FEMINIST VISIONS OF STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS FOR ACHIEVING WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY IN THE 2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
22 March 2013

This Women’s Major Group statement was read at the international NGO conference on ‘Advancing the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda: Reconfirming Rights – Recognising Limits – Redefining Goals‘ was held from 20-22 March 2013 in Bonn, Germany. For more updates and materials on this conference visit: http://www.worldwewant2015.org/BONN2015

We caution against developing another set of reductive goals, targets and indicators that ignore the transformational changes required to address the failure of the current development model rooted in unsustainable production and consumption patterns exacerbating gender, race and class inequities.

We do not want to be mainstreamed into a polluted stream. We call for deep and structural changes to existing global systems of power, decision-making and resource sharing. This includes enacting policies that recognize and redistribute the unequal and unfair burdens of women and girls in sustaining societal wellbeing and economies, intensified in times of economic and ecological crises.

Any Post-2015 development agenda must be based on the principle of non-regression, firmly rooted in human rights obligations and commitments from the UN conferences of the 1990s and gains made through their follow up processes at regional and global levels . They must also proactively address increasing inequalities within and between countries, feminization of poverty, discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity, commodification of natural resources, threats to food sovereignty, global warming, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

We insist that the Post-2015 development agenda must not be driven by the donor or corporate sectors. Rather, it must be articulated through a progressive policy framework that aims to fairly redistribute wealth, assets, and power to achieve social, economic, ecological, and erotic justice. It must also tackle intersecting inequalities and multiple forms of discrimination based on gender, age, class, caste, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and abilities.

The Post-2015 Development Agenda must:
• Prioritise gender equality and women’s human rights throughout the framework.
• Ensure meaningful participation of women’s and social movements in the design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of development policies and programs.
• Use the human rights architecture as its basis and include concrete means of implementation that prioritize public financing over public-private partnerships in order to realise states obligation to allocate the maximum availability of resources.
• Promote innovative, democratic financing mechanisms, including long-term, flexible support for civil society organizations, including women’s organizations.
• Recognize that there are ecological limits to the ‘growth’ paradigm and that sustainable development must be safeguarded from corporations and States that prioritise profit over all.
• Respect and build upon then overarching principle of equitable sharing of atmospheric space, between and also within States, taking into account intergenerational justice. It also implies respecting the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, which considers historic economic, ecological and social debt responsibility.
• Urgently reform monetary, financial and trade rules globally in line with human rights obligations, that ensure policy space at the national level to implement macroeconomic policies, trade and investment agreements to achieve gender and social justice.
• Create global and national binding rules and safeguards including by applying the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. For instance, this is central to the protection of bio-cultural users of land and natural resources from negative impacts of extractive industries, and large-scale monocultures.
• Ensure that Agenda 21 and Rio+20 commitments on technology transfer, monitoring and assessment, skills development and research are explicit in all investment and trade regimes, and in line with the precautionary principle and principle of free, prior informed consent as critical ecosystem protection.
• Reaffirm the moratorium on geo-engineering in order to prevent the unsustainable technological and market based fixes that attempt the large-scale manipulation of the earth’s climate such as managing solar radiation, extracting carbon from the atmosphere, and modifying the weather.
• Phase-out, eliminate financial support, and impose moratoria on harmful economic activities which affect the health of people and the environment, particularly in the areas of mining, nuclear energy, and chemicals.
• Promote safe and sustainable energy solutions that prevent negative impacts on the health of people and of the planet and that do not further deplete existing community resources.
• Re-orient national agricultural plans from extractive industries and export-oriented agribusiness toward local women-led and small-holder agro-ecology practices.
• Include strong protection of local free seed supply and distribution systems in order to reverse the environmental and social impacts caused by food insecurity, soil degradation and land grabbing, on all affected communities including migrants, fisher, forest and indigenous peoples, pastoralists, and many other marginalized communities.
• Guarantee women’s equitable access to and control over resources that promote fair asset redistribution among different social groups regarding the use of land, ocean, credits, technology, intellectual and cultural property.
• Affirm the human rights of women, girls and people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities to bodily integrity. Eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence based on misogynist, homophobic, lesbian phobic, and trans-phobic ideas. Specific attention is also needed to address the violence faced by women human rights defenders, sex workers, and women working in conflict and militarized contexts, among others.
• Guarantee sexual and reproductive rights and universal access, to quality, comprehensive, integrative sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception, safe abortion, STI and HIV prevention and treatment, and maternity care with an emphasis on equity and respect for diversity.
• Recognise that care and social reproduction are intrinsically linked with the productive economy and therefore fully reflected in macroeconomic policy-making. States should guarantee universal access to public care services and private sector regulation to ensure quality and decent working conditions and income for care providers. The post-2015 agenda should promote policies that shift patriarchal cultural norms in order to promote equitable distribution of care work between men and women and diverse families.
• Ensure equitable and universal access to formal and popular education throughout the life cycle that includes comprehensive sexuality education, gender equality, human rights and environmental sustainability.
• Tackle gendered labour market segregation, and ensure universal and affordable access to social protection and public services including housing, education, water and sanitation, health care and unemployment benefits.

