Top UN Committee calls for gender equality to be an over-arching principle in climate change negotiations

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the expert body responsible for reviewing implementation of the UN Convention of the same name, has expressed

“its concern about the absence of a gender perspective in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other global and national policies and initiatives on climate change.”

In a statement released during its 44^th session at UN headquarters in New York from 20 July to 7 August 2009, the Committee emphasised that ‘climate change does not affect women and men in the same way and has a gender-differentiated impact’. CEDAW also underlined that ‘women are not just helpless victims of climate change – they are powerful agents of change and their leadership is critical.’  So it is vital that all players ‘ensure that climate change and disaster risk reduction measures are gender responsive, sensitive to indigenous knowledge systems and respect human rights. Women’s right to participate at all levels of decision-making must be guaranteed.’

Importantly, the Committee underlined clearly that promoting gender equality in and through global climate change responses would lead to better overall outcomes: …policies that support gender equality in access, use and control over science and technology, formal and informal education and training will enhance a nation’s capability in disaster reduction, mitigation and adaptation to climate change… Gender equality is essential to the successful initiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of climate change policies.

The CEDAW Committee calls on States Parties to include gender equality as an overarching guiding principle in the climate change agreement to be negotiated in Copenhagen.

Download Statement of the CEDAW Committee on Gender and Climate Change PDF

Tags: climate change, Environment

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 under Environment and Natural Resources.