by Carol Harbers, AWC Hamburg
The 68th annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was a first for me – and most certainly not my last. As a college student, I was greatly impacted by the second feminist movement that hit the United States in the early seventies, being totally stunned when I became aware of the many injustices that women have (and are) facing. My driving fear today is that many women are still ignorant of how precious and precarious women’s equal rights really are. I am aware of the local issues facing a prosperous and socially conscious city like Hamburg, Germany (as a delegate to the Hamburg Women’s Council, Landesfrauenrat), but attending CSW68 gave me a unique opportunity to see what is happening at the global level. How is the United Nations (UN) steering policies to reach Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender Equality, by 2030? SDG5 is one of the more critical goals, as its realization is essential for obtaining many of the other goals. Sadly, this essential goal is far from realized.
The first order of business for me was to start unraveling what CSW is all about. The United Nations’ structure is in itself daunting – a veritable alphabet soup. I was thankful for the introduction and advice that Alexandra Vo (FAWCO’s UN Co-Liaison) offered before the session began: clear structural diagrams and the advice to not to take on too much. I also quickly learned the only part of the alphabet that I really needed to sort out was “ECOSOC” (pronounced Eco-Soc). The Economic and Social Council is one of the six main UN bodies. Roughly equivalent to the Security Council, ECOSOC has a very different focus; whereas the latter is primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, ECOSOC is the principal body for establishing and implementing policies on economic, social, and environmental issues. Their ambitious goals are facilitated by nine functional commissions that meet regularly.
The functional commission with a focus on gender equality, CSW, was established 68 years ago. In 2010, the UN General Assembly created UN Women, an overarching organization whose role includes supporting CSW to formulate and implement gender policies and standards, and thus it plays an important role in organizing the yearly CSW sessions. A priority theme is determined before the session, ostensibly to make a more digestible packet of problems to address and to suggest policy changes. This year’s theme dealt with mobilizing finances and strengthening institutions to end poverty, which discriminately impacts women and children.
What does a CSW Session in New York look like? With all due respect, I learned quickly to view it as a three-ring circus. In the main ring are representatives of the 45 elected Member States, whose final goal is to provide a statement of “Agreed Conclusions” that is brought back to ECOSOC. The session starts out with a lot of fanfare in the main general assembly, luckily televised. I truly was inspired by the opening remarks of Secretary-General António Guterres, who clearly and forcefully outlined the problem and steps for its resolution. “Globally, poverty has a female face. Women have less access to land, natural resources and financial assets. They suffer the impacts of climate change more than men. And they are more likely to be food insecure.” He stressed the responsibility of all nations to invest in eradicating poverty and ensuring sustainable, inclusive development for all. As the two-week session progressed, these plenary sessions became closed as the delegates hashed out an agreement.
The second ring is the “Side Events,” organized by intergovernmental / UN entities. These were held in a maze of conference rooms in connecting UN buildings – and I found myself going in circles, up and down stairs, trying to get orientated. But it was worth it. I sat in several small meetings with impressive speakers – ranging from a UNICEF panel discussion promoting important public databases for collating statistics on gender inequalities to an EU panel discussion introducing policies for women’s full inclusion in economy and labor markets. There were altogether 127 events in this second ring.
The third ring is the “Parallel Events” organized by non-governmental organizations (NGO)s, including one organized by FAWCO. I did not get to any of these events, numbering more than 750 and held in various off-campus venues, but I caught the excitement and the importance of these events by talking to other participants. As Guterres formulated so well, at the CSW session “partners come together to share experiences and dreams, and also to recommit.” I had the pleasure of meeting with two NGO heads from Africa – one being Amanda Lane, a co-founder of the Collateral Repair Project in Jordan, the recipient of FAWCO’s Target Project 2016–2019.
I could only visit the second week of CSW68 – but I was excited that I would be able to sit in on several meetings addressing the emerging issue of Artificial Intelligence. I also thought it would be exciting to hear the final session on Friday morning, in which the final resolutions and decisions would be voted upon. The meeting was adjourned after 10 minutes, as an agreement had not been made. I went to the airport, turning on UN-TV on my phone to catch the meeting rescheduled for 3 p.m. The screen was blank. Just as my plane was to take off, the screen fluttered to life. The meeting was reopened and a vote was called to adopt the agreed conclusions – but there was still one dissenting vote from Nigeria. Mexico’s delegate made a rousing plea for a unified agreement to address this important issue. Before the 6 p.m. deadline (when the translators would leave and the lights would be turned off), Nigeria’s representative gave an affirmative vote – and a hug to Yoka Brandt, the stellar facilitator from the Netherlands.
An uplifting moment – but dispiriting as I watched the session resume the following week. One country after another voiced their concerns about statements within the agreement that grant women sexual and reproductive rights, incorporate intersectional perspectives to gender, or are not compliant with current national laws. As Guterres had so clearly said in his opening remarks, “…patriarchy is far from vanquished. It is regaining ground. Autocrats and populists are attacking women’s freedoms and their sexual and reproductive rights. They promote what they call ‘traditional’ values. And patriarchy is indeed an age-old tradition. Discrimination against women goes back millennia. We don’t want to bring it back. We want to turn it back.”
With Saudia Arabia taking the chair’s position for CSW69, a united and forceful voice will be desperately needed.