HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE WITH MICHELLE BACHELET, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UN WOMEN, IN GENEVA ON 10 JUNE 2011

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women and Under-Secretary-General, in opening remarks said that the agency was a new institution for ensuring women’s rights and women’s empowerment. While the agency would be addressing various aspects of women’s rights around the world and advocating for these rights, it had outlined some priority areas in which it could leads and others in which it could build partnerships with other UN agencies. Women’s empowerment was the most essential and fundamental issue, particularly economic empowerment, political participation, ending violence against women and increasing women’s involvement in post-conflict peace building. UN Women was also working with a number of UN partners including UNESCO, UNAIDS, UNFP, WHO, IOM, ILO and other agencies on a range of topics from education for women and girls to sexual and reproductive health.

One of the areas in which UN Women had been actively involved, while respecting local ownership of the process, was the democratic transitions in the Middle East and North Africa. Ms. Bachelet had been to Egypt twice and she was going next week to Tunisia, where a number of women’s and non-governmental organizations had requested input from the agency.

Ms. Bachelet then took questions from the press.

Question: In terms of sexual violence against women, a journalist asked what Ms. Bachelet felt she could do in her capacity as Executive Director of UN Women to stop this trend.

Answer: Ms. Bachelet said that unfortunately the use of sexual violence as a tool of war and in conflict situations was not new; for some years the International Criminal Court had considered it a crime. This issue should be addressed on several levels, particularly in the area of prevention. Prevention began with the education of girls, boys and men. Work was needed, therefore, on social stereotypes and paradigms, but also to empower women. Early warning indicators should also be identified because often there were situations that could be identified and prevented.

In places known as particularly, work was ongoing to improve communications technology so that women could inform peacekeeping forces who could then help them through concrete measures and actions. The UN agency UNIFEM [which has been merged into UN Women] had created an inventory of best practices in peace keeping situations and had identified the riskiest situations and strategies that would work in those situations. UN Women was using these best practices to train forces prior to deployment to increase their tactical readiness so that they could prevent and protect against these crimes. They also needed to ensure women’s access to justice and reparations because often perpetrators were identified and perhaps they even served jail time, but the women never received reparations. It was also very important to end impunity for perpetrators and develop rapid response teams that could provide legal assistance to women in places that did not have the legal capacity to handle such cases.

Question: A journalist asked Ms. Bachelet to elaborate on the program in conjunction with the peace keeping forces and when the program would go into effect.

Answer: It was impossible for peace keeping forces to be everywhere so there were times when they could not prevent crimes in certain areas. This was one reason why they were trying to develop better communications so that peace keeping forces could be alerted about actions taking place in certain areas and respond. Specific training for peacekeepers had already begun, and would eventually extend to all troop-contributing Member States. Member States should also be encouraged to send more women as peacekeepers. More women in peacekeeping roles had several benefits, including the fact that women felt comfortable talking to other women about what they had experienced and the sight of women in uniform encouraged other women to enter the police or armed forces so once a country was rebuilt women would be more involved at all levels of society. It also sent a message to people that women were not powerless and had to be treated with respect.

Question: A journalist said that there were indications that the Arab Spring was turning into an Arab Winter for women. Did Ms. Bachelet see any signs that this was happening?

Answer: Ms. Bachelet said that what was happening in that region was very inspiring. There were people who were saying that now was not the time to focus on women’s rights, that they needed to consolidate democracy first and the time for women’s issues would come later. On the other hand, there were many women’s organizations that were very active and they were very proud of their ownership. In Egypt more than 500 women’s non-governmental organizations recently gathered to hold the first women’s national convention in the country, where decisions were taken to set up a women’s shelter and to call for more political representation and for Egypt to accede to all international treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. There were more than 3,500 people, women and men, present at this conference.

In the case of Tunisia, where she would be going next week, in April of this year the political reformers had achieved what might have been unthinkable only months earlier, which was a draft electoral law calling for full parity in political representation in the new Tunisian democracy. The law was approved so it would be a reality. This was significant since the same parliament would be responsible for drafting the new constitution. Tunisia was also hosting an international summit on women in democratic transitions to share experiences and best practices.

Question: A journalist noted that the executive board of UN Women included representatives of countries that were not known for their record on women’s rights. How did the agency justify having representatives on its board of these countries that had poor track records on women’s rights? Also, their budget was USD 500 million, but the World Bank estimated that it would take about USD 83 billion to reach the Millennium Development Goals on gender equality in low-income countries alone. Was Ms. Bachelet worried that the low level of funding for UN Women would make it irrelevant before it even got down to work?

Answer: Member States of the United Nations selected the countries that sat on the executive board of UN Women and every region chose the countries that represented them. Ms. Bachelet stressed that her mandate was global so she was willing to work with all Member States. She had to work in places where there was a lack of women’s rights, no matter where in the world that might be. Regarding the second question, UN Women was not the only agency dealing with women’s issues. Specifically, the resolution that created UN Women stipulated that it should not replace existing agencies, but that one of its tasks would be coordination. If she was successful, therefore, the whole UN system would make progress and all the agencies would continue working on their mandates. This was not to say that UN Women did not need more money, but she knew the financial environment was not difficult. Having said that, Spain was the largest donor to UN Women and they had maintained their commitment despite difficult economic times and they were also starting to work with private sector donors. Programs also had to be more specifically targeted in various places so there were many things that did not require more money to enhance the rights of women and their empowerment.

Question: In a follow-up question the journalist asked whether Ms. Bachelet did not feel some discomfort or sense of irony that there were countries on the executive board who might vote against the very rights and empowerment for women that the agency was trying to achieve.

Answer: Ms. Bachelet reiterated that she would work with all Member States and with all sectors of society and that the agency would be everywhere championing women’s rights. It was not about how she felt; it was about what she needed to get done.

Question: Another journalist then asked for Ms. Bachelet’s thoughts on ending the abuse of girl children used as child labourers and the hazardous working conditions they faced.

Answer: Ms. Bachelet said she was convinced that if poverty could be tackled, the incidence of such practices would be reduced. Many times it was the lack of income and opportunity, as well as the idea that children were burdens, which led to the worst forms of child labour as well as early marriages. So tackling poverty would help address a number of issues such as human trafficking, early marriages and child labour. This would also allow children to go to school, learn and play and just be children. Work was being conducted to include some commitments in this regard at the G20 meeting.