The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC) is using the opportunity of its statement to the Commission
to emphasise the significance of the conclusions of the recent
World Conference on Disaster Reduction to the Commission's agenda.
At the Conference, the IFRC highlighted both the special vulnerability
of women and girls in disaster situations, and their special
capacity to contribute to community resilience and to recovery
and development following a disaster.
There are many examples of the contribution women can make in
such situations. Experience show that without the deliberate
involvement of women in the planning and implementation of preparedness,
response and recovery programmes the overall national performance
will suffer.
The International Federation's key messages to the World Conference
included the need for clear recognition by governments and other
stakeholders of the role women commonly play in providing community
support after disasters strike. Allied to this is the unhappy
fact that women, because of their greater vulnerability, are
often the people who suffer most from the very poverty, which
affects their communities due to disasters.
We expressed the firm view at the Conference that governments,
if they are to prepare effectively for the onslaught of disasters,
must reach out to women and other under-represented groups both
as beneficiaries and as participants in the decision-making
integral to disaster preparedness and response work.
We were, therefore, of the view that the outcomes represented
in the Hyogo Framework for Action would have been improved by
a more direct reference to the place women occupy in disaster
preparedness and response. The Framework's main references to
the place of women in such situations are in the section dealing
with training and education opportunities. In our view there
should also have been clear references in the General Objectives
and the Priorities for Action.
The IFRC will continue to stress this point in its work, and
our National Red Cross and Red Crescent members throughout the
world will be utilising it in their work as auxiliaries to the
public authorities.
The Commission may wish to note, in this context, that governments
have agreed that National Societies should be represented in
national disaster management committees. They hold this role
in many countries and regularly seek to ensure that government
planning for preparedness and response includes appropriate
gender recognition and the involvement of all people concerned,
without any discrimination.
The IFRC made the point, in its closing speech at the World
Conference on Disaster Reduction that there was much more work
outstanding to bring the sentiments of the conference to reality.
We said we would use all opportunities at decision-making bodies
to emphasise this need, and it is in this spirit that we also
raise it at the Commission on the Status of Women.
Madame Chairperson,
The IFRC has been pleased to see the agencies of the United
Nations family taking an active part in the development of programmes
aimed against sexual exploitation and abuse. This work started
some time ago, but its urgency has been given fresh expression
by reports of serious abuse in some countries.
Our experience is, sadly, that when people are in situations
of acute vulnerability in times of disaster or poverty they
are all the more vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse.
We and our National Red Cross and Red Crescent Society membership
urge all governments and others in a position of authority to
maintain the strictest standards to protect people from abuse,
with particular attention to those whose vulnerability is so
acute.
With this in mind, we are particularly troubled by reports of
girls whose lives have been ruined by rape and abuse in certain
parts of Africa recently. These reports have been documented,
and I will not repeat them now. My purpose, though, is to add
our further concern that the behaviour, which includes the dehumanising
treatment of women and girls, also spreads HIV/AIDS and other
communicable diseases.
It destroys individuals and communities alike. It is an issue
which demands concrete attention from bodies like this Commission,
for it will only be possible to make an effective stand against
this behaviour if there is a joint mobilisation of communities
led by women, and governments determined to uphold the most
basic of laws.
Madame Chairperson,
Our priority for the empowerment of women in disaster situations
is not ours alone. We have been pleased by the emphasis the
issue has received from a number of governments and international
organisations recently.
One example was a call in January by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation for the empowerment of women so they could play
a full role in decision-making about relief. This was in reaction
to the situation in countries affected by the Tsunami, and was
matched by specific programme objectives for affected women
and girls announced by UNFPA at the same time.
The IFRC has mainstreamed the priority for women and girls in
its work on disaster preparedness and response (and in all other
programmes as well). It has also built internal processes through
codes of conduct and other actions, but importantly has undertaken
self-assessment and peer review within the processes of the
Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. In our view it
is important for all organisations to find transparent processes
for ensuring that their behaviour matches their rhetoric, and
we are glad to support those of SCHR in this highly relevant
context.
Our hope is that the Commission on the Status of Women will
be able to play a significant part in this matching of action
to words. We believe the outcome of the World Conference on
Disaster Reduction is a potential starting point for a new approach
to this issue, and we look forward to opportunities to develop
our thinking with delegations and Secretariat officials.
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