This statement was presented by APWLD member Virisila Buadromo from the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement
I’m speaking today on behalf of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, a network of over 180 organisations from 26 countries in the Asia-Pacific who are dedicated to women’s human rights.
In the last two decades, the world has experienced multiple, interrelated crises of food, finance, climate, and social and economic inequality. Today, we have the opportunity to envision a better world for all. Our efforts reflect those of the Millennium Summit in 2000, when the international community came together and committed to a future premised on global solidarity, human rights, equality, and respect for nature. However, the Millennium Development Goals failed in their formulation and–as we’ve seen in the last decade—in their impact to fulfil that ambition.
The MDGs fell short of addressing the deeply entrenched, structural barriers faced by women and girls. Women continue to constitute the majority of the world’s poor; are the majority of workers in the most vulnerable sectors, including domestic work, the ready-made garment industry, and subsistence agriculture; suffer disproportionately from climate disasters; and experience systematic violence in times of conflict and peace. Women need more than non-discrimination and economic empowerment measures that treat women’s rights as instrumentalities. They need real economic transformation; redistribution of opportunities, power, and wealth; and justice. They need a genuine say over development strategies that affect their communities and global systems.
What this demands is a new, transformative model of development that will uphold women and girls’ rights, strengthen their capabilities, and support their aspirations. APWLD and its partners in the region propose a new development framework—Development Justice—that is grounded in human rights and accountability of governments to people in fulfilling those rights. Development Justice includes stand-alone goals on inequalities; the climate crisis; decent work; equitable access to, and control over, land and resources; and a strong stand-alone gender goal that addresses the root causes of women’s rights violations. Finally, a model of Development Justice will ensure its means of implementation are sourced from global revenue and progressive taxation.
The Millennium Development Goals need to be replaced by a framework that is capable of transforming the structures and institutions that have magnified inequalities, lowered real wages, and caused crises of environment, food and energy that enormously impact the lives of women and girls in the global south. We need an ambitious, inclusive new roadmap that reflects all of our concerns. We need Development Justice.
Video of full remarks and other presentations can be viewed on http://webtv.un.org/watch/15th-meeting-commission-on-the-status-of-women-fifty-eighth-session/3367728487001/
