United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: Part 2

Got my UN flag to add to the collection! :) 

Welcome to part 2 of my UN Commission on the Status of Women experience last March! This post actually has the bulk of the sessions I went to, but for my reader's sake (and to prevent your poor eyeballs from tiring out on my ramblings) I wanted to split it into two posts. There was an incredible amount that happened in that short week--and sleep was not really one of those things. A special shout out to my roommate, Erin, for putting up with me for the week in our teeny tiny Ikea hotel with all of the stuff I over packed :) 








Maternal Health (Tuesday)

UN member state flags lining the stairwell the ambassadors take
while going into the GA chambers 

Truthfully, the only thing I remember about this session was that it was underwhelming. I didn't even take notes in it. I vaguely remember being upset that the conversation was around older ideas of maternal health and wasn't really talking about anything that has come out of the Maternal and Child Health field in the last 20 years. Granted, this is my concentration and focus in school. I've had several classes specifically devoted to maternal and child health (5 classes last year alone...and all of my other classes mention it also). I understand that I have a pretty deep understanding of the field, but I also would have appreciated if they didn't present concepts to improve maternal health (and reduce maternal mortality) that have been around since the Beijing Platform for Action was written 20 years ago. 

I was lucky enough to go visit my friend Em and see the view
from the top of the Bloomberg Tower!
(I totally wasn't supposed to take photos...)

Sacred and Safe: Building Capacity of Faith Communities to Address Gender-Based Violence (Tuesday)

life goal to have a tapestry portrait...?
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General 

This one was a hard one for me. We know that gender-based violence (sexual assault, domestic violence, child marriage, garden variety sexism, etc) is happening in our world and in our communities. How do we, as people of faith, respond to that? There was a panel of speakers that are doing things in their own context (all US based) and some shared stories of incarcerated women who were victims of gender-based violence and ultimately of the justice system too.

"I know there's no violence in heaven and I'm grateful for that. But we need Heaven to touch down here on Earth."-survivor of sexual assault 

"Out of fear, after several instances of reporting the abuse, I killed him. But the jury didn't hear anything about the domestic violence. My situation could have been prevented if the law would have done their job." -survivor of sexual assault/life without parole server

"You can deny domestic violence, but it will come into your sanctuaries. Don't make victims choose between faith and their safety."- Rev. Dr. Whitehead 

"Religion has been part of what has sustained violence against women and children. It's so darn useful. That's why it's hard to eradicate. It controls women." -Rev. Dr. Fortune  

my view for worship one morning

Morning worship (Wednesday)
We hosted worship this morning for the Ecumenical Women. I presented a testimony on the lifecourse approach to healthcare and women's health (my health is affected by my Mom's health from before the time she was born--so my Grandmother's health--and the environment in which I grew up...this is what leads to intergenerational habits and cycles of violence and poverty for many people). There was song, more testimonies and an overall great time worshiping together!

Women and Men partnering in the Elimination of Sexism (Wednesday)
So this wasn't my favorite session, but I do know that it was powerful for many people in the group. The organization that put it on, is a sort of decentralized counseling group that has partnered talk therapy sessions about how patriarchy/sexism/reverse sexism has affected their lives. I spoke with a wonderful woman from Maine, but other than microaggressions, I didn't have much to talk about how sexism personally affected my life. Many others had much more extreme things to talk about. The idea of having partnered talk therapy is really powerful and one that I think should be used elsewhere (you have 2 people partnered together...you set a timer for say 5 mins and one person talks and the other listens. The listening partner cannot verbalize anything for that 5 mins and should just listen. Once the timer has gone off, you switch roles). The act of just listening...and not hearing to respond... is so powerful.


Silent No More: How Can Faith Communities Address Sexism and GBV? (Wednesday)

UN member state flags lining the UN campus

This was the other meet up that we hosted and it was quite successful. I actually spent most of the event waiting for the caterer to bring something, so I wasn't part of it, but the participants had small group conversations, reflection, artistic expression, prayer, and saw examples of the ELCA's work on gender based violence and gender justice. It was so successful that we actually got kicked out of the building because we were taking so long!

