The caucus meeting was much less heated than the one on Fri.
There was a discussion of acceptable language: sexual health and reproductive rights?,disability?, gender allows for all sorts of gender beyond men and women, marital status includes widows?, early and forced marriage,, etc/\. The Pacific caucus wants language on fisheries and aquifer fishing.
This was followed by a presentation by Pat Black and Anne Lawson about how the NGOs are organized in Great Britain (Ireland,Scotland Wales, and England)They have developed a Alliance of over 100 women's organizations which work together on women's issues and has built a good relationship with the British Government> The model sounds interesting and so Canada and the US, separately, are going to start work on trying to tie the NGO's together. I will work on the Canadian one with a couple of other women and we hope to have a loosely knit group or at least a comprehensive email list by mid fall
TUESDAY MARCH 18th
I was late for chapel today but the cough is bad when I first get up. After chapel I attended the UN briefing. The Vice Chair of UN Women spoke first about where the bureau receives its funding - mostly from voluntary donations of member states, a little from the Secretariate. She also talked about the necessity of involving men as well as women at all levels of activity. She spoke about increasing accountability. There were only negotiations beginning at 1 pm today. They went until about 11 pm and managed to approve some paragraphs. The facilitator has declared that this will be the last time through the text so we are all hoping that discussions go well. There will no longer be opportunity to inject new language or concepts. However NGOs can still suggest putting things together for a more concise document. It is currently 28 pages.
The Advocacy Committee of Ecumenical Women met at 10 am to review the third draft on order to get our comments in before noon as the the core group of Soroptimists. I returned to my room to type our comments and send them out before noon, had lunch from the deli up the street and then a nice nap. This cold has made me tired.
The Caucus met again at 6:15 and continued discussions of how to do a coalition and managed to end by 8 pm.
Joan Fraser was with us at the caucus and she, Alice and I headed off to meet her husband and his running group at an italian restaurant at 94 and 2. The group ran 6 miles in 1 hour. Ross Fraser is considering coming to Toronto to run in the Toronto Marathon in the fall. This couple have become great friends over the years. Joan even made a visit to us in Canada last summer, I ordered calamari for us to share before the runners arrived and the sixe of the serving was amazing, We all had some and I brought home a container of leftovers (which were not great reheated for lunch today).
Home about 10:30 and off to bed.
Blessings Judy
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Monday March 17, St Patrick's Day
OK I totally give up with the counting thing. I was still wrong so from noew on it will be the date.
St Patrick's Day is a big deal in New York City. A huge and I mean huge parade, everyone in green, green beer etc etc. I managed to stay clear of the celebrations as getting about was apparently difficult.
It has turned cold again here, warmer than Fenelon but below 0C in the morning. I was late to chalep this morning because I could not stop coughing for a bit, Got there about 15 minutes late. The Anglican Consultative Council did worship today and the preacher from Africa I think, did a wonderful job talking about maternal child health and MDG (Millenium Development Goal) number 3. My roomy , Caitlin did the prayers of the people and I discovered that she has a wonderful singing voice.
The briefing from the UN this morning was attended again by the Chair of the Commission who spoke at length about procedure, There were no negotiations today, Instead the Commission received oral statements from NGOs and negotiated behind closed doors. Another member of the commission also spoke briefly. This is new to me - usually the briefings are done by UN Women and / or the NGO/NYC .This Commission is trying very hard to be more open.
Following the briefing I met with some Soroptimists for a while and the back to my room for a tea before I headed out to once again make the trek to meet the Canadian negotiators in the UN building - about a 1/2 walk for slow old me. Suzanne was the govt rep today and her news was some good and some bad. The good is that a new compilation text is due out today. The bad is that there are some "coalitions:" in the negotiations who are trying to hold a hard line against previously accepted language. The Commission operates on consensus rather than majority and so even one dissenting vote can stop the conclusions.The contentious wording falls in the areas of "family" "gender", "sexual and reproductive rights and education"
"sovereignty" mostly. Some of this language was accepted back in 1949 and some just last year, but there are strong feelings around these subjects.
At about 3 the new text came out - only 28 pages this time with 2 paragraphs already accepted (only).
Frantically, groups called meetings to review the text because tomorrow is yje beginning of the final round of negotiations and it is harder to influence the negotiations from outside the rooms and almost none of us get to go inside. Soroptimists met upstairs in my hotal and other groups too.
