Commission on the Status of Women

 

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The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), part of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), promotes gender equality and the advancement of women. Its charge is to measure progress towards equality and highlight challenges, set standards and formulate concrete policies to promote equality and women’s empowerment, and encourage mainstreaming of the gender perspective in all UN activities worldwide.

FAWCO is a member of the NGO Committees on the Status of Women (NGO CSWs) in NY, Geneva and Vienna. FAWCO members and UN Representatives regularly attend the annual CSW in New York. You can read blogs by members of FAWCO's delegations to CSW. 

FAWCO signs on to Written and Oral Statements submitted to UN Women for consideration by CSW, joining our partner women's NGOs with consultative status to ECOSOC. You can read these statements on the Advocacy page. 

 

Key Links
UN CSW http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw
NGO CSW New York www.ngocsw.org
NGO CSW Geneva www.ngocsw-geneva.ch/
NGO CSW Vienna https://ngocswvienna.org/



Featured

Elizabeth's Blog

Elizabeth Abbot describes what she learned:

Notes from CSW59

Finishing the “unfinished business of the 21st century” (Hillary Clinton)

Accountability – we need to hold all levels of government accountable to creating laws and allocating resources to the gender equality and GBV agenda. Example: the Istanbul Convention signed in 2012 for European countries that requires countries to monitor progress and the...

Featured

Colleen's Blog

Colleen Gilbert (AWC Brussels) followed climate change, energy, and mental health issues at CSW59.

Climate Change and Gender Equality  

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and current Director of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice believes that gender equality and climate justice are the most severe human rights issues of this century. She believes women must be participants and benefactors...

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Erica's Blog

Erica Higbie, UN Rep in NY and Chair of the Working Group on Girls Advocacy Committee, writes:

March 10

What inspired me

"We can only walk the last mile if we stand by the last girl." Ruchira Gupta on young prostitutes in India

"It is not a problem WHAT to do but HOW to get it done"

"The key now is...

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Jane's Blog

Reflections on CSW59 by Jane McCall Politi Ph.D., FAWCO UN Rep

Member of the NGO Committee on Migration in NY

March 13, 2015

“Girls lives are wasting away.” Poignant and stirring comment by Memory Bonda, activist for girls in Malawi. The organization she founded, Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) pushed the government to change the child marriage law from 15 to...

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CSW 58 Week 2 Day 3 - Human Rights is like Oxygen

My third day at CSW saw a markedly reduced number of side and parallel sessions.  I learned from Erica that one should plan on being here the first week as that is when all the high level speakers are here and there are many more sessions. Something to note for next year.

I also decided that since FAWCO can bring...

Featured

CSW 58 Week 2 - Thursday, March 20, 2014

First up was an ECOSOC session on the 58th Commission on the Status of Women that considered position statements from civil society, which included the following issues:

  • Rule of Law and women’s participation in legal processes

  • Women’s participation in decision making – private sector and government/political

  • Underlying economic and political structures that support discrimination against women

  • Unequal distribution of care work and unpaid work

  • Women...
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CSW 58 Week 2 - Wednesday March 19, 2014

The first session today was a short panel discussion, followed by a passionate airing of views on religion and culture as forces that impede women’s realization of their human rights. Women from Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia, India, and Nigeria shared their views on the influence they have in their countries:

  • The most feminist laws of the age were introduced by the Quran...
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CSW 58 Week 2 Day 4 - Until We Stop Looking with One Eye

Today was my last full day at the UN for CSW 58. I met Erica and we both attended the open Economic and Social Council's session where draft resolutions were discussed and statements from the floor were accepted.  A nice young woman sitting next to me, Sang Liao, an intern at the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN, has...

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CSW 58 Week 2 Day 2 - I got my badge!

Today, I had time to get my official CSW 58 badge so was able to attend not only Parallel Meetings in the church center but also go "inside" the UN buildings where there were more "Side Meetings". I took full advantage of this and attended two sessions on Human Trafficking, a session on Girls Education in Afghanistan, a session on...

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