Stephen Lewis, a co-director of AIDS-Free World and one of the strongest advocates of the gender proposal, told IPS: “I have been following this story with much intensity over the last 48 hours, and I myself have spoken to several ambassadors (both from the South and the North), to impress upon them the fact that under no circumstances can this resolution be postponed”.
He said that it would be “a terrible slap in the face to the women of the world, a dreadful rejection of the views of the secretary-general, and a deep blow to the credibility of the United Nations.”
As things now stand, the consensus that had emerged is being sabotaged by a consortium of countries, belligerently disruptive and destructive, led by Cuba, Sudan, Iran and Egypt, he said.
The nation states of the U.N. overwhelmingly want to approve the creation of the women’s agency by resolution on Sep. 14, and begin the process of a global search for an under-secretary-general, “but this little group of malcontents is holding the world to ransom”.
“They’re using women as a bargaining chip in the effort to exact concessions on governance and finance, the other prongs of the System-Wide Coherence process. They care not one whit for the rights and needs of the women of the world,” Lewis charged.
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