. We were told that there would be approximately 1,800 people all told from about 1,500 NGOs. Soroptimist International keeps “appearing out of the woodwork” and it is a happy challenge to find them. There are government officials from many countries, UN Agency participants and supporters and this time - due to the theme - many delegations including Soroptimist International have sponsored girls to be part of the event ABOUT THEM.
Our girl, Emmy Lou is 14 from Calcutta. It is a real treat to have the girl participants in the sessions and speaking “from the floor” at the Government sessions. In my business we have a phrase “Nothing About Me Without Me”- and that is so evident when you hear girls talk about the realities of their lives. It makes the work REAL when we know that what is negotiated may very well impact the outcome of local, government and international laws, policies and actions around the world. The girl from Sierra Leone, who talked about early marriages - arranged for girls as young as seven, and Female Genital Mutilation/cutting that is rampant - took my breath away. The issue of Girls being INVISIBLE is a powerful image when we understand that they represent half of the children being born.
This is my 7th time at a UN event - and each year certain topics seem to scream out at me-this year - with this theme - issues of Poverty persist. But other topics jump out as danger zones for girls - FGM, Early Forced Marriage, Girls as Soldiers, Trafficking of Girls and Girls who have been prostituted and all of the horrendous consequences of each of these issues.
The other big theme this year is the Role of Men and Boys. Our wonderful 93-year-old and 25-year UN Representative, Anne Yedowitz, said to us in her living room the other day, "We have missed the boat with Violence Against Women issues. We always talk about these issues with women. Until we get men into the room with women - often the perpetrators- we cannot begin to really resolve these issues". (95 % of all Violence Against Women - by the way is MALE VIOLENCE against women. We were urged to use this when we address this topic.
A final issue that really resonates with me this year is that of IMPUNITY that has happened when countries, communities and individuals have committed violent acts against women and children specifically. The result of not holding perpetrators accountable is that laws have no real meaning, justice is not served and the acts continue and, in areas of poverty and war conflict, increase. This year the International Women’s Day Activity on March 8 will focus on exposing this rampant practice that is happening in both developed and developing countries.
We have seven in the official delegation, President Lynn, Executive Director Rosie, Programme Assistant Margaret, President Elect Margaret, Best Practices Award winner- Nairaini from Kuala Lumpur, PR Liaison Cathy, and me - Quadrennial Project Liaison Dawn Marie and our amazing and fleet-minded and footed New York UN Representatives - Anne, Kathy, Caroline, Linda and Lois who are our guides, our mentors, our directors and our friends! SI/ Americas also has a delegation with about 10 people including President Tes and Incoming President Machiko, along with three from the Federation Board Sue, Sandy and Alice, and several others from local and distant clubs. And….that isn’t all. We also have met Soroptimists from the UK, Figi, Denmark- (represented by Johanne who is the Coordinator for 5-0) Holland, Greece and USA…. Several of these have come as representatives of other delegations or groups.
So – what do Soroptimists do when they come to a United Nations Meeting? That is a really good question and must partly be answered by each of the Soroptimist members themselves as each of us are hear to advance and learn about causes that may be near or may be new to us. My personal view is that we have two important missions.
1. Advance causes that we support, understand, and do work in - network with other NGO partners and government officials to specifically advance causes that are on the table from the grassroots perspective. We are actually the members of Civil Society that are responsible for holding governments accountable for signing onto the conventions and treaties as well as to insure implementation. At CSW we do this by attending the official sessions, the Caucuses, the work groups and the linkage meetings to urge our government officials to include language in documents and also bring practical ideas of projects and strategies that will help resolve issues. Specific NGO leaders are invited to present “interventions” at the Government meetings that are examples of work that is being done. Soroptimist leaders have been asked many times over the years to do this. Advance causes often happen at the parallel sessions that run at concurrently with the UN meetings. These are opportunities for Soroptimists to present information about projects we do around the world and learn from others.
2. Learn about issues and advocate for them when we return home. The other very important mission we have is to advance our own knowledge base through attending and participating in sessions, meeting the speakers and other NGO participants. At this CSW members have given presentations so far in several different workshops: about FGM, about Project Punjab and I even 'filled in' yesterday on a panel on Disabilities. Soroptimists try to 'spread out', be flexible and have information ready to share through our booklets and our chat. We talk a little about who we are, but mostly about what we do.
Highlights of CSW so far are many and I literally have 70 pages of notes from the sessions I have attended. One of my personal 'heroines', Radhika Coomaraswamy, spoke yesterday and riveted our world with stories of Girls Forced or Conscripted into the Military. “Some girls join because it is perceived to be glamorous, a way to get out of poverty, or a way to show power." Most girls do not begin to know the results that joining the military will likely have on them. They join as water carriers and end up as sex slaves. They return to society and have so many issues with reintegration that are girl-specific, not the least of which being that the military and fighting became their 'mother'.
I will do another report on the specifics of this CSW session after I return on Saturday. I think one of the most important reminders about the issues of Violence against Women and Girls. “Violence is not normal. You can’t have a normal reaction to this.”
While this seems so logical and clear I think it begs the question - particularly with media and cultures - that have often unwittingly and blindly promoted violence against women as acceptable.
As we continue our work exposing and working with issues that bring harm to humanity we must look steadily at the values, lack of will, beliefs, cultural practices and lack of resources that perpetuate them. Every single best practice, or strategy we have learned, always includes EDUCATION as the key component to change. That is our mandate and our opportunity.
This is an amazing and challenging experience. Cathy and I are having a great time, playing, learning, meeting and being advocates.
Thanks for sharing a little window of this experience with us.
Cheers - Dawn Marie
February 2007