Feminist Declaration for Post 2015: Request for endorsement

Feminist organisations and groups met in New York on 7-10 February 2014 to envision a just and sustainable future. This declaration calls for structural and transformational changes to the way development is being planned and implemented. There are currently 120 organisations who have endorsed this declaration. If you would like your organisation to endorse the statement, kindly email feministspost2015@gmail.com.

Gender, Economic, Social and Ecological Justice for Sustainable Development A Feminist Declaration for Post 2015

As the United Nations decide on the future course of international development post 2015, women of all ages, identities, ethnicities, cultures and across sectors and regions, are mobilizing for gender, social, cultural, economic and ecological justice, sustainable development and inclusive peace. We seek fundamental structural and transformational changes to the current neoliberal, extractivist and exclusive development model that perpetuates inequalities of wealth, power and resources between countries, within countries, and between men and women. We challenge the current security paradigm that increases investments in the military-industrial complex, which contributes to violent conflict between and within countries.

We demand a paradigm transformation from the current development neoliberal economic model, which prioritizes profit over people, and exacerbates inequalities, war and conflict, militarism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and climate change. Instead, we call for economic models and development approaches that are firmly rooted in principles of human rights and environmental sustainability, that address inequalities between people and states, and that rebalance power relations for justice so that the result is sustained peace, equality, the autonomy of peoples, and the preservation of the planet.

This transformational shift requires the redistribution of unequal and unfair burdens on women and girls in sustaining societal wellbeing and economies, intensified in times of violence and conflict, as well as during economic and ecological crises. It also must bring attention to the kind of growth generated and for this growth to be directed toward ensuring wellbeing and sustainability for all. Itmust tackle intersecting and structural drivers of inequalities, and multiple forms of discrimination based on gender, age, class, caste, race, ethnicity, place of origin, cultural or religious background, sexual orientation, gender identity, health status and abilities.

A development model that will work for women and girls of all ages and identities must be firmly rooted in international human rights obligations, non-retrogression, progressive realization, and the Rio principles, including common but differentiated responsibilities, as well as the fulfillment of the Extraterritorial Obligations of States as outlined in the Maastricht Principles. It also requires states to have ratified and implemented international human rights treaties, including on economic and social rights and women’s human rights, and multilateral environmental agreements. Any sustainable development framework Post 2015 must aim for social inclusion and equity, human security and sustainable peace, the fulfillment of human rights for all and gender equality. It requires reviewing the current security paradigm of investing heavily in militarized peace and security; respecting the secularity of the State where this is enshrined in national norms; reverse the current model of over – consumption and production to one of sustainable consumption, production, and distribution; and ensure a new ecological sustainability plan that applies a biosphere approach and respect for planetary boundaries and ecological sustainability.

We aim to build political commitment and to overcome financial and legal obstacles to sustainable development, peace, and the respect, protection and fulfillment of all women’s human rights. We urge the international community to address the unjust social, economic and environmental conditions that perpetuate armed conflict, violence and discrimination, the feminization of poverty, commodification of natural resources, and threats to food sovereignty that impede women and girls from becoming empowered, realizing their human rights, and achieving gender equality.Specifically, we call for:

1. Gender equality to be cross -cutting across all sustainable development goals, strategies, and objectives, as well as a stand alone goal to achieve gender equality and the full realization of women’s human rights that contributes to the redistribution of the current concentration of power, wealth and resources, including information and technology. We call for an enabling environment that will empower all women and girls; an end to all forms of gender- based violence including early and forced marriages, honor killings and sexual violence, especially during and after conflict and natural disasters; an end to all forms of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, cultural background and health status; guarantee women’s equal, full and effective participation at all levels of political and public life, leadership and decision- making, including in all peace processes; guarantee women’s equal rights to land and property; guarantee all women’s sexual, bodily and reproductive autonomy free from stigma, discrimination and violence; and collect data and statistics, disaggregated by, among others, gender, age, race, ethnicity, location, disability and socio-economic status to inform the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of laws, policies and programs.

2. Any goal on education must include specific means to address the social, cultural and community practices that prevent girls, adolescents and women across the lifecourse from accessing and completing education and lifelong learning; create enabling environments for girls’ learning, including safety, hygiene, and mobility; achieve universal access to quality early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education for all children and eliminate gender gaps, with a focus on transitions between primary- secondary and secondary-tertiary in order to ensure retention and completion by girls, adolescents and young people; provide formal and non- formal education for all women to be aware of and able to exercise their human rights; comprehensive sexuality education programs that promote values of respect for human rights, freedom, non-discrimination, gender equality, non- violence and peace- building; education curricula that are gender-sensitive and eliminate gender stereotypes, sexism, racism and homophobia, and that provide teacher training to enable the delivery of un-biased, non-judgmental education

3. Any goal on health must include: the achievement of the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights. Health services must be integrated and comprehensive, free from violence, coercion, stigma and discrimination, and emphasize equitable access, especially for adolescents, to contraception, including emergency contraception, information on assisted reproduction, maternity care, safe abortion, prevention and treatment of STIs and prevention, treatment, care and support of HIV, as well as services for those suffering from violence and in situations of emergencies and armed conflict. All services must be accessible, affordable, acceptable and of quality. New investments and strategies for health and the development of goals, targets and indicators must be firmly based on human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights.