At 6:15 there was a North America/Europe caucus meeting that went on for 2 hours.
More tomorrow
Blessings Judy
St Patrick's Day is a big deal in New York City. A huge and I mean huge parade, everyone in green, green beer etc etc. I managed to stay clear of the celebrations as getting about was apparently difficult.
It has turned cold again here, warmer than Fenelon but below 0C in the morning. I was late to chalep this morning because I could not stop coughing for a bit, Got there about 15 minutes late. The Anglican Consultative Council did worship today and the preacher from Africa I think, did a wonderful job talking about maternal child health and MDG (Millenium Development Goal) number 3. My roomy , Caitlin did the prayers of the people and I discovered that she has a wonderful singing voice.
The briefing from the UN this morning was attended again by the Chair of the Commission who spoke at length about procedure, There were no negotiations today, Instead the Commission received oral statements from NGOs and negotiated behind closed doors. Another member of the commission also spoke briefly. This is new to me - usually the briefings are done by UN Women and / or the NGO/NYC .This Commission is trying very hard to be more open.
Following the briefing I met with some Soroptimists for a while and the back to my room for a tea before I headed out to once again make the trek to meet the Canadian negotiators in the UN building - about a 1/2 walk for slow old me. Suzanne was the govt rep today and her news was some good and some bad. The good is that a new compilation text is due out today. The bad is that there are some "coalitions:" in the negotiations who are trying to hold a hard line against previously accepted language. The Commission operates on consensus rather than majority and so even one dissenting vote can stop the conclusions.The contentious wording falls in the areas of "family" "gender", "sexual and reproductive rights and education"
"sovereignty" mostly. Some of this language was accepted back in 1949 and some just last year, but there are strong feelings around these subjects.
At about 3 the new text came out - only 28 pages this time with 2 paragraphs already accepted (only).
Frantically, groups called meetings to review the text because tomorrow is yje beginning of the final round of negotiations and it is harder to influence the negotiations from outside the rooms and almost none of us get to go inside. Soroptimists met upstairs in my hotal and other groups too.
At 6:15 there was a North America/Europe caucus meeting that went on for 2 hours.
More tomorrow
Blessings Judy
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Day Nine in New York
Well truth be told I cannot count. It seems that we have 2 day sevens and today is really day nine. OOOPS.
The three of us had breakfast together this morning and then the other two headed out to church and I returned to the room to work on the response to the outcome document with which I have been having great difficulty. I worked until nearly 1:00 and then went to bed for a quick nap. Alice called at 2 and we agreed to meet at the Cathedral of St John the Divine at 3 pm, The cathedral is one of the largest buildings in the city meaning that it has a vast amount of open space in the church itself. Early in March they opened an exhibit of 2 sculptures called the phoenix. The work was designed and implemented by a Xu Bing in China as a work to join 2 new large buildings there. He made the sculptures from materials d\iscarded when the buildings were being built. They are 2 gigantic birds which are suspended above the nave of the Cathedral. I got some good pictures but I am not sure how to attach them.
We taxied back and I prepared for the meeting of the "core group" of Soroptimist International. In the meeting we discussed process going forth into the second week as well as started the groundwork for planning CSW59 next march. It was a productive meeting with lots of good ideas flowing.
Alice went to the deli and got us some food and we sat and ate together. I have gotten to know her a lot better this year. She is a wonderful role model.
I tried to work on the outcome document some more but only made a small amount of progress.
Tomorrow the Anglicans are doing chapel so I'd better be on time. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our second week. It will be somewhat less frantic but with more pressure on lobbying and negotiating.
Wish us luck... not really luck but think of us.
Blessings Judy
The three of us had breakfast together this morning and then the other two headed out to church and I returned to the room to work on the response to the outcome document with which I have been having great difficulty. I worked until nearly 1:00 and then went to bed for a quick nap. Alice called at 2 and we agreed to meet at the Cathedral of St John the Divine at 3 pm, The cathedral is one of the largest buildings in the city meaning that it has a vast amount of open space in the church itself. Early in March they opened an exhibit of 2 sculptures called the phoenix. The work was designed and implemented by a Xu Bing in China as a work to join 2 new large buildings there. He made the sculptures from materials d\iscarded when the buildings were being built. They are 2 gigantic birds which are suspended above the nave of the Cathedral. I got some good pictures but I am not sure how to attach them.
