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/ |
Ambassador Gilad Erdan, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, reminded us that this event, hosted by Israel, was the first time since October 7, 2023 that any meeting was held at the United Nations regarding the hostages taken by Hamas. Sexual violence against Israeli women during the October 7 attack and additional reporting that make...
Factoid: One striking fact for me personally was that women are 18% less likely than men to have loans approved, facing rejection due to gender bias. I’m often surprised by how even seemingly minor details can reveal underlying inequality.
As a lifelong Texan and then young immigrant in Russia, I have experienced dismissive attitudes towards feminism and women’s issues. Even the simple discussion of these topics tended to be rejected as hysterical propaganda. I was obviously aware, to some extent, of misogyny...
From March 11–14, 2024 I attended my first Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) at the UN in New York City. I attended 14 sessions in total, which I have listed below. Some were held in small-to-medium-sized conference rooms with a few dozen participants; others were held in the main UN General Assembly Hall with...
The 68th annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was a first for me – and most certainly not my last. As a college student, I was greatly impacted by the second feminist movement that hit the United States in the early seventies, being totally stunned when I became aware of...