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: