Skip to main content

CSW59: overwhelming and fantastic

My first CSW, and what an amazing experience it is. Being a specialist on LGBTI issues, as a generalist on women’s rights up till now so little I have been aware of the huge variety and levels of struggles women in general have to go through, to obtain something so logical, equality. Equal human rights.

In fact I’m quite overwhelmed by all the things I hear and see and do lots of thinking trying to grasp the impact of the problems I’ve been made aware of this week.

So many people and as many opinions. Attitudes and opinions which up until now I would have shrugged off and labelled as ‘mental’, I now realize, just can’t be ignored. There are SO MANY people here with narrow minded interpretations on human rights. At first I was pleasantly surprised by seeing loads of young, polite, neatly dressed people attending the parallel and side events. Unfortunately they uphold some strong beliefs. From what I’ve heard religious groups pay for their travels to New York and instruct them on how and where to ‘infiltrate’ and ask questions like: “I totally respect people with another sexual orientation, but, and I mean this in the most respectful way, why do they choose to be gay?” The same sort of questions are asked regarding women and pregnancy as well as protection of ‘the family’. 

But then there are so many wonderful panellists, like Monica Simpson, executive director of Sister Song speaking at a dialogue event on "Religious and Sexual rights at the United Nations". Eloquently countering the pro life activists, she argues that what is needed, is good health care. For women. Whether it is because they would like to be with child, or whether they want to end a pregnancy. When health care is made available to these women, a man that breaks his leg can benefit as well. Women have the right to self  determination. Whose life is worth more, that of the pregnant woman or the foetus she is carrying, that is only for the woman carrying the foetus to decide.

I hear of so many beautiful things happening, as with the official LBTI event instigated by the Dutch ministry of Emancipation (OCW). Like how swift the rights and thus the lifes for LGBT people in Malta are changing for the better. Also Malta has ‘ground breaking legislation’ regarding intersex people.

Besides being overwhelmed I find I’m starting to distil the main subjects for my speech at the general assembly in October. I will touch on the ordeals of the safety of women’s rights activists, activists who speak about their own sexuality or sexuality and sexual diversity in general in explicit terminology, about family and its many varieties, about self determination and the integrity of the human body.

In the meantime the NGO’s have felt they were excluded from the negotiations on the CSW59 declaration, whereas the negotiations on the one topic that was left for negotiation, the working strategies, appear to be quite a difficult proces. 

If you wish to do some good in depth reading on these processes I'd like to refer you to the wonderful blogs by the experts on Atria Ontmoet and my cobloggers here of course on Women in New York.

More photo's? Have a look here and let's become Facebook BFF's. 
Twitter adapt? Follow me here and/or here.
 
Irene Hemelaar - Women's Representative in the Netherlands delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in October 2015

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more