We taxied back and I prepared for the meeting of the "core group" of Soroptimist International. In the meeting we discussed process going forth into the second week as well as started the groundwork for planning CSW59 next march. It was a productive meeting with lots of good ideas flowing.
Alice went to the deli and got us some food and we sat and ate together. I have gotten to know her a lot better this year. She is a wonderful role model.
I tried to work on the outcome document some more but only made a small amount of progress.
Tomorrow the Anglicans are doing chapel so I'd better be on time. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our second week. It will be somewhat less frantic but with more pressure on lobbying and negotiating.
Wish us luck... not really luck but think of us.
Blessings Judy
Day Eight Saturday.
Wonderful....none of us needed to set an alarm, I forgot to mention that Caitlin moved into our room yesterday so now we are 3. She is the youngster at 29 while Alice and I are the old fogies..
However I went to bed at 11:15 Fri night so I was awake at 8 anyway. Today is take it easy day and my only "job" is to try to put our suggestions into the document. Well, I discovered that I am not as good at computers as I thought because I could not figure out how to do track changes. after two hours of trying, a bite to eat I gave up around noon and went to sleep
after a blessed m2 hour sleep I showered etc because our honourary Canadian (from Long Island ) is coming and we are all going out for dinner when Ross, her husband, arrived. Joan had a 15 minute nap and we visited. Ross had been running and arrived about 6pm and we headed to the "Mint" and wonderful Indian food restaurant where we ate Lamb, Chicken, nan bread. rice, some kind of vegetables and yogurt with Tirimasu and cheese cake for dessert. great food and great company makes to a wonderful evening.By the time we got back it was after 10 so we were not long getting ready for bed. A relatively quiet day in New York City.
Blessings Judy
However I went to bed at 11:15 Fri night so I was awake at 8 anyway. Today is take it easy day and my only "job" is to try to put our suggestions into the document. Well, I discovered that I am not as good at computers as I thought because I could not figure out how to do track changes. after two hours of trying, a bite to eat I gave up around noon and went to sleep
after a blessed m2 hour sleep I showered etc because our honourary Canadian (from Long Island ) is coming and we are all going out for dinner when Ross, her husband, arrived. Joan had a 15 minute nap and we visited. Ross had been running and arrived about 6pm and we headed to the "Mint" and wonderful Indian food restaurant where we ate Lamb, Chicken, nan bread. rice, some kind of vegetables and yogurt with Tirimasu and cheese cake for dessert. great food and great company makes to a wonderful evening.By the time we got back it was after 10 so we were not long getting ready for bed. A relatively quiet day in New York City.
Blessings Judy
Day Seven
Friday....where has the time gone?
This cold has interfered with what I had planned to do here in New York but I am still doing some exciting things.
Today started, as always,with chapel. There was no briefing today because the second floor space has been turned into a market. Woman from many countries have brought hand made items from their homeland to sell. There is everything from area rugs to earrings. This year I managed not to but anything. Pakistan has its usual wonderful dresses, pashminas and clergy stoles. There were hand sewn dolls and books for children table runners, lots of varieties of jewelery etc.
At 9:30 I returned to my room to arrange it for a meeting and we held an advocacy meeting here working on our view of the outcome document and any changes that we would like to see. One person was nodding off during the meeting showing how exhausted people are after the first week. My roommate actually returned during the meeting and went soundly to sleep on her bed for the rest of the meeting. We did not get to the end of the document but we did make progress.
Lunch and a nap later I held some discussions about the document and at 4:15 I walked up to a pub to meet the SIA President Cheri Fleming.
At 6:30 the North America /Europe Caucus met and that was kind of exciting.We were reviewing the document and a ":discussion" broke out I think on the inclusion of "prostitution" vs sex trade. I stood up and said that if we are unable to reach concensus at our level then how do we expect the Commission to reach concensus. There was a lot of emotion in the room as several of the attendees are survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse.Canada was slammed regarding the disappearing aboriginal women especially in BC.
During the caucus I also spoke about the mission visit with Canada and with the US mission.
The meeting went well beyond the allotted time but some agreement was reached and we are circulating our recommendations.
At the meeting we also heard that the Moslem countries and some of the African countries have issued and ultimatum of sorts which would remove previously agreed upon language but we urged our negotiators to continue on with our support to work towards a progressive document.
The meeting ended after 8 so Alice and I returned to our room and ate our left overs.
So endeth the first week.
Blessings Judy
This cold has interfered with what I had planned to do here in New York but I am still doing some exciting things.
