During the second week in February the governments held informal intersessional meetings on Beijing +5 for two and a half days in New York. They discussed the Outcomes document, the negotiation of the Political Declaration and NGO participation in the Special Session in June. The following is a summary of the Government Informal intersessional Meetings:

On the Outcomes Document

• They agreed to discard the organizing categories of section IV (i.e. Gender Equality, Development and Peace). They have decided, instead, to divide section IV into National Level Actions and International Level Actions.
• The also decided that the National Level Actions and International Level Actions should correspond more closely with the Obstacles and Challenges described in sections II & III.

On NGO Participation:

• While there was much interest in allowing new NGOs (i.e. those who do not have ECOSOC status and those who were not in Beijing)to participate in the Special Session in June, some countries created procedural barriers in the discussion. At the end of the meeting, the issue of admitting new NGOs was still unresolved.

• As a result of last weeks meetings, more bracketed language was included in the Political Declaration and the Declaration has yet to be finalized.

• February 14: DAW will distribute an Outcomes Document which will merely re-organize section IV based on suggestions put forth thus far.
• February 16: Governments must submit amendments to sections I, II & III to DAW.
• February 18: A document compiling the recommendations submitted on February 16 will be distributed to governments.
• There will be no supplementary informals before the PrepCom.

WEDO has agreed to put together a comprehensive lobbying document in time for the PrepCom. Some organizations have agreed to work on gathering comments on specific issues. WeDO has also agreed to compile comments on Poverty and Economy, Environment and Women in Decisionmaking and you can send any comments relted to these issues to wedo@igc.org (WEDO). If you have comments related to Health please send them to Francoise Girard fgirard@iwhc.org at the International Women's Health Coalition. Any comments on Women and Armed Conflict can be sent to Felicity Hill flick@igc.org at Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. At the Center for Women's Global Leadership we will work on compiling the commentaries related to human rights and violence against women in one document and will then forward it to WeDo. Please send us any edits or comments you have with regard to human rights and violence against women no later than February 18th.

If you have any questions, please do hesitate to contact us.
Best Regards