العربية
On 25/2/2020, MP. Wafa Bani Mustafa participated in a seminar on the Jordanian and Arab preparations to participate in the 64th meeting of the Committee on the Status of Women, under the patronage of His Excellency Eng. Musa Al-Ma’aytah, Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs.
Her Excellency Asma Khidr, President of Tadamon, indicated that Jordan is attending the 64th Committee on the Status of Women, which will prepare a report to be submitted to the Economic and Social Council, where the global meeting on women this year will focus on reviewing and evaluating the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. She emphasized that the Jordanian delegation bears a message from young people with hopes of moving from words to actions in terms of women issues. She pointed out that the evidence for bearing this message is the presence of a CSO representing the youth sector within the Jordanian delegation.
She also stressed that this dialogue session will focus on the extent of coordination between the Jordanian delegation and civil society organizations, and on the priorities that should be addressed before heading to the Commission on the Status of Women meeting.
Bani Mustafa indicated that there is no representation for the Parliament in the official delegations that participate in the meetings of the CSW, and here she stressed on the need to coordinate between all the concerned parties. She commended the efforts of the JNCW in preparing a review of the Beijing Platform for Action, and commended forming the coalition of the fifth goal in cooperation between civil society organizations, the women caucus, and the Coalition of Women MPs from Arab Countries to Combat Violence against Women. She said, “So far the fight for women’s rights took a theoretical nature, not a practical one.”
She stressed on the importance of coordinating and lobbying for women’s issues with regional and international bodies. To this end, she pointed out to here experience in establishing links with such entities including: her participation in one of the side meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women where she raised the issue of political violence against women, and she pointed to the cooperation with the League of Arab States in launching the Arab Convention. She commended the efforts of H.E. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh in supporting the coalition and Jordan through her position as Assistant Secretary General of the League of Arab States and Head of the Social Affairs Sector. She also pointed to the high-level conference of the ESCWA, the League of Arab States, and UN Women which was held on the progress made in implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action after twenty-five years on 28 November 2019. She said that a final document was adopted that reaffirms the principles of Beijing and sets priorities of actions during the next stage, especially in light of the challenges facing a number of Arab countries. “This document will be submitted to the 64th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York 2020 to reflect the position of Arabs on the Beijing review after twenty-five years.”She added.
She indicated that the coalition will cooperate with the Arab Women Organization which is a part of the LAS on political violence and gender-sensitive monitoring in election campaigns, as Jordan is approaching new elections. She stressed the need for a strategic vision to participate in the meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women, and asked, “When was the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women carrying an Arab agenda?”She emphasized that the issue of following up with the implementation of laws should be one of the priorities through focusing on three important issues, including: the accountability of the legislative bodies for law enforcement, the allocation of budgets for law enforcement, and the issuance of regulations that contribute to better law enforcement. She asked, “Why don’t we have a Jordanian women’s status committee that reviews the conditions of women in Jordan?”
Diana Haddadin of the Jordanian National Committee for Women Affairs indicated that the committee prepared the official Beijing 25+ report and handed it over to the government which in turn handed it over to UNWomen and confirmed that it is on the official website of the committee. She stressed on the difficulty faced them in monitoring information based on indicators. Regarding the preparations for participating in the Commission on the Status of Women, she indicated that since 2020, the world will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the issuance of Resolution 1325 related to women, security and peace and given that in 2018 Jordan prepared the Women, Security and Peace Plan and became the fifth Arab country to prepare such a plan. She added that the National Committee will hold a special meeting in this regard, a meeting on women and extremism, and another meeting on the interaction between the National Women’s Committees and governmental committees in the presence of His Excellency Eng. Musa Al-Maaitah. She also mentioned that there will be a session on the challenges facing the reality of Arab women, in cooperation with the Arab Women Association.
