Ligestillingsudvalget 2016-17
LIU Alm.del Bilag 65
Offentligt
EU statement after the adoption of the CSW61 Agreed
Conclusions
What seems like a long and arduous process has come to an end
today. As the gavel went down a moment ago on the Chair's text we
adopted a set of Agreed Conclusions that address a theme that for
many of us goes right to the heart of advancing the human rights of
all women and girls.
The EU approached this session with a high degree of ambition. We
were ready to truly advance the way in which women's economic
empowerment is considered and globally advance in this area. Many
of the paragraphs that were agreed ad ref were the result of input
from many delegations and truly serve as examples of constructive
engagement. We fully support these elements and aim to do our
utmost to take them forward in our internal and external policy
making and implementation.
As much as we appreciate the hard work of the facilitator, the
bureau and the Secretariat, we are disappointed that after the long
days and nights spent in these negotiations, we have arrived at an
outcome that to a large degree is an interpretation rather than a
reflection of a negotiated outcome. As such there are many elements
in the text that are far removed from the position of the EU, are not
reflections of negotiated compromises and therefore cannot enjoy
our full support moving forward.
In this respect, we wish to draw your attention to the following areas
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We are disappointed that the link between women's economic
empowerment and SRHR could not be made stronger, for example
 LIU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 65: Rejserapport fra udvalgets deltagelse i FN's kvindekommissions samling i New york i uge 11, 2017
by better reflecting the human rights components which are essential
to gender equality;
The continued insistence for language on national policy space is
another concern that unnecessarily aims to limit the ambition of the
Commission;
References to civil society were limited and did not incorporate
agreed language, including the mentioning of NGOs. In a world
where civil society space is shrinking, this sends a worrying signal;
We are further troubled about language in the Agreed Conclusions
that reinforces stereotypical and traditional roles of women and
girls, and does not contribute to their economic empowerment and
independence.
Despite this, we will continue to strive to work with our partners and
build consensus on these and other issues and our commitment to
gender equality, human rights of all women and girls and their
empowerment is as strong as ever.
We thank everybody involved in this process for their effort and we
look forward as always to engaging in a constructive manner with
negotiations on CSW agreed conclusions in the future and we in
particular look forward to working with partners to improve
efficiency and effectiveness of this Commission next year.
Thank you.