WO=MEN in New York

Across global conversations today, many people are arriving at a shared intuition: the future cannot be built through domination, extraction, and control. If we call that intuition “matriarchal,” we don’t mean a simple reversal of power. We mean a different system. A system in which an economy is organized around care, relationships, and collective responsibility. A system in which women’s and girls’ access to justice includes dignified livelihoods, decision-making power, and economic autonomy. Such a future can feel abstract, even impossible. We have strong language to critique what is failing but we have fewer shared practices that make alternative realities workable. Our contribution at CSW70 NGO Forum was to offer a grounded pathway: community-led, place-based regeneration through multiple value creation , in which ecological, social, cultural, aesthetic, and financial value are held together rather than traded off. This work builds on over five years of learning with circular ...

  The voting results on the CSW70 Agreed Conclusions The Women’s Rights Caucus (WRC)—a global intersectional feminist coalition of more than 800 organizations, networks, and individuals convened by Fòs Feminista, Outright International, African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), and Young Feminist Caucus, that advocates for gender equality at the United Nations—welcomes the adoption of the CSW70 Agreed Conclusions under the priority theme: “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and addressing structural barriers.” WO=MEN and several of its members are actively engaged in the WRC.  The close of the seventieth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women marked an unprecedented procedural departure. For the first time in the Commissi...

Ngo-vertegenwoordiger Joyce Brummelman met Benjamin Nolan van de PV in de VN Deze week was het eindelijk zover: mijn reis naar de Verenigde Naties om van dichtbij te volgen hoe de afspraken en onderhandelingen rondom de Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) steeds meer vorm krijgen. Access to justice – toegang tot het recht – klinkt misschien als één thema, maar in werkelijkheid bestaat het uit talloze dimensies. Elk land heeft een andere juridische werkelijkheid, andere barrières, andere verhalen. Als NGO vertegenwoordiger mocht ik deze discussies mede volgen en luisteren naar wat landen, experts en activisten hierover te zeggen hebben.   Ondanks de sneeuwstorm landde ik dinsdagmiddag in New York en ging ik direct door naar de Nederlandse Vertegenwoordiging van de Verenigde Naties. Daar hoorde ik hoe Nederland werkt aan een zo sterk mogelijke uitkomst van de CSW: ambitieus, principieel en met oog voor de realiteit van vrouwen en meisjes wereldwijd. De aftrap: landen in gesprek o...

The 69th meeting of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) marked the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women which took place in 1995 in Beijing, China. It was Jennifer Bushee’s first time attending the CSW in New York. The following are some of her key insights from the plenitude of sessions addressing topics as diverse as pushback on rights and gender; gender justice; climate justice; economic justice; and Big Tech   Equity and Economic Sense     Unpaid labour continues to be a major concern. UNRISD ’s session , “Addressing structural barriers for progress on the BPfA [Beijing Platform for Action] : Financing Care systems as a development strategy” on 19 March addressed the problems of not remunerating childcare, eldercare, support for individuals with disabilities, and domestic labor. The work is essential for functioning societies , but remains undervalued, invisible, and unevenly distributed — disproportionately impacting women a...