We demand a transparent and democratic process in the development of the Post 2015 agenda where feminist, human rights, environmental and social justice movements’ claims are prioritized over politically and economically dominant elites and States.

This statement is endorsed by:
Women International for a Common Future ,WECF/WICF
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, DAWN
Global Forest Coalition
Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice, RESURJ, Mexico
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
International Women’s Health Coalition
Diverse Voices and Action for Equality, Fiji
Bismarck Ramu Group, Papua New Guinea
Women and Media Collective, Sri Lanka
Third World Network, India
Social Watch
Global Policy Forum Europe
REPEM LAC Red de Educacion Popular Entre Mujeres Latinoamérica y el Caribe
Red de Educación Popular entre Mujeres de Latinoamérica y el Caribe
Feminist Task Force
Association for Women’s Rights in Development, AWID
Action Aid International
Young Women’s Christian Association YWCA, Worldwide
ASTRA Youth Network of Youth Advocates for Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights in Central & Eastern Europe Poland
Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Lebanon
César Neftal Artiga Cartagena Asociación Nueva Vida Pro-Ninez y Juventud, El Salvador
Sex og Politikk – the Norwegian Association for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR), India
National Platform of Dalit Women, India
Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) Bangladesh
International Network of Women’s Funds
Action Network for Migrant Workers (ACTFORM), Sri Lanka
Catholics for a Free Choice / Bolivia
SANGRAM, India
VAMP, India
Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), Ghana
Women for Sustainable Development, Japan
CHIRAPAQ – Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru
Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas – ECMIA
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network -FEMNET
Asia Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (APA)
Coordination of flemish north south movement, Belgium
Both ENDS, Netherlands
Cameroon Youth Movement for Citizenship (CYMC) , Cameroon
Centre for Human Rights and Development Studies (CHRDS), Serbia
Niger Delta Women’s movement for Peace and Development
WUNRN, Women’s UN Report Network
ASTRA Network, Poland
Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning, Poland
Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative (GERI), Benue State
Gender Action on Climate Change for Equality and Sustainability (GACCES), Ghana
Children Rights and Development Association, Turkey
Climate Change and Development NGO Alliance, Azerbaijan
Coordinación de ONG y Cooperativas (CONGCOOP), Guatemala
Danish Family Planning Association, Denmark
Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits (ECOWEB), inc, Philippines
FOCO-Foro Ciudadano de Participación por la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, Argentina
Fundacion Etnica Integral, Dominican Republic
Global Campaign Against Poverty
Green Life Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
IDS Sussex and independent researcher, Germany,
International Planned Parenthood Federation, Bolivia
Iraqi Alamal Association, Iraq
Journey, Maldives
NGO Federation of Nepal, Nepal
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement / GCAP Philippines, Philippines
Rotaract BOMBACACEAE MAJUNGA, Madagascar
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, Uganda
Unión Nacional de Instituciones para el Trabajo de Acción Social (UNITAS), Bolivia
Womens Advocates Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone
Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Philippines
Women’s Society for Sustainable Development, Iran
The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement, Egypt
Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus, USA
The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action – Trinidad and Tobago
Partners in Sexual Health (PSH), Zambia
AIDOS, Italian Association for Women in Development
Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer -FEIM-, Argentina
Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), Rutgers University
Population and Sustainability Network
Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Fiji
Women for Women’s Human Rights – NEW WAYS
genanet – focal point gender environment sustainability, Germany
Rutgers WPF
IPAS, International
Brazilian Confederation of Private Nature Reserves
SWAN (South Asia Women’s Network)
Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI), Liberia
The International Centre of Comparative Environmental Law
Nepal International Consumers Union (1991)
FemLinkpacific – Regional Women’s Media and Policy Network on UNSCR1325
Akshara Centre, Mumbai India
Adele Reproductive Health Foundation, Cameroon
Nur Amalia (Indonesian Women Association for Justice – APIK)
Drodrolagi Movement, Fiji
Oceania Pride, Fiji
International Alliance of WomenAIDS Accountability International, South Africa
Women Won’t Wait Campaign  (Global)
Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha -SANGRAM, India
Reconstruction Women’s Fund, Serbia
Voice of Difference, Serbia
Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), International/Asia-Pacific
Women for Women’s Human Rights – NEW WAYS
Pathfinder International
The International Women’s Anthropology Conference (IWAC)
The Second Chance Fd., NYC, USA
Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) Inc.
Abuntu for Development, Ghana
African Women’s Millennium Initiative (AWOMI), Senegal
Action Canada for Population and Development
KULU-Women and Development, Denmark,
Vision Spring Initiatives, Lagos Nigeria
Global Justice Institute
Countdown 2015 Europe (International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network – IPPF EN, Brussels
Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung,DSW, Germany
Equilibres et Populations ,E&P,France
European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development,EPF, Brussels
Interact Worldwide, UK
Marie Stopes International Brussels Office,MSI, Brussels
Sex & Samfund – Danish Family Planning Association, Denmark
Swedish Association for Sexuality Education,RFSU, Sweden
Rutgers WPF, The Netherlands,
Vaëestoliitto – Family Federation of Finland,Finland
Sensoa,Belgium
Irish Family Planning Association,IFPA, Ireland
Sex og Politikk, Norway
Associação para o Planeamento da Família,APF, Portugal
Federación de Planificación Familiar Estatal,FPFE, Spain
Santé sexuelle, Switzerland
Towarzystwo Rozwoju Rodziny,TRR, Poland
Men for Health and Gender Justice Organisation, Botswana
Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand) Inc.
Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) – Guyana
Women Enabled, Global
COC Netherlands, the Netherlands
Reproductive Health Matters, London-based/International

Individuals:
Naima von Ritter Figueres
Janot Mendler de Suarez, Boston University Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future
Brigitte Leduc, Gender Equality Adviser, New Caledonia
Maria de Bruyn, SRHR, gender and human rights consultant
Jasmine Kaur – Human rights activist, Fiji
Anush Hayrapetyan, Armenia
Sarah Macharia, Ph.D., Toronto. Canada.
S. Joan Yee, Fiji
Shirley Walters, University of Western Cape, South Africa
Florette Amie TCHIKANKO
Gwendolyn Albert

Endorsements at 17 April 2013- Please contact noelenen@gmail.com if your name has been omitted in error. Endorsements will be updated monthly to October 2013. We also greatly appreciate knowing how/where you have used the statement text in your advocacy work. Check at Women’s Major Group website: http://www.womenmajorgroup.org/