CANZ Statement on Integrating a Gender Perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council
HRC-18, September 26th, 2011
I am pleased to make this statement on behalf of Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
We welcome the innovative format for this year’s panel and its focus on the promotion of gender equality as an institutional practice. We commend the various policies and strategies put in place by States and organizations within the UN system to promote gender equality. While these commitments represent an important step forward, we note that their effective implementation requires organizations to realize gender integration throughout the organization.
The responsibility and capacity to integrate gender perspectives must also be shared across the organization, We recognize that putting the goal of gender equality into genuine institutional practice remains one of the key challenges to effective integration of gender perspectives. We value the opportunity provided by this panel to explore ways to address it.
CANZ very much looks forward to the panellists and other speakers sharing good practices and lessons learned in the promotion of gender equality as an institutional practice in the following key areas:
1. Recruitment and retention
2. How to establish Management Accountability Frameworks that reward gender equality
3. How to build capacity and ensure expertise in gender analysis is developed and maintained
4. How to ensure corporate processes are responsive to gender equality considerations
We look forward to hearing more about the gender equality policy being developed by the OHCHR. This represents an important opportunity to advance progress toward operationalization of gender integration into the work of the HRC and its mechanisms.
With respect to collaboration between OHCHR and UN Women, we are interested in learning more about how the System-Wide Action Plan for Gender Mainstreaming might support efforts to effectively integrate a gender perspective in the work of the HRC and its mechanisms.
Thank you.