Youth lobbying for amendments to Agreed Conclusions

After giving ourselves about 1,5 day to catch some breath from the first full-power week of CSW, we were eager to get back to work again by the time it was Sunday afternoon. We had some quick sms and e-mail mobilization, and in the evening we met with Michiel Andeweg and Nathalia Pereira Vredeveld of Choice for Youth and Sexuality, and Maria Inés Romero and Sarah Kennell of Youth Coalition at the UNFPA office, to discuss our input as youth present here in New York, on the developments of last week, particularly the first draft of the Agreed Conclusions on the main theme.

Our amendments

It was truly inspirational to meet with this group of young people (19-28) with such clear opinions and ideas on how we could improve the conclusions. Within an hour we had formulated some concrete amendments. We all went back to our hotels and e-mailed around our input to each other. By the time it was 23:30, this document was the result: 4 concrete suggestions for amendments, referring to SRHR and HIV/Aids related issues, as well as a supporting comment on the removal of religious barriers, and the importance of acknowledging that different forms of the family exist around the world.

Though WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform is not a youth organization by itself, we do believe that working with youth is incredibly important. Being a hybrid network of individuals and organizations, we have played a role these days at the CSW in bringing various levels (you could also read years) of experience together and supporting NGO delegates of all ages to find each other and work together.

Lobby

Today we armed ourselves with 130 copies of the suggested amendments and headed to the Informals, where the government delegations discuss page by page the comments made by each country on the draft Agreed Conclusions. We handed out our amendments to every government delegate we could lay our hands on. In that way, we came to talk to delegates from a.o. Malawi, Austria, Zambia, Chile, and of course our own delegates from the Netherlands and the EU. We were truly pleased to find that many of those we did not know personally yet, were very open to us approaching them, and they were asking us to explain what this one-pager was about. We are confident we did the best we could to get our points across. The coming days it will be up to the delegates to pick these issues up and use them during the formal discussions.

Comments

CSW Revitalisation conversations in the region

Photo: Facilitation team (Liliane Nkunzimana, Lopa Banerjee, Nadia van der Linde, Ivy Koek) What do you think about when you hear countries are committed to 'revitalize' the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)? "Oh, is it dying?" is one of the responses I've gotten, as if the CSW is holding on to its last straws at the moment, in desparate need of resuscitation. The challenges ahead for the current multilateral system, as well as for many of our national governments, are huge. In order to give gender equality and the rights of all women and girls a bit more of a boost, UN Women has been encouraging countries to commit to a process to 'revitalize' the CSW. And now that this has indeed been taken on board by governments from around the world in the recent Pact for the Future, the conversation is moving to: So what does that mean? During the NGO Forum in Geneva that took place just prior to the UNECE Beijing+30 Regional Review in October 2024 I co-f...

Aandachtspunten voor de CSW delegatie en onze democratie

Hieronder lees je de presentatie met aandachtspunten voor de Nederlandse CSW delegatie gegeven door Britt Myren, Atria, tijdens de CSW69 NGO briefing op de Nederlandse ambassade (Permanente Vertegenwoordiging) in New York. De bijeenkomst werd zeer goed bijgewoond met 40+ deelnemers uit het Nederlands maatschappelijk middenveld - we pasten niet meer aan de tafel en er ontstond een tweede ring - en met een welkomstwoord en dialoog met het hoofd van de delegatie, staatssecretaris Mariëlle Paul. 11 maart 2025 “Let us be clear, gender equality is not just a goal, it is the foundation of a just and sustainable world.” Deze woorden gebruikte de Ambassadeur van Canada en ECOSOC president gisteren bij de opening ceremonie van de CSW, de VN Commissie voor de Status van Vrouwen . Als maatschappelijk middenveld herkennen wij deze boodschap en benadrukken het belang van ons functioneren in een sterke democratie. Dit belang kan niet onderschat worden, net zo min als het belang van de jui...

Access Denied Campaign

Following many concerns and calls for support received from activists who were not able to come to New York, WO=MEN – jointly with members and partners - took the initiative to launch a campaign to call attention to the exclusion of defenders from meaningfully participating in the CSW: ACCESS DENIED! “Without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women’s perspective at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved.” - Beijing Platform for Action The ACCESS DENIED campaign seeks to address the stark contrast between Beijing’s call for participation of women back in 1995 already and the reality of exclusion faced by many activists who had wished to be here at this 30 year anniversary of Beijing. Particularly activists from the global South , black and brown women, women with disabilities, youth, trans and gender non-binary people, sex workers and undocumented migrants face exclusion. Denied access due to visa obstacle...

WO=MEN in New York

Search This Blog