VZCZCXYZ0009
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #0451 1242010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 042010Z MAY 09
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6456
INFO RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3678
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0767
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 0155
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 0867
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 1808

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000451 
 
DEPT FOR IO/EDA, IO/RHS, IO/UNP; S/GWI; PRM/POP; AF/S; DRL 
PLEASE PASS USAID; 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SOCI EAID KWMN ZI UN
SUBJECT: AMB RICE DISCUSSES WOMEN'S ISSUES WITH STEPHEN LEWIS 
 
REF: A. USUN 418, B. 2008 USUN 822 
 
¶1. (SBU) Former Canadian ambassador Stephen Lewis spoke to 
Ambassador Rice April 27 on the need for a new UN agency on women's 
affairs, and to plead for U.S. support to move quickly to establish 
the new agency.  Lewis, through his previous positions as Deputy 
Executive Director of UNICEF, Canadian ambassador to the UN, and 
Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, is familiar with the inner 
workings of the UN. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Lewis envisages a composite entity similar to UNICEF but 
with a component that would be bureaucratically part of the UN 
Secretariat.  He hopes the entity would eventually have a 
voluntarily-funded budget of between $500 million to $1 billion, 
have universal reach, and work on issues of poverty, political 
participation, sexual exploitation and trafficking, HIV/AIDS, 
inheritance rights, land ownership and other discriminatory 
legislation.  He noted that $500 million would be less than 
one-third of UNICEF's annual budget.  The current amount allocated 
to the combination of gender offices now totals approximately $150 
million. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Ambassador Rice asked about synergies with other parts of 
the UN system.  Lewis responded that UNICEF views women only in 
their roles as mothers, UNFPA mainly focuses on reproductive health, 
and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 
(CEDAW) has normative responsibilities.  He sees the new women's 
agency as complementing all these offices, as well as the Commission 
on the Status of Women.  Ambassador Rice noted that the new agency 
must function in developed countries, as well as in developing ones, 
to promote gender equality. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Moving to his NGO's recent work in Africa, Lewis reported 
that 50-60 Zimbabwean women had been raped as punishment for their 
activism with the political opposition.  These women had provided 
affidavits to be used as evidence of politically-motivated rape in 
future legal action.  Regarding the upcoming Security Council trip 
to DRC, Lewis advocated that the mission visit Bukavu, in particular 
Dr. Mukwege at the Panzi Hospital. 
 
 
Rice