Center for Women’s Global Leadership
cwgl.rutgers.edu
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
[email protected]
160 Ryders Lane
1-848-932-8782
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8555
Fax: 1-732-932-1180
Dear all,
We are writing to you because each of you or your organizations has been advocating for
gender justice at the UN. The upcoming selection of a new Secretary General could
usher in the possibility of a new beginning, starting with the appointment of a woman,
and one with a feminist agenda.
There are already 5 women candidates, and a new round of nominations has begun. On
June 7th the President of the General Assembly (PGA) will host another set of candidate
‘hearings’, and that may not be the last one. In July, under Japan’s presidency, it is
expected that the debates at the Security Council on the selection will begin. Time is
short!
I am writing to urge that we pool our efforts. There are several objectives:
1.
To select a woman with a gender justice agenda
2. To outline a gender justice/ feminist agenda for the UN and hold the UN to account
for it.
The first project is hard enough, but it will be easier than the second. The people who
need to be influenced are the foreign policy establishments of our countries, and in
particular of Security Council members (Russia, China, USA, France, UK, Angola, Egypt,
Japan, Malaysia, new Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela).
Can we work together to build global pressure from the world’s women’s
movements to support these objectives?
Time is tight.
The next round of ‘hearings’ by the General Assembly of SG candidates is June 7th. The
deadline for submitting questions to the President of the General Assembly is May 25th.
Discussions to select the SG will begin in the Security Council in July and could be
finished by October.
There are some ways that we can make sure women’s rights groups are heard. These are
listed below in a suggested email that could go out to all of our respective networks.
Ideally, this should be sent ASAP, with a view to generating a flood of questions and
statements from women’s rights groups the world over in time for the June 7th hearings.
People could be encouraged to write letters to their governments, sign the Women’s
Major Group Petition and send in short videos with their statements about why a
woman feminist SG is needed.
The immediate window for a flood of these efforts could be between now
and June 3rd.
The hope would be to reach tens of thousands of people before June 7. If
you like, please send information about actions taken to Anne Marie Goetz
([email protected]) and Nicole Dallara ([email protected] ) so that
we can amplify all these efforts with social media, especially #she4SG and
#femSG.
Thank you!
Krishanti Dharmaraj – Executive Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership,
http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/
Anne Marie Goetz – Professor, Global Affairs, New York University (member of the
campaign to Elect a Woman UN SG http://www.womansg.org/ but this letter is signed
in my personal capacity)
Joanne Sandler – Gender@Work http://www.genderatwork.org/
Susan O'Malley – Chair, NGO CSW/NY, http://www.ngocsw.org/
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HERE IS A DRAFT EMAIL THAT YOU COULD CONSIDER SHARING WITH
MEMBERS:
Dear all –
The current UN process of selecting the next Secretary-General will have implications
for us all. We could all pull together to reverse another historic injustice: the exclusion
of women from the leadership of the United Nations. A record number of women
candidates have been nominated and another round of nominations is underway, with
hearings scheduled for June 7th by the President of the General Assembly. It is time for a
woman to take the job, a person with a history of standing up for gender justice and
committed to a change agenda at the UN so that it is accountable to women’s rights
commitments. To achieve this, we need to make our collective voices heard at country,
regional and global levels. We hope you’ll join in.
While some UN member states are committed to selecting a woman; many are not. In
any case, few have indicated a commitment to a gender justice agenda for the UN in
coming years. Between July and October, the Security Council will deliberate, but the
decision could come as soon as September.
Here are priority actions you can take to build momentum to choose a woman and a
gender justice change-maker:
1. Send in your questions for the SG candidates to the President of the General
Assembly. The deadline is immediate: May 25th. If you miss it, keep an eye on this site
as there will be other opportunities to engage with the process:
https://fs22.formsite.com/unngls/form20/index.html
2. Sign the Women’s Major Group’s petition. If hundreds of thousands sign, around
the world, a vital signal will be communicated. Please send the petition to all your
networks:
https://www.change.org/p/member-states-call-for-a-feminist-un-secretary-general
3. Write a letter to your national representatives to the UN. Equality Now has
suggested formats for letters to national governments, Security Council Members and
the President of the General Assembly:
http://www.equalitynow.org/take_action/time_for_a_woman
4. Send in a video of yourself, friends, colleagues, etc, speaking about the selection of
the next UN SG, to the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, which will compile these
statements:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuNmgArxtvBy9oSYkf2jAe7ZnzGAaJU9O&jct
=ru5w8ap1fq6HoK7qw6Fj6qAoM-g9SA
Alternative address:
http://bit.ly/1TB6y3H
The video could express views on:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Why the UN needs a woman Secretary-General
Why the UN needs a feminist Secretary-General
Why the UN needs a feminist/gender justice change agenda
Questions to the candidates regarding their priorities and whether
and how they will implement a feminist/gender justice reform
agenda.
Each person submitting a question or statement should hold up a piece of paper with
their name and country in a manner that is clearly visible. Submissions should limit
themselves to 30 seconds. Submissions may be edited in order to collate inputs for an
online video as well as for a video to be screened at the UN, ideally when the selection
process begins.
If you have questions or need help submitting the video please contact Nicole Dallara at
[email protected].
5. Tweet about the historic opportunity of having a woman Secretary General, using
these Twitter hashtags: #femSG and #she4SG
Thank you!