Today started, as always,with chapel. There was no briefing today because the second floor space has been turned into a market. Woman from many countries have brought hand made items from their homeland to sell. There is everything from area rugs to earrings. This year I managed not to but anything. Pakistan has its usual wonderful dresses, pashminas and clergy stoles. There were hand sewn dolls and books for children table runners, lots of varieties of jewelery etc.
At 9:30 I returned to my room to arrange it for a meeting and we held an advocacy meeting here working on our view of the outcome document and any changes that we would like to see. One person was nodding off during the meeting showing how exhausted people are after the first week. My roommate actually returned during the meeting and went soundly to sleep on her bed for the rest of the meeting. We did not get to the end of the document but we did make progress.
Lunch and a nap later I held some discussions about the document and at 4:15 I walked up to a pub to meet the SIA President Cheri Fleming.
At 6:30 the North America /Europe Caucus met and that was kind of exciting.We were reviewing the document and a ":discussion" broke out I think on the inclusion of "prostitution" vs sex trade. I stood up and said that if we are unable to reach concensus at our level then how do we expect the Commission to reach concensus. There was a lot of emotion in the room as several of the attendees are survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse.Canada was slammed regarding the disappearing aboriginal women especially in BC.
During the caucus I also spoke about the mission visit with Canada and with the US mission.
The meeting went well beyond the allotted time but some agreement was reached and we are circulating our recommendations.
At the meeting we also heard that the Moslem countries and some of the African countries have issued and ultimatum of sorts which would remove previously agreed upon language but we urged our negotiators to continue on with our support to work towards a progressive document.
The meeting ended after 8 so Alice and I returned to our room and ate our left overs.
So endeth the first week.
Blessings Judy
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Day seven
I cannot believe that I have been here 7 days. The time goes by so quickly. We are so busy that you do not realize the time.
Today was blessed. Started with Chapel as usual. Then I went up to the briefing. The tone continues to be very positive and open which is wonderful, and the room was full. Next week there will be less people as many cannot stay for the 2 weeks.
This morning I returned to the Episcopal centre to hear Latchmi Puri speak. She is part of UN Women and spoke for nearly an hour. She talked about the Millenium Development Goals and the future beyond 2015 when new goals possibly called Sustainable Development Goals will come into being.
Back to my roon to put the finishing touches on our visit to the Canadian Mission this afternoon. I arranged this visit and all of the Canadian Anglicans got a private audience with the Ambassador for 1 hour. He spent some time explaining how things work at the Mission and who works there. We had a prepared statement which he had read before we arrived. I had asked the youth to prepare a 4 or 5 minute presentation as part of our time and they did and awesome job. They talked about access to post secondary education,missing Indigenous women, difficulties for the LGBT community and the problems of stress and other mental health issues in young people.
Our paper talked about poverty and hunger, access to resources and services, access to education, employment and decision making positions and the need to look at violence in a non-gender way ie: violence against a person instead of violence toward women and the need to involve men and boys as well as women and girls in the solution. We had examples from our own experiences to illustrate our points.
We left the Mission quickly because Ecumenical Women were scheduled to have a private audience with the American Mission at 4:30 and we barely had time to get there. This was an excellent meeting and I thanked the mission personnel for their openness and willingness to come to us for this meeting.The meeting lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours.
Immediately after the briefing we held the Ecumenical women debrief which I also chaired. This one was a bit faster because there have been no new drafts of the concluding document and everyone seemed very tired. Alice and I got a take out from the Olympia and came back to our room and had a leisurely dinner in our pyjamas and just chatted. most enjoyable. (I had a craving for meat loaf).
It was cold in New York today and windy, I had to dig out my toque. It will be sunny and warmer tomorrow.
Some of our group left yesterday - I hear they had to stay in Toronto before returning to Muskoka today. More will leave tomorrow. We will miss you all. Caitlin, who has been bunking with her mother til now, will move into our room tomorrow for the next week. Two old fogies and 1 young one.
More tomorrow, Stay warm and safe
Blessings Judy
Today was blessed. Started with Chapel as usual. Then I went up to the briefing. The tone continues to be very positive and open which is wonderful, and the room was full. Next week there will be less people as many cannot stay for the 2 weeks.
This morning I returned to the Episcopal centre to hear Latchmi Puri speak. She is part of UN Women and spoke for nearly an hour. She talked about the Millenium Development Goals and the future beyond 2015 when new goals possibly called Sustainable Development Goals will come into being.