4. To ensure economic justice we call for: an enabling international environment for development that upholds the extra-territorial obligation of states to ensure macroeconomic and financial policies meet economic and social rights as enshrined in the Maastricht principles. This includes development – oriented trade, fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies, progressive tax measures, a sovereign debt workout mechanism, and ending trade and investment treaties that impoverish nations and people; challenging global intellectual property rights frameworks; eliminating harmful subsidies; boosting productive capacity through an inclusive and sustainable industrialization strategy of diversified economic sectors moving from carbon intensive to safe and environmentally sound societies; transforming the gendered division of labour and assuring the redistribution of paid and unpaid work, while ensuring decent work and a living wage for all; implementing a universal social protection floor for persons of all ages to access basic services such as health care, child and elder care, education, food, water, sanitation, energy, housing and employment; recognition and account for the value of care work and protect the rights of care workers throughout the global care chain and guarantee women’s equal access to resources; promotion of technology transfer, financing, monitoring, assessment, and research in line with the precautionary principle; increased financing for gender equality and women’s human rights and re-directing investments in the warfare industry from militarized security to human security.

5. To promote ecological justice, we call for: ensuring the health of ecosystems and ecosystem services are protected and restored and that the intrinsic value of nature is recognized and respected; an end to the commodification of nature; securing safe, sustainable and just production and consumption patterns and eliminating hazardous substances and technologies; ensuring food and water sovereignty for all, paying particular attention to small holder farmers and fisherfolk who are often women, as key economic actors whose right to use and own land and access forests, grass and waste-lands, rivers, lakes, seas and oceans should be protected through legally binding safeguards, including against land and resource grabbing; respect for the unique knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities, including peasant and coastal communities, and ensure the right to free, prior and informed consent in any development projects that may affect the lands, territories and resources which they own, occupy or otherwise use; address the inequality, pressure and exploitation of women living in poverty within urban and rural communities, including through reversing rapid and unsustainable urbanization to prevent degradation of ecosystems and exploitation of resources that exacerbates injustice in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Ecological justice requires a strengthened United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, fulfillment of the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States, and a clear recognition of the cultural and ecosystem losses that climate change has already failed to save-and the crises faced by small island developing states- particularly by strengthening the newly established Loss and Damage mechanism under the UNFCCC.

With regard to governance and accountability and means of implementation of the sustainable development framework, we call for a prioritization of public financing over public – private partnerships as well as transparency and accountability in both public and private actions related to sustainable development. Private sector is profit-oriented by nature and not obligated to invest in social needs and global public goods. Today, thirty-seven of the world’s 100 largest economies are corporations. The public sector—whose crucial roles include the financing of social needs towards poverty eradication and finance global public goods—thus remains essential for a sustainable development financing strategy. All public budgets need to be transparent, open to public debate, gender responsive, and allocate adequate resources to achieving these priorities. We must ensure the meaningful participation of women in the design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of the development goals, policies and programs as well as during peace-building efforts, protect all women human rights defenders, and guarantee their safety and non persecution. There must be access to effective remedies and redress at the national level for women’s human rights violations. Monitoring and evaluation should include reporting of states on their obligations before the Universal Periodic Review, CEDAW and its Optional Protocol, and other human rights mechanisms and under multilateral environmental agreements. Regulation, accountability and transparency of non -state actors, particularly trans-national corporations and public-private partnerships, are critical for achieving sustainable development. Justice will not be possible without effective governance mechanisms, for which it is necessary to guarantee the respect for, enforceability and justiciability of all human rights, as well as ensuring the rule of law and the full participation of civil society, in conditions of equality between men and women.

To endorse this statement, please send an email with the organization’s full name and country to: feministspost2015@gmail. com

List of Signatories (as of February 18, 2014)

1. Action Canada for Population and Development

2. Adéquations- France

3. AEEFG- Tunisia
4. AIDS Accountability International
5. Alianza LAC juventudes rumbo a Cairo +20
6. Arab Women’s Organization- Jordan
7. Articulación Feminista Marcosur
8. Articulación Regional de Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil de América Latina y el Caribe hacia Cairo más 20
9. Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
10. Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW)
11. Asociación Latinoamericana de Población-ALAP
12. Association for Liberty and Equality for Gender (ALEG)- Romania
13. Association for Women’s Rights and Development (AWID)
14. ASTRA Network
15. Balance, Promoción para el desarrollo y la juventud- Mexico

16. Black Sea Women’s Club- Ukraine
17. Campaña 28 de Septiembre por la Despenalización del Aborto de América Latina y el Caribe
18. Campaña por una Convención Interamericana de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos
19. Caribbean Family Planning Association
20. Catchafyah Caribbean
21. Center for Encounter and active non-violence-Austria
22. Centro Feminista de Estudos e Assessoria: CFEMEA
23. Círculo de Juventud Afrodescendiente de las Américas-CJAA
24. Coalición Caribeña Población y Desarrollo
25. Coalición Contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y El Caribe
26. Coalición Nacional de SC hacia Cairo más 20
27. Coalición por la Salud de las Mujeres en México

