8th Informal Meeting

8^th Informal Meeting of the Alliance    
March 15th, 2021 15:00 – 16:30 (via Webex)

Participants: Anna Alvazzi del Frate (Chair), Phil Reichel, Jay Albanese, Jeanne Sarson, Karin Azadian, Lilly Gundacker, Linda MacDonald, Lloyd Klein, MacBain Mkandawire, Michael Davies, Nuno Maria Roque Jorge, Ramil Iskandarli, Rapudo Hawi, Rory Field, Tariq Khosa, Ben Polk, David Peters, Dr. Abdelkarim Darwish, Evelyn Dürmayer, Gerson Nozea, Giulia D’Amico, Martina Gredler, Altin – CRCA, Ian Tennant, Ingeborg Geyer (Treasurer), Tobias Krachler (Secretary)

UNODC: Aliya Boranbayeva, Billy Batware, Daniela Paredes

Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Chair

The chair debriefed the members on the events and briefing that happened at the beginning of the summer and during July and August. The Alliance will carefully follow what is happening on the level of Congo and what can be done against the shrinking space for civil society. Especially, what states are doing to implement what they have promised in the Kyoto Declaration. The voluntary national reports at the HLPF are voluntary, which means not all countries have the same enthusiasm. Maybe, CSOs can support countries in drafting those reports. Only 10 countries are in the third round of reviews.

Ingeborg Geyer, Treasurer

The treasurer spoke about the High-level political forum on sustainable development, which took place in July. The ministers present adopted a declaration that reflects the conversative political will. However, discussions throughout the 8-day session sent a strong message of confidence, urgency, and commitment for solutions. It is inexcusable that during the COVID-19 world crisis, member states failed to agree on a strong human right centered, transformative, and action oriented ministerial declaration. The links to the declaration, the civil society statement, and general information about the HLPF can be found in the annex below. The women organizations made 12 interventions, 6 to voluntary national reviews and 6 to international review. There were also side events organized together with member states, asking for a holistic approach to the SDGs.  

Tobias Krachler, Secretary

He spoke about the recent changes and additions to the Alliance website. The Secretary introduced the new UN processes tab to the members. It is a central hub for all major processes, including the CCPCJ, UNTOC, UNCAC, and ongoing UN projects like the SE4U training and WhatsOn. The goal is to have a central space for the members to source information from. News, videos, articles, and more can be shared directly within the specific subtabs.

Emile Le Brun

The Alliance was present at the BMS 7 in New York. At every biannual meeting a consensus based unanimous outcome document is being produced. The consensus model has been an issue for a number of meetings. Gender and ammunitions have been contested issues at this BMS 7. The Alliance organized a side event at the BMS 7 with the support if Italy and Mexico, the recording can be found on the crimealliance.org website.

Roundtable

The members present talked about their experiences and events over the summer, while also having a watchful eye on the upcoming events in autumn. Especially with the ongoing COVID-19 situation, many uncertainties remain and are making substantive civil society engagement difficult. But still, the members presented some new initiatives that they are working on.

Annex:

Ingeborg Geyer an alle: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/2021

Ingeborg Geyer an alle: MGoS HLPF statement on the HLPF 2021 Ministerial Declaration - 15 Jul 21 - Google Docs

Jay Albanese an alle:     Below was a terrific presentation last month on the effort to include civil society in a systematic way on the SDGs. It's on our website--

https://crimealliance.org/events/view.php?id=87

Participation and Engagement of Major Groups and other Stakeholders in the High-Level Political Forum

by M. Victoria Espada

Representative of Dianova International to the United Nations Global Organizing Partner of the NGO Major Group

(Powerpoint)

Jamie Bridge VNGOC / IDPC an alle:       https://mailchi.mp/vngoc/african-common-position-on-drugs

George - slum child foundation an alle: Hello Rapudo, My nmae is George from slum child foundation based in Kenya, can we connect and share a few notes, here is my email address slumchildfoundation@gmail.com

Emile LeBrun an alle:     Great summary of the BMS7 as a whole: https://reachingcriticalwill.org/disarmament-fora/salw/2020/small-arms-monitor/15374-small-arms-monitor-vol-11-no-2

Joint statement from 60 states ("the Costa Rica Group") on gender and small arms control: https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/salw/bms2021/statements/28July_CostaRica_Group.pdf

Billy Batware an alle:     Link to the UN page containing information on UNTOC review process: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/organized-crime/intro/review-mechanism-untoc/home.html

itennant an alle:             The guide Tariq refers to is here - https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/unodc-gitoc-review-mechanism-guide/

Tariq is providing a best practice case study on how to engage in the review process of UNTOC,.

Linda - I am engaging with civil society on the review in Canada, so please get in touch.  I am also involved with the process in Switzerland and South Africa.  Anyone interested in engaging in those countries (or indeed anywhere!), please feel free to get in touch.

ian.tennant@globalinitiative.net