Commission on the Status of Women
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.
By Therese Hartwell, FAUSA
The UN Commission on the Status of Women proved to be rather overwhelming online, as it is in person, at least minus the need to travel from site to site for sessions. So much information—both disturbing and inspiring.
One of the most moving sessions for me was one on forced (often under-age) marriage in the United...
By Mimi Gilmore, AWA Aberdeen
The COVID 19 pandemic has proven disruptive and tragic to so many around the world. What the UN CSW65 brought into sharp relief this year was that not only does the pandemic disproportionately affect women and girls all over the globe in terms of curtailment of rights, cuts to health budgets, increased risk of infection...
By Magda Honffy, AWC Antwerp
This was my first participation at a UN CSW. First I tried to assimilate myself with the history of CSW.
I looked up all of the past statements and achievements of the previous CSW sessions and read UN Women’s Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan 2018–2021 outlines direction, objectives and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender...
We whole-heartedly agree with all of his proposals!
During his speech at the opening session of CSW65, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed five measures that world leaders can take to advance the cause of gender equality:
- Realize women’s equal rights fully, including by repealing discriminatory laws and enacting positive measures.
- Ensure equal representation – from company boards to...