Official opening ceremony CSW 55

Today was the first official day of CSW55. This morning at 10, all UN entities (government delegations) collected at the UN Headquarters for the formal opening ceremony. The UN sessions are closed to the general public, however, some lucky NGO representatives manage to get their hands on access passes for the public tribune (we will not bother you with the procedures). Kirsten van den Hul, UN Womens-representative for the Netherlands, was one of them and shared her impressions with us. Click on the links below to read the full speeches of the key note speakers.

Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary-General spoke about the status of women. She emphasized that we have made progress, but it is not nearly enough. For example, 2/3 of all illiterate adults are women. This figure has not changed in the past 20 years.

Ambassador Lazarous Kapambwe, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) gave an impressive speech about the importance of investing in women for social development. He stated that ECOSOC welcomes and supports UN Women, which was met with laud applause from the country delegates.

Then Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, made her appearance. The enthousiastic reaction from the official government delegations confirmed what we observed yesterday amongst NGO delegates: women and men from around the world have set their hopes on UN Women to make a significant difference in women’s status and gender equality in the coming years.

You can watch the full the opening ceremony on film by clicking here.

Comments

The CSW68 is a wrap!

Met Nederlands ambassadeur en CSW Facilitator Yoka Brandt op de foto na afloop van de CSW68 “We have reservations on the text. We don’t have instructions to proceed to adoption .” After seven days of negotiations at the UN during this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Nigeria almost blocked the negotiated outcome document from being adopted. Almost, because after some formal and informal interventions in Conference Room 4, the Nigerian delegate, flanked by the Dutch Ambassador Yoka Brandt, added: “I now have instructions to support the adoption.” On the balcony filled with civil society as well as in the plenary room there was a clear sigh of relief followed by enthusiastic applause, hugging and photo taking. We have Agreed Conclusions ! Early negotiations As usual, the CSW negotiations process started early February with a Zero Draft , developed by UN Women and the CSW Bureau. And with input and inspiration taken from the Secretary General Report. For the EU, as

CSW68 Youth Dialogue statement by Fenna Timsi

Dutch youth representative Fenna Timsi gives her statement in the CSW68 Youth Dialogue On Thursday afternoon, 14 March 2024, the Dutch youth representative Fenna Timsi gave her statement in the CSW68 Youth Dialogue inside the UN. The reflections from several participants of this year's Youth Dialogue - the second ever as part of the CSW - were that it has much improved compared to last year. Importantly, many more of the people who were given the floor were actually young people themselves. Many of the statements were rich and relevant in content with clear and important messages for the government delegates in the other room in the UN who had started the negotiations for the outcome document. Read Fenna's statement below or see the full Youth Dialogue here (Fenna's statement is at 1:20:10). Dear all, As the Dutch UN Youth Representative, I thank you to speak independently on behalf of young people in the Netherlands, not on behalf of the government. I spoke to many yo

Blog #4 by Sanne: We need progress on Loss & Damage!

Today the CSW’s main outcome document, the Agreed Conclusions, continued. At this CSW66, it is not only essential that we move forward on gender equality issues, but also on climate, environmental and disaster-risk reduction action! We need to connect to existing discussions in different UN-spaces to ensure that our discussions here in New York strengthen our intersectional, transformative climate action and that gender equality is central. Because we want this CSW to ensure that we deal with environmental & climate crises as coherently and strongly as possible. We can’t wait any longer!

WO=MEN in New York

Search This Blog