Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 56: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in view of the failure of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, for the first time in its history, to adopt agreed conclusions during its March 2012 meeting, the reason such agreement could not be reached and the role that he took in the negotiations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17753/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global policy-making body on gender equality and advancement of women. The theme of the 56th session of the Commission was 'the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges'. Despite extending the negotiations beyond the scheduled session the Commission failed to adopt agreed conclusions on the theme.

The failure to reach agreement cannot be narrowed to any one topic or attributed to any one delegation. There were difficulties throughout the negotiations in reaching consensus on language in relation to a number of terms and concepts, such as harmful traditional practices including early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting, the provision of comprehensive sexuality education, and the importance of attaining the highest attainable standard of health including sexual and reproductive health for women and girls. Previously agreed language and key concepts from international agreements on gender equality and women's rights were questioned by some states and references to broadly ratified treaties were opposed by some delegations; these concepts and positions were strongly defended by other delegations including the EU.

Ireland participated in the negotiations through the EU group, represented by the EU Delegation. Prior to CSW, Ireland contributed to the EU strategy paper for CSW which set out the EU's objective of preserving and strengthening the international agreements and commitments on gender equality and the empowerment of women by pursuing a rights based approach to gender equality and the empowerment of women and by countering attempts to undermine international human rights obligations. Ireland made substantive comments on the draft agreed conclusions which were integrated into the EU's position before and during the negotiations. During the negotiations, Ireland supported the EU negotiator by proposing compromise language and providing references to previously agreed language. Ireland also negotiated the resolution on Women, the Girl Child and HIV and AIDS on behalf of the EU group and worked closely with the EU Delegation in striving for coherence between this resolution, the agreed conclusions and other resolutions.

Ireland co-hosted a very successful side event with Malawi on 'Gender and Nutrition: supporting rural women to improve nutrition'. The panellists included: Ms Kathleen Lynch, T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Equality, Disability, Mental Health and Older People, H.E. Mr Brian Bowler, Malawian Ambassador to the United nations, Dr Grace Malindi, Adviser to the National Association of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi, Mr Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF and Chair of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Lead Group, and H.E. Ms Anne Anderson, Irish Ambassador to the United Nations. The outcome document can be found at: http://www.dfa.ie/uploads/documents/New%20York%20PM/report%20of%20csw%20side%20event%20on%20gender%20&%20nutrition.pdf.

The side-event contributed to the increased attention to nutrition in the resolutions, in particular the resolution on Maternal Mortality which contained the first reference to the global Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement in a negotiated United Nations document. This language was proposed by Ireland through the EU Delegation. Ireland has been a key player in SUN, which aims bring together governments, development partners, international organisation, civil society, business and academia in support of countries' own efforts to tackle hunger and under nutrition, in particular in children during the crucial '1,000 Day Window' between pregnancy to age two.

It is very disappointing that the CSW did not reach agreement on a text which could have set out strong commitments to empowering rural women and to ensuring their rights. Rural women throughout the world deserve better than this. For our own part, Ireland engaged constructively with EU partners throughout the negotiations in efforts to find compromises while continuing to defend internationally agreed commitments on gender equality and the empowerment of women.