Statement of Caribbean Women Organisations and Women's Rights Advocates

This statement was delivered to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General's High Level Coherence Panel on UN Reform by a group of women's organisations and networks working toward gender equality in the Caribbean. It states their support for strengthening the mechanisms within the UN system that address gender equality and women's rights. The statement emphasises that the effectiveness of the UN at the country level will depend on the extent to which: a) gender equality and women's empowerment is treated on par with other themes (not only as cross-cutting and therefore invisible, but rather - as in the Millennium Development Goals - as a goal its own right, as well as being central to all other goals). The statement also emphasises that taking gender seriously means strengthening the architecture of the UN so that there is system-wide competence and responsibility for ensuring gender equality and women's human rights within all its programmes - not only those dealing with development and environment, but also those dealing with conflict resolution, peace-keeping, human security and humanitarian assistance. The signatories state their strong support for strengthening the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to enable it to respond to governments; partner with civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations and women's movements; and hold the UN accountable to its commitments to gender equality, women's human rights and empowerment.