Creative Interventions Addressing Critical Health Issues in the Post 2015 Agenda (Thursday)
This was hands-down my favorite session of the whole week. This was also the presentation most rooted in public health core concepts. They pointed out that 25% of our health is determined by the healthcare system and the other 75% is other determinants of health (most notably socioeconomic status and other social status indicators. One presenter worked in Uganda and was explaining that Uganda had the perfect storm of bad health outcomes for women. They had soldiers standing outside of hospitals preventing women and children from getting healthcare. 80% of women give birth with a traditional birth attendant (TBA), despite the fact that they are illegal. So an organization tried a novel approach--they gave the traditional birth attendants some "heart strings." They are simple a string of red, green, and white beads used for illiterate TBAs to measure the pulse of fetuses to detect distress. Rather than perpetuating poor health outcomes and criminalizing women who use TBAs, they decided to do something to improve health. These TBAs often provide holistic prenatal and postpartum care to women and are already within their communities, so health outcomes have improved drastically. This presentation also talked about a really great lifecourse study of post-menopausal women. All around, this was just the best one! 

Three Lives of Women 20 Years After Beijing (Thursday)

Ms. Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate 

The last of the events that we sponsored, this portrayed three women from Palestine, Kenya, and the US about how women's lives have evolved since Beijing and what the role of faith-based organizations have been in the evolution.

“What has really sustained sexual violence is the silence. Once the silence is broken, you have to face the consequences--poverty, more violence, hunger, etc.”-Dr. Fulata Moyo of the World Council of Churches

“I consider education to be a sacred mission.” –Suad Younan on involving male allies in conversations about women's rights and empowerment on the road to gender equality

"Because when a woman flees [from violence], she does so responsibly." -Jen Engquist on her mother wrapping up loose ties when her family had to flee from an abusive father/husband 

"It's hypocritical to speak outside the Church about gender based violence, when we still have it inside. Society is modeled after the Church." -Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate (and a Lutheran!)

Best Practices in Policing and Mental Health Care: Efforts to Promote Gender Equality, Empower Women and Girls, and Reduce Violence Against Women, Children, Minorities and Victims of Human Trafficking (Thursday)

I utterly love this globe sculpture and the flags behind

Often times the justice system does it wrong. They don't end up protecting the victims of violence. However, that's not to say that there aren't police officers, prosecutors, lawyers, victims advocates and others that aren't doing it right. This presentation was put on by them. It was really interesting to be part of considering my relationship with the Douglas County Jail correctional officers (I see them as colleagues when I'm there and testing/educating inmates about STDs and the Hastings Police Department (my Grandma is the chief's secretary))--I know many of these officers personally and know they have best interests at heart. Sometimes the system fails though. 

"I call "violence against women and human trafficking" slavery because it dials up the seriousness, even if some people are uncomfortable with that."-police officer

Human trafficking is a shadow situation. It's not like the slavery before. Everyone is underground now. 17-20 million people are projected to be living as modern day slaves. Even here, at UNCSW, when we think about "international," we don't often think about violence here in the US.

You may think people are being trafficked by strangers, but it might actually be their brothers, fathers and other family members. Most people that are trafficked in the US are from the US.

If we tell women to report domestic violence or sexual assault and they get beaten or have to pay money to press charges, what are we teaching about speaking up?

We also have to be fair to male victims. Most perpetrators are men, but some are women. And those male domestic violence victims are often forgotten.  

My experience in New York was amazing and powerful. And truthfully it has taken me 6 months to be able to write about it. The conversations I continue having around these topics and with the people I was with are so amazing. Just last night we held a conversation/book club about Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (Jon Krakauer). It was a hard read, for sure, but I am very thankful for the community to support me while I read. Even more, I'm thankful for conversation partners about these issues since UN-CSW ended.