WO=MEN in New York

The Women's Rights Caucus (WRC) that WO=MEN is a proud member of held a press conference on the final day of the 66th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) - see here for a summary or here for the recording). At that time, however, the CSW had not yet concluded. The delegates from Member States went on much longer than planned to negotiate about the final text in the Agreed Conclusions. There was really no way of knowing when they would end. UN Women staff had even shared with us, the ' couch support ' (civil society with ECOSOC ground passes) in the UN basement, that there was a trick they could use to continue even after the formal end of the CSW on Friday night 25 March: a clause called 'stop the clock'.

On Friday 25th of March - the last day of negotiations during the CSW, the Women’s Rights Caucus (WRC) - a global coalition of over 200 feminist organizations, advocating for gender equality at the United Nations - organized a Press Conference to comment on the state of negotiations on the agreed conclusions. Particularly, the WRC wanted to express concern over the lack of commitment to climate justice during this year’s CSW. Feminist activists and CSO actors made powerful statements reflecting on critical issues, such as the central importance of the inclusion of “loss and damage” in the agreed conclusions. The WRC members also expressed concerns over the restriction of civic space during this CSW.  You can watch the recording of the press conference on  YouTube or on the WO=MEN website   Here are the key issues that the speakers raised during their statements:

Hi this is Karin, I work for Rutgers on international advocacy and am engaging virtually in this year's CSW. Rutgers is active at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to keep our eye out for the recommendations to include sexual and reproductive health and rights and to make them as inclusive as possible for people from the LGBTQI+ community. So how does climate connect with sexual health? When you think of international negotiations about climate, your first thought probably is not about sexual health. I don’t blame you. But during CSW, countries discuss how to make progress on gender equality, and with this year’s theme being “climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes,” inevitably sexual and reproductive health will be tabled. But why?

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!

Helaas niet in New York waar alle actie plaats vindt, maar vanuit huis in Nederland via zoom was ik er toch even bij: de CSW. Dat is een terugkerend moment waarop er stil wordt gestaan waar we staan met het bevorderen van meer gelijkwaardigheid voor vrouwen en mannen. Het voelt soms als stilstaan...

Sanne on screen in the General Assembly Last Friday evening, the negotiations of the CSW Agreed Conclusions halted quite early and were only resumed again today in the afternoon. This meant that I had the morning to check out the statements by countries and NGOs in the impressive General Assembly. Sanne Van de Voort was one of just three NGO's present to deliver her statement - on behalf of WECF - in person. But there were some hurdles to overcome first:

CSW66 is in it's second week and negotiations and side events are in full swing. Here is a brief personal recap by NGO representative Sanne of the CSW so far - in pictures.

Lived experiences of women are essential for feminist theory, knowledge production, and activism. It is no surprise that the phrase “the personal is political” has resonated so well throughout decades of feminist activism. It is crucial that our activism is grounded in the experienced oppression of marginalized groups of people.  The 2021 documentary  Dying to Divorce  does just that. The documentary follows two court cases handled by the Turkish attorney and activist Ipek Bozkurt, who is part of the “We Will Stop Femicide Platform”, a Turkish feminist advocacy group. 

Nadia @ the UN Last weekend, the UN suddenly announced that it would open up its building for NGOs again immediately on the following Monday. This came as a complete surprise.  I frantically struggled through the UN website to request a ground pass, not really believing it was going to be possible. I booked a flight, hotel, and a covid test time slot…

Mijn tweede blog vanuit New York schrijf ik in het Nederlands, want de afgelopen drie dagen stonden voor een groot deel in het teken van ontmoetingen en evenementen met de Nederlandse minister: Robbert Dijkgraaf. Hij is als Minister van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap (OCW) verantwoordelijk voor het Nederlandse emancipatie- en gelijkheidsbeleid, waar de CSW natuurlijk ook om draait.  Side-event Dinsdagochtend ontmoetten we elkaar tijdens het Nederlandse side-event: “ Amplifying women & youth initiatives to combat climate change: solutions and best practices ”, dat ik mocht modereren als NGO-vertegenwoordiger. Wát een inspirerende sessie! 

  Today, at the UN, the Kingdom of the Netherlands - which includes the country of the Netherlands in Europe as well as three Caribbean island countries Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten - gave its country speech. The three-minutes were divided between the prime minister of Aruba and the minister of Education, Culture and Science ("OCW" in Dutch) in the Netherlands.

Esin praat mee in een panel   Wij zijn Esin Erdoğan en Valérie Mendes de León, vrijwilligers bij de Jonge Klimaatbeweging . Dit jaar nemen wij namens de Jonge Klimaatbeweging voor het eerst deel aan de CSW, omdat het thema dit jaar - klimaat en milieu - er een is die veel jongeren in Nederland nauw aan het hart gaat. We delen hier onze ervaring en inzichten over het belang van de jongerenstem tijdens de CSW en de weg hiernaartoe.

It’s Saturday morning as I make my way to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to take a flight to New York City. That’s where I’ll be for the next two weeks: the Commission on the Status of Women ( CSW ), the most important international annual meeting on gender equality at the United Nations. I am part of the Dutch governmental delegation to this conference as the NGO representative, bringing the perspectives, priorities and recommendations of civil society to the government.

Renate Adriaansens, National Gender Youth Activist bij UN Women en mede-oprichter van Young Feminist Ambassadors, deelt haar ervaring tijdens de CSW66 Youth Forum die begin maart plaats vond.  Meer dan 1700 deelnemers gingen tijdens het 2-daagse Youth Forum met elkaar in debat.

Before I started my internship at WO=MEN last month, I had never heard about the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)- I am a feminist gender studies student and I deeply care about the feminist movement, but I had no clue what the CSW was about. So, starting to work on this year’s CSW felt like diving headfirst into a cold lake. I was thoroughly confused, yet deeply intrigued by the whole process.    If you are anything like me, you may ask yourself: so what is this CSW about?

This year's CSW66 is just around the corner. The CSW66 will take place March 14-25. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the CSW66 will take a hybrid format. The delegation negotiations will take place in person in the UN building in New York, whilst all side and parallel events will be virtual.