Australian women - please support 5WCW and lobby for a Southern Hemisphere location

Networkers may recall my previous posts supporting 5WCW - a UN 5th World Conference for Women.  You can find them here. Jean Bolen has written again ... and her letter is  below.  I am asking Australian women - who have always been up front in support for previous Conferences and Fora - to get behind 5WCW, promote it, prepare for it ... and tell everyone it is Oceania's turn to hold this important event in the region of the Southern Pacific.  All previous Conferences have been held in the northern hemisphere. ~~~~~~~~~

July 18, 2012 Dear People:     I’ve been feeling like a midwife at a very long pregnancy and labor re 5WCW, conceived in 2002. On International Women’s Day, March 8, 2012, this baby seemed to be “crowning” when the Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly jointly proposed that it was high time for a UN 5WCW and asked for a proposal for a 5WCW from the General Assembly. Since then, progress has stalled in the birth canal but the baby is still quite viable.  In the intervening months, I heard that lobbying was going on for and against 5WCW by ambassadors, and that “women didn’t want it.” Our email “Thank You Campaign” made it clear that there were women (and men) who wanted it. The discussion moved into online public view with the report by the NGO/CSW/NY Enquiry Panel on 5WCW (June 28, 2012) and the AWID Newsletter (June 29). Shortly thereafter, NGO proponents for non-UN sponsored regional meetings as an alternative to 5WCW invited me be on a conference call with them (held on July 9) that I asked include the founders/presidents of the four ECOSOC consultative NGOs that sponsored the UN document for a UN NGO 5th World Conference on Women and Girls, Anele Heiges (IPPI), Avon Mattison (PTP), Marilyn Fowler (WIN) and Elly Pradervand (WWSF)  The main difference between the two positions—is the vision.  Let’s spark and sustain inter-generational global feminism. Let’s bring the energy of the millennials and the experience of the boomers together in a world-changing 21st Century 5WCW... Let’s actively imagine grassroots activism growing in all of the 193 member states by the mid-21st century. Let’s remember that attitudes and behavior changes when a critical number of women change their perception about themselves: a woman’s right to vote is a significant beginning to women’s equality, empowerment, and full participation with men in decision-making. Let’s see 5WCW as the leading edge of transformational change anticipated by ancient, indigenous and astrological calendars... Let’s help bring what mothers universally want for their children to everyone: a peaceful world, good food, air, and water, universal education, medical care, the chance to develop and grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually.      Our main advocate in the General Assembly is appropriately a woman ambassador, Byrganym (beer/ga/nin) Aitimova from Kazakhstan, who is also the President of the International Association of the Permanent Representatives (ambassadors) to the United Nations. I met her a month ago, and know that the advocacy is in the best of hands. She’s approachable, articulate, smart, confident and believes in this. My understanding of the GA process is that 90% of the resolutions are passed by consensus, through circulation of draft resolutions and conversations. When a vote is required, it is carried by a simple majority. Advocacy is in the beginning stage. A  5WCW resolution is unlikely to be passed in the current General Assembly which ends on September 15. The 67th GA under a new president, Ambassador Vuk Jeremic from Serbia begins on September 17. The Secretary General has let it be known that his support for 5WCW is not tied to 2015, that 2016 would be fine.       Agreements among those for UN 5WCW and those advocating Non-UN regional conferences as an Alternative:  All share objective of full equality for women and girls  Need to fully implement existing documents  The renegotiating of any document is unacceptable to all involved  International conference (whether UN sponsored or not) is opportunity for women to connect  and network; for younger women to become more involved; and create more visibility on  women's issues.   Civil society must be involved in all processes      The main concern by women from NGOs who have worked for women’s equality and empowerment and do not want 5WCW is centered on their concern/fears that a coalition of member states could undo previous documents (especially Beijing Platform for Action and Security Council Resolution #1325, the Women, Peace, & Security resolution). This can only be done by passing new documents that take back what was spelled out before. A coalition led by the Vatican (the Holy See is a member-state of the UN) joined by other fundamentalist countries, most notably Iran was able to prevent the passage of the Agreed Upon Conclusions from the 2012 Commission on the Status of Women and water down parts of the Rio+20 agreement that applied to women. Also in this recent time period, the Commission on Population supported sex education, contraception, a woman’s right to choose -- the same positions that the coalition had blocked at the CSW. To retreat from having 5WCW  because the anti-women forces have scored recently, is to give up on a potential transformative experience for the women who attend and on its effect in the world. I sense that this is also giving up on the United Nations, which for the most disempowered in the world, might be their only hope.   Check out the CALL TO ACTION on the  5WCW homepage. (http://5wcw.org/). Think about what you might do to get behind the 5WCW--a UN global women’s conference. Get the word out on Facebook, blogs, websites which will raise awareness. Start or energize a circle of support. Figure out how best to lobby your UN ambassador and Head of State to support a General Assembly resolution.  Each of us is working toward reaching a tipping point. What ever you can do — thanks! Jean Jean Shinoda Bolen Events and Books My activist, Jungian analyst and author roles are quite compatible. To take on an assignment as an activist is for most of us, an act of service—an expression of compassion in action, an element of living our personal myth or individuation. When I lecture and lead workshops, the outer world of events and inner archetypal world, psychological and spiritual come together. If you are at a crossroad and can now make a choice about what direction you will take, these are the questions:  “Is it meaningful?  Will it be fun?  (it is fun to use your talents and your life experience, be with others who share your values, make a difference), and Is it motivated by love?     Upcoming Events July 27-29 – Stockbridge, MA Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health Weekend Retreat: Your One Wild and Precious Life: A Deepening Gathering for Women Click Here for information or to register August 25 –September 1 – Helena, MT Feathered Pipe Ranch: a Deepening Retreat for Women Women’s Wisdom – Pregnant Darkness Co-leader: Monika Wikman Click Here for information or to register Oct. 19-20, 2012 - Brunswick, Maine C.G. Jung Center for Studies in Analytical Psychology Friday October 19 at 7-9 PM  Trees and Tree People: Greening Ourselves, Saving the Planet Saturday, October 20  - 9AM – 5PM workshop: Grail, Goddesses, Circles and the Sacred Feminine   Click Here for information or to register November 16-18, 2012 – Big Sur, CA Esalen Institute A Workshop for Women: Your One Wild & Precious Life Click Here for information or to register  (For more details about current schedule: Click Here End of November-Beginning of December 2012 Book & Lecture Tour to Argentina, Peru, Chile Arrangments through my Spanish publisher Editorial Kairos Click Here Spanish Translations of Jeans Books Click Here     Books:     The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self     Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives     Gods in Everyman: Archetypes that Shape Men’s Lives     Ring of Power: Symbols and Themes  in Wagner’s Ring Cycle and in Us     Crossing to Avalon: A Woman’s Mid-life Quest for the Sacred Feminine     Close to the Bone: Life-threatening Illness as a Soul Journey     The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World     Goddesses in Older Women:  Archetypes in Women Over Fifty     Crones Don’t Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women     Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World     Like a Tree: How Trees, Women, and Tree People Can Save the Plane       For more information about books: Click Here            (all available on Amazon.com)     With love, hope, perseverance and optimism, Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD Sign the 5WCW Petition