Colleen Gilbert (AWC Brussels) followed climate change, energy, and mental health issues at CSW59.
Climate Change and Gender Equality
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and current Director of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice believes that gender equality and climate justice are the most severe human rights issues of this century. She believes women must be participants and benefactors of this process.
Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, calls for a stronger connection between gender justice and climate justice as they go hand in hand. She reported support from all sides of the UN right now so the timing is right to move forward. She promotes inter-governmental processes and stresses the following key elements:
- women's empowerment in the preamble so that women are both enablers and beneficiaries of climate change
- taking care of our planet as a means to empower people
- mitigation: we need to address land security issues
- use existing language as launching point, but expand
- find champions; build alliance with G77 companies for support for women in those countries
- Domestic resources for mobilization and evaluation
Lorena Aguilar, IUCN's Global Senior Gender Advisor, calls us to build on decisions already taken to bring the 50+ international mandates in front of us to fruition. She believes that work to date embraces gender equality so we should fight these next 9 months for implementation. This is life or death for some individuals - and some countries - as human induced climate change is causing countries to literally "go about of business" (referencing Samoan president purchasing land in Fiji as potential migration strategy).
The panel seemed to agree that success of women's equality within climate change would require a grand alliance between the women's movement and business.
For further information, please visit: Womengenderclimate.org
Energy Access as a Key Driver of Gender Equality
The panelists pointed out that Beijing didn't reference energy relative to gender equality, except for a more general reference in the "environment" category. That, they believe, was a tremendous oversight. A lack of access to clean energy causes women and girls disruption of education, sexual harassment, and health issues.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves reported the need for sustainable energy as a means to insure gender equality. With today's inequality of access to energy, lowest income/impoverished people, especially in developing countries, have access to less clean energies and fuel. Further, women with access to energy enjoy less benefits from that energy than men.
In lower socio-economic areas, women and girls experience a disruption to their education when collecting wood for fuel. Additionally, they are sometimes sexually harassed while collecting. Health issues arise for women & girls from extended exposure to domestic air pollution (smokey kitchens caused by kerosene). Over 780,000 women and children have been victims of kerosene poison and there have been over 4 million premature deaths caused by such domestic air pollutions. Also, carrying 20kg of wood daily between the ages 14-60 has been linked damage to reproduce organs.
Income generation for women is linked to energy access. Women with access to energy make double wage and attend school more regularly and longer compared to those without. Electricity improves healthcare after sunset. Birth deliveries without light are linked to increased infection and death. Electricity allows women the opportunity to read books for increased periods of time.
Sustainable development of access to clean energy depends on investment.
Women's Mental Health & Well-Being in Post-2015 Agenda
Dr Judy Kuriansky, Phd, Chair, Psychology Coalition of NGOs accredited at UN, reported good news; world governments agree with the need to work toward the goal of mental and physical health for all women from 2015-2030. These governments reflect on the fact that physical and mental health of women was 3 of 12 goals coming out of Beijing in 1995. There also seems to be global agreement that involving men as allies will be key.
Yvonne Rafferty, Phd, Professor of Psychology and Women and Gender Studies, Pace University, reported on the need for mental healthcare for liberated victims of child trafficking. She identified the top avenues of child trafficking as forced marriage, begging, sex slavery, and children involved with armed conflict, all usually begun with a threat to the child's life. CEDAW Article 39 calls for recovery & social integration, post-trauma, as there can be no health without mental health. She believes that recovery in a shelter should be an international mandate. The four pillars to success in helping victims of child trafficking are: prosecution, prevention, protection, partnership.