Gathering in the UN General Assembly lobby
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.
| 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/ |
By Melissa Ruggles, AWC Amsterdam
March 18, 2019
As I type this, I’m looking out over the glimmering East River to the Long Island skyline—a view that begs one to reflect. Laurie Richardson, FAWCO UN Liaison, and I just attended another session at the 63rd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) at UN headquarters in New York City. We...
Tuesday March 13, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a Town Hall meeting with NGOs at CSW62. He said that the struggle for gender equality is tough, and "we wouldn’t be where we are today without civil society."
According to the SG, the issue of power relations in a male-dominated world is a major obstacle, as almost everywhere power is usually...
Lopa Banerjee, Chief of the Civil Society Section of UN Women, spoke on March 13 at an NGO Morning Briefing at CSW62. She was eloquent and energetic as usual. She said that "Civil Society Organizations are our existential partners, the constituency for accountability."
If we don’t take actions to empower rural women and girls, they will be left behind. By age 4,
From Christine Humphreys and Karen Boeker who attended a session on HerStory at CSW62
The HerStory Campaign works with grassroots partners in 27 countries to listen to, amplify and champion the voices of girls through innovative after-school programming designed to cultivate modern literacy skills and foster self-advocacy. Check out their InfoCard and video!
By Claire Castellon (daughter of Karen Castellon, AWC Berlin)
Editor's note: Claire is 12 years old and in the 6th grade at Berlin International School. She is a Cadette in Berlin Troop #502 of the USA Girl Scouts Overseas. We are delighted that she was part of the FAWCO delegation at CSW62!
The person I remember the most is Fatima (Shafi),
By Christine Humphrey, AW Surrey
My first experience at the NGO CSW 62 Forum far exceeded my expectations. It was informative, challenging and inspiring. What I enjoyed most is the increased awareness of important issues created through dialogue at various side and parallel events and the common quest for gender equality from all the participating civil society organisations.
Initially, I was...
By Karen Boeker, AWC Denmark
The session started when Ms Shiori Ito told her story about being raped in the most humble and trustworthy way. In the beginning and again in the end she emphasized that the main reason to go public was her sister. She realized that her own experience would have been worse for her younger and very shy sister.
Laurie Brooks attended a session on Ending Violence against Women: opportunities of ICT. It was the coolest session she attended so far. The goal of the session was to raise awareness raising, however, she would like to have seen more emphasis on solutions and actions. She learned that women can be attacked virtually, in online violence, with devastating effects on their...
I often tell people that one of the UN Reps Team’s priorities is increasing and improving collaboration with our sister women’s organizations in the UN NGO community. Developing relationships with other NGOs increases FAWCO’s visibility in the NGO community, and opens up opportunities for joint advocacy and action. This sounds very good, but what does it really mean?
In...