On Thursday they " negotiated " until 4am on Friday morning. Wisely I did not stay up late as nothing much happens the second last night except everyone getting tired and crabby.
So around 3 pm on Friday the negotiations were meant to start but did not. So I went and had supper with my friend from the Holy See. This was the only sane bit of conversation I heard the rest of the evening. We were meant to re-start the meeting at 7.30pm , however the chairman from the Philippines said a later time several times and this went on until about 11pm. There had been a lot of arm twisting in the room over that time.
Then a draft agreed conclusion on " Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the millennium development goals ( MDGs ) for women and girls was presented. However this document was not agreed. Two paragraphs were not agreed at all. You would think this high sounding document would measure some of these MDGs , but no. It is just a vehicle for the rich countries to ram their sick liberal ideology down the reluctant throats of the poorer countries.
We were given less than a minute to read this 24 page document. My speed reading was not quite up to the task. Then everyone thanked the Swiss facilitator for being such a great facilitator, they lied she was rubbish at the job. The agreed conclusions were not agreed at all.
So then there were 22 countries who made reservations . Some of these countries were speaking for 50 plus countries in their group. So around half the countries in the world were unhappy. The rich countries lamented a reference to " the family " as they wanted " various forms of the family". They were also upset that there was no reference to SOGI. In fact some NGOs were upset at security having confiscated their SOGI tee-shirts. For the un-initiated SOGI means sexual orientation / gender identity.
The poor countries complained about loosing their paragraph on national sovereignty. This is how they escape doing all the daft things the rich countries do.
The Egyptian lady delegate Ms Mervat Tallawy put on the best show of all. Her little tirade tickled the fancy of the radical feminists and gays. She said women were not autonomous , no retreat from Cairo or Beijing , wave of conservatism against women , not allow fundamentalist do to ... , all the women of the world struggle for their rights. If I were a Muslim from Egypt I would have died of shame. I met a woman NGO from Egypt at the CSW and she shares my feelings.
After all this farce came the resolution on , Women , the Girl Child and HIV and AIDS. The Netherlands ( on behalf of the EU ) introduced killer amendments at this stage. Malawi who sponsored the resolution on behalf of the Southern African Development Community called for a vote . The Netherlands wanted to delete "delay of sexual debut " from "...encourage responsible sexual behavior , including abstinence and fidelity , delay of sexual debut , .... " As AIDS is primarily a sexually transmitted infection , that leads to death , this was insanity. I am ashamed of being an EU citizen. Malawi complained that there was not 24 hour notice. The Chairman from the Philippines swept this aside and said everyone knew about the proposal. Then she tried to withdraw the resolution. Then the Chairman enforced the rules and said the resolution could not be withdrawn after voting commenced. So one rule is ignored , but another kept , just so the rich countries can get their way.
So this was about the most corrupt UN meeting I have been at in many a long year. The negotiations are meant to be by consensus and the agreed conclusion are mean to be agreed. How come half the countries of the world made reservations. There was obviously no consensus and no agreement. I was very happy to leave the mad hatters tea party at 2am Saturday morning.