Back to my roon to put the finishing touches on our visit to the Canadian Mission this afternoon. I arranged this visit and all of the Canadian Anglicans got a private audience with the Ambassador for 1 hour. He spent some time explaining how things work at the Mission and who works there. We had a prepared statement which he had read before we arrived. I had asked the youth to prepare a 4 or 5 minute presentation as part of our time and they did and awesome job. They talked about access to post secondary education,missing Indigenous women, difficulties for the LGBT community and the problems of stress and other mental health issues in young people.
Our paper talked about poverty and hunger, access to resources and services, access to education, employment and decision making positions and the need to look at violence in a non-gender way ie: violence against a person instead of violence toward women and the need to involve men and boys as well as women and girls in the solution. We had examples from our own experiences to illustrate our points.
We left the Mission quickly because Ecumenical Women were scheduled to have a private audience with the American Mission at 4:30 and we barely had time to get there. This was an excellent meeting and I thanked the mission personnel for their openness and willingness to come to us for this meeting.The meeting lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours.
Immediately after the briefing we held the Ecumenical women debrief which I also chaired. This one was a bit faster because there have been no new drafts of the concluding document and everyone seemed very tired. Alice and I got a take out from the Olympia and came back to our room and had a leisurely dinner in our pyjamas and just chatted. most enjoyable. (I had a craving for meat loaf).
It was cold in New York today and windy, I had to dig out my toque. It will be sunny and warmer tomorrow.
Some of our group left yesterday - I hear they had to stay in Toronto before returning to Muskoka today. More will leave tomorrow. We will miss you all. Caitlin, who has been bunking with her mother til now, will move into our room tomorrow for the next week. Two old fogies and 1 young one.
More tomorrow, Stay warm and safe
Blessings Judy
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Day Six in New York
As usual Chapel starts at 8 am. We had breakfast in our room this morning from oatmeal I brought .
There is a room on the end of our floor where you can get a complementary breakfast but it is not especially nutritious - cold cereal, pastries, yogurt, and some fruit. Sometimes I go and have yogurt and fruit.They have bread or bagels but their peanut butter is old and dried up.
The hotel is extremely dry and today I scored a humidifier. this is great because the design of the shower does not put steam in the room. By the way - have you ever seen a square toilet? We have square toilets throughout the renovated part of the hotel. Our room looks south I think and our view is the Chrysler building and the Empire State Building.
After Chapel and briefing, the advocacy committee met to start looking at the compilation draft. We met for an hour and then agreed to work on a section each and report back to me.
I returned to my room to have lunch and worked on a draft statement for our meeting at the Canadian Mission tomorrow. I fell asleep around 2 and woke up at 4:30. So much for seminars today. Finished draft one and headed out for a planned "Advocacy" dinner. About 80 people having dinner at the church centre, pasta, salad, chicken and grilled vegetables. a nice meal and an opportunity to catch up with some Canadians and some old friends also.
Now I am back in my room and the draft is circulating. For the first time since I got here the TV is on and I will quit working now
I hear that it may snow here tomorrow. I hope not. it was 55 yesterday and about 45 today.
Blessings Judy
There is a room on the end of our floor where you can get a complementary breakfast but it is not especially nutritious - cold cereal, pastries, yogurt, and some fruit. Sometimes I go and have yogurt and fruit.They have bread or bagels but their peanut butter is old and dried up.
The hotel is extremely dry and today I scored a humidifier. this is great because the design of the shower does not put steam in the room. By the way - have you ever seen a square toilet? We have square toilets throughout the renovated part of the hotel. Our room looks south I think and our view is the Chrysler building and the Empire State Building.
After Chapel and briefing, the advocacy committee met to start looking at the compilation draft. We met for an hour and then agreed to work on a section each and report back to me.
I returned to my room to have lunch and worked on a draft statement for our meeting at the Canadian Mission tomorrow. I fell asleep around 2 and woke up at 4:30. So much for seminars today. Finished draft one and headed out for a planned "Advocacy" dinner. About 80 people having dinner at the church centre, pasta, salad, chicken and grilled vegetables. a nice meal and an opportunity to catch up with some Canadians and some old friends also.
Now I am back in my room and the draft is circulating. For the first time since I got here the TV is on and I will quit working now
I hear that it may snow here tomorrow. I hope not. it was 55 yesterday and about 45 today.
Blessings Judy
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