Gender, the Millennium Development Goals, and Human Rights

In the Context of the 2005 Review Processes

By: Painter GR
Produced by: Choike, 2004

This paper takes advantage of the 2005 reviews of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to think about the opportunities offered by these coinciding reviews. It also outlines an advocacy agenda for participation in the reviews at an international level.

This paper argues that the linkage of the Millennium Review and the Beijing +10 Review provides a strategic window that can be used to re-frame the MDGs as international human rights obligations. This linkage would connect the review processes to the analytical tools and practical strategies offered by human rights. The task is to ensure that the reviews are directed towards achievement of human rights, not towards the further entrenchment of a neo-liberal, economic -growth driven model of development.

The author further stresses that the departure point for the GAD Network's advocacy should be that achievement of the MDGs is both an indication of and a necessity for the realisation of human rights. The MDGs largely correspond with states' core obligations under international human rights law, thus generating immediate and binding obligations. The centrality of a women's human rights approach to development must be emphasised. The MDGs and gender mainstreaming must be reclaimed as strategies to achieving human rights.

In summary, the author states that the GAD Network and its members must fully own and shape this strategy.