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/ |
Due to concerns about the Coronavirus (COVID-19), CSW64 was drastically scaled down: from a two-week session with hundreds of ancillary discussions, interactive meetings and roundtable discussions, and an NGO CSW Forum with over 500 scheduled events, to a two-hour procedural meeting.
Sixteen FAWCO members from Berlin, Bern, Denmark, London, Paris, Perth, The Philippines, Rome, Surrey, Vienna and the US had...
By Paula Daeppen (AWC Zürich)
The Beijing Platform for Action recognized the essential role of women in the development of sustainable and ecologically sound consumption and production patterns and in approaches to natural resource management, but in 1995, the urgent awareness of the devastating effects of climate change were not as evident as they are today. Today women are among the...
By Georgia Kallis (AWO Greece)
A quarter of a century after Beijing, 47 Government delegations, 867 participants, and representatives from 81 Civil Society Organizations gathered at the U.N. in Geneva for the Beijing +25 ECE Regional Review. National reports showed that although some progress has been made by some of the EU Member States on gender equality in the domains...
An enlightening session was the summary of the 51 Beijing+25 national reports in a regional synthesis, presented by Monika Linn, Sustainable Development and Gender Unit, ECE. Sadly, she reported little that was new, but the same issues we discussed five years ago at the Beijing+20 Review:
This was a lively panel, and the level of interest and energy in the room was high. Government delegates and members of civil society addressed the serious need for great representation of women in policy and decision making, calling for more effective participation, collaboration, networking and partnering. Women's political engagement brings idea leadership as we share knowledge and policy solutions...
Introducing the Civil Society representative, the UNECE chair said, "Civil Society always has a lot of good advice for us."
The Beijing+25 ECE Review Civil Society Statement was developed in consultation with over 420 NGO representatives from 48 countries. The key messages were delivered by a 27 year old student of international human rights law from Turkey - a strong symbol of youth...
Paula Daepppen (AWC Zurich) Reflections on B+25
Promoting gender equality is not a cost to communities, society or businesses - it is an Investment!
Gender equality recognizes that empowering women also empowers and benefits men and boys, and results in healthier families and communities.
By Sallie Chaballier (AAWE Paris)
"We have everything we need already on paper, we just need to implement it! The 1995 Beijing Platform was a turning point in looking at women and climate and the interlinkages with environmental issues." Jeannette Gurung, Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN)
Climate change has a disproportionate impact on women and...
By Tara Scott (AW Central Scotland)
The UN brings into focus issues which need to be discussed, analysed and resolved, as they are affecting people on a global level. The Beijing+25 Regional Review meeting was focused on the current status of women. The consensus is that while progress has been made during the last 25 years, there is still a...
By Rhonda Staudt (AWC Berlin)
October 29-30, 2019, UN Geneva
The Beijing+25 UNECE Regional Review Meeting provided an exceptional forum to review the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) in particular SDG 5...