28. Coalición Salvadoreña de Mujeres rumbo a Cairo + 20
29. Common Language- China
30. Comisión Nacional de Seguimiento Mujeres por Democracia, equidad y ciudadanía- CNSmujeres
31. Comité de América Latina y El Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer- CLADEM
32. Congo Men´s Network (COMEN)- Congo
33. Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias-CLAI
34. Consejo Latinoamericano y del Caribe de organizaciones no gubernamentales con servicio en VIH/SIDA- LACASSO

35. Consorcio Latinoamericano contra el aborto inseguro-CLACAI
36. Consorcio Latinoamericano de Anticoncpeción de Emergencia-CLAE
37. Coordinación de Mujeres del Paraguay
38. Coordinación Red Feminista Centroamericana contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres-CEMUJER
39. Coordinadora de la Mujer de Bolivia
40. Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era – DAWN

41. Diverse Voices in Action for Equality (DIVA)- Fiji
42. Education as Vaccine EVA- Nigeria
43. El Closet de Sor Juana- Mexico
44. Engender- South Africa
45. Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas de las Américas
46. Equis Justicia par alas Mujeres- Mexico
47. Espacio Iberoamericano de Juventud
48. Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago- Trinidad and Tobago
49. Fellowship of Reconciliation
50. Femmes et Droits Humains- Mali
51. Fundación Mexicana Para la Planificación Familiar- México
52. Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer-FEIM
53. Fundación para la Formación de Líderes Afrocolombianos Afrolider- Colombia

54. GADIP- Sweden
55. Global Network of Women Peacebuilders
56. Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida- GIRE
57. Grupo de Seguimiento a Cairo- Bolivia
58. Grupo de Trabajo en Sexualidades y Géneros Argentina
59. Grupo Internacional de Mujeres y SIDA-IAWC International Community of Women living with HIV-AISD-
60. Huairou Commission
61. ICW Latina
62. ILGA LAC
63. Indigenous Information network and African Indigenous women’s organization- East Africa
64. Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir- Mexico
65. International Planned Parenthood Federation-IPPF

66. International Women’s Health Coalition- IWHC

67. International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice (IWP)- Thailand

68. International Women´s Rights Project
69. Ipas
70. Italian Coordination of the European Womenìs Lobby / Lef-Italia

71. Just Associates (JASS)
72. KULU- Women and Development- Denmark
73. Lesbianas, Gays. Bisexuales, Trans e intersexuales de América Latina y El Carible
74. Leadership for Environment and Development Southern and Eastern Africa- Malawi
75. Men’s Resources International
76. Mesa de Vigilancia por la Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos Perú
77. Mesa Interinstitucional de Mujeres- Colombia
78. Movimiento Latinoamerica y del Caribe de Mujeres Positivas, MLCM+
79. Multicultural Women Peace Makers Network
80. Phoenix Women Take Back the Night
81. Plataforma Juvenil Salvadoreña por los derechos sexuales y derechos reproductivos
82. Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA)- Poland
83. Punanga Tauturu Inc (Cook Islands Womens Counselling Centre)

84. Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice-RESURJ
85. Red de Educación Popular entre Mujeres-REPEM
86. Red de masculinidad por la igualdad de género
87. Red de mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora
88. Red de Mujeres Trabajadoras Sexuales de Lationamerica y el Caribe-REDTRASEX
89. Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y El Caribe- RSMLAC
90. Red Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Juventudes por los derechos sexuales y reproductivos REDLAC

91. Red Latinoamericanas de Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir -CDD
92. Red Mundial de Mujeres por los Derechos Reproductivos
93. RMMDR Red Nacional de Jóvenes y Adolescentes por la Salud Sexual y Reproductiva- Argentina
94. ROZAN- Pakistan
95. Servicios Ecumenicos para Reconciliacion y Reconstruccion -SERR
96. Sí Mujer – Nicaragua

97. South Asian Feminist Alliance (SAFA)
98. Sri Lanka Women’s NGO Forum- Sri Lanka
99. Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN)- Uganda
100. Taller Salud – Puerto Rico
101. The YP Foundation- India
102. TIYE International- The Netherlands
103. United and Strong- St. Lucia
104. United Federation of Danish Workers, Center for Equality and Diversity- Denmark
105. Vision Spring Initiatives- Nigeria
106. Women’s Earth and Climate Change Caucus
107. Women for Peace- Germany
108. Women for Women´s Human Rights, New Ways (WWHR)-Turkey

109. WIDE- Network for Women’s Rights and Feminist Perspectives in Development- Austria
110. WIDE+ European Network around women’s rights and development
111. Wo=Men Dutch Gender Platform- the Netherlands
112. Women’s Coalition- Turkey
113. Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF)
114. Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
115. Women´s Media Colective- Sri Lanka
116. Women´s Peacemakers Program (WPP)- Netherlands
117. Women’s Solidarity- Austria
118. World Student Christian Federation in Europe (WSCF-E)- Germany
119. YouAct: European Youth Network on Sexual and Reproductive Rights
120. Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

 
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