United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: Part 1

Looking out on the UN campus from the Church Center

So it’s been 6 months since I’ve been to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW). Let’s pretend like I did that on purpose and not that I got too busy to write about it before now…

I learned so much while at CSW and it has informed how I have approached homework (and even living in the world), work, and other conversations I've had since then.

A little background on the event: the CSW is held each year for two 2 weeks in NYC at the UN campus. This year's CSW theme was "Beijing +20," a sort of evaluation of how far we've come on issues of equality for women globally since the Beijing Platform of Action was drafted at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995--and conversely how far we have yet to go. Beijing was the place where Hillary Clinton first said "...human rights are women's right and women's rights are human rights." (If you don't remember the video of her wearing her pink jacket and addressing the crowd, her campaign has re-released the video several times recently). The critical areas of concern then (and now) are:

more UN campus

• women and poverty
• education and training of women
• women and health
• violence against women
• women and armed conflict
• women and the economy
• women in power and decision making
• institutional mechanism for the advancement of women
• human rights of women
• women and the media
• women and the environment
• the girl-child

Our group was going to be there only for the first week of the CSW. Unfortunately we had a rough start to getting there due to weather, but eventually we all arrived and got our UN grounds passes. 

Ecumenical Women (Saturday)

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women

Our first full day was spent with the Ecumenical Women. Getting an orientation to the CSW, but also the CSW and issues of inequality, inequity, and justice from a faith (Christian) perspective. It was a great introduction of what to expect for the week and also a great networking opportunity. 

"When people are busy, it does not mean they are making progress." -Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of UN Women on the busyness of the past 20 years & the work towards equality

NGO Orientation (Sunday)

standing in line to get into the Apollo Theater

This was a really cool event. It was held in the historic Apollo theater in the Bronx. It was the orientation day to the event with all of the other non-profit/NGO organizations that were represented at UNCSW. They had many speakers and a few panel discussions, too. Conveniently, the orientation was held on the International Day of the Woman (March 8th), so there were many celebrations to be had for that also. I was bummed that I didn't get to make it to the big Int'l Day of the Woman march in Times Square, but nonetheless the UN CSW events were powerful.

"Although we've made changes, we have not been dismantling patriarchy. We need to discuss how to change the paradigm to achieve gender equality. The world must change, not the women" -Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of UN Women

Imagine the last girl: the 13 year old uneducated child in India who is raped nightly by 8-10 customers in the brothel. How do we help her? She does not have access to a phone to report abuse to a helpline. She cannot read laws in English or Hindi. She can't walk to the police to report. They won't let her escape. She is no one. <-- This is who we are working for.

"We need to define equality. Who are we going to be equal to? I look around the community and see men that are miserable. Do I really want to be equal to them?" -Dr. Gertrude Mangella, former Under Secretary General, UN Fourth World Conference on Women 

Sexuality Education: The Way Forward for Equality and Empowerment (Monday) 

view from my seat in the ECOSOC chamber

Oh goodness gracious was I excited to be at this session. Comprehensive sexuality education has been a passion of mine for many years and it seemed like it was finally coming full circle. I actually was seated in the row behind many people from Advocates for Youth, an organization I had trained with in college. As a generalization, most industrialized European countries are fairing far better than the United States when it comes to teen pregnancy rates, STI infection rates, general sexual health knowledge and reported sexual assault rates. I've already written about what comprehensive sexuality education is, so if you're curious, check it out! This was a report-out of what went well, what needs improvement, and ideas for other countries. It was especially an honor to see the European regional director of Planned Parenthood. She was held up in traffic and arrived late, but didn't even take one minute to compose herself before answering a question. She really is impressive and does amazing work.  

"We asked our students what did you learn from your [comprehensive sexuality education] classes. One said "I didn't know girls could be equal to boys. Today I learned this.""

Abstinence-only programs do not address child marriage, sexual violence and non-consented sex. The problem with these programs is that there is no talk about the transition of not having sex to having sex. There's nothing about partner negotiation. And the human development journey is far from the binary idea of having sex to not having sex. Can you change your mind later? 

Empower Rural Women to Achieve  Food and Nutrition Security (Monday)

I was also really excited about this session because of my research focus on rural food insecurity in the United States. Unfortunately, for me, this session didn't cover anything in the United States. It was interesting, and important, for me to learn about rural women in the rest of the work and the struggles they go through in order to be able to farm.  There are many laws, policies, and other structural inequalities that prevent women from being able to grow food--although time and time again they have been shown to have better yields with fewer resources. A quick list of a few things women are working against--must have a man's (her husband) permission to work--where does this leave widows and unmarried women, must be a man to have land owning rights, many businesses will not sell seed or equipment to women, etc. It wasn't what I expected, but it certainly was informative.  

Faith + Justice + Culture Meet Up (Monday) 

This is a meet up that our group held at a bar for young adults to come talk about the intersections of faith, justice and culture. I, honestly, was over exhausted from a donor event we held the night before and the excitement of the day, but still had a good time. I met some young adults working in STEM fields and continued learning more about people in our own group. The conversations were rich though.

Lego UN

Lego UN

Plenty more coming on my experiences at UN CSW, but for your sake it's coming in parts. Come back later this week to read more!