UN Commission on the Status of Women: Diverse People Addressing Intersecting Justice Concerns

My week at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) reconfirmed for me the ways in which equality for women intersects with all other justice concerns. Presentations focused on topics ranging from economic justice to racial justice to ecology to education to peacemaking to health to justice for LGBTQ persons to eliminating gender-based violence to gender equality in the media to global communities—all connected to the status of women.

Also, I was impressed by the diversity of the more than 10,000 people who participated in the UN Commission on the Status of Women:  people of many races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, religions, cultures, and ages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an emphasis on including adolescent girls in shaping the agenda for improving the status of girls and women around the world. In many cities only 5% of girls say they feel safe, and in many countries 80% of girls and women experience some form of abuse. Among the recommendations for the empowerment of girls are these:

• training programs to help girls develop their own agency;

• recognizing that girls can be agents of change;

• bringing the voices of girls and their rights to community leaders.

In one of the large meeting halls where I attended sessions, the Girl Declaration hanging on the wall caught my attention.  Through a series of groundbreaking consultations, 508 girls living in poverty­—together with 25 of the world’s leading development organizations— created the Girl Declaration. Girls were left out of the original Millennium Development Goals. The Girl Declaration has been written to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

The Girl Declaration Goals are these:

• Education: For girls to grow up with the skills and knowledge they need to take part in economic, social, and cultural life;

• Health: For girls to have access to safe, age-appropriate information and services, plus the confidence to make healthy choices growing up;

• Safety: For girls to be free from violence and exploitation, using laws and strong child-protection systems;

• Economic Security: For girls to know how to earn a safe and productive income, with the help of technical and practical skills, before they become women;

• Voice & Rights: For girls to have equal access to services, opportunities, legal rights and personal freedoms.

This year’s UN CSW marked the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Considered the most comprehensive plan for advancing women’s rights around the world, the 1995 Beijing Declaration was adopted by 189 governments. But now 20 years later, the commitments made are only partially fulfilled. The Platform for Action envisioned gender equality in all dimensions of life, and no country has yet finished this agenda. Women earn less than men and are more likely to work in poor-quality jobs. A third suffer physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Gaps in reproductive rights and health care leave 800 women dying in childbirth each day.

UN Women launched a global Beijing+20 campaign titled “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It” to generate momentum and urgency for global actions on women’s rights and gender equality. Evidence increasingly shows that empowering women empowers humanity. Economies grow faster, and families are healthier and better-educated.  Empowering women leads to a more stable and equitable world. Equal rights for women are essential to peace.

One session I attended at the UN CSW focused on ways that political will, public will, and personal will are all important to bring about these much-needed actions for gender equality. Speakers gave historical examples such as the elimination of foot binding in China when a small group of women mobilized public will and then political will to stop this unjust practice. When public and political will combine, change is possible. One speaker at this session inspired us with the recent example of the power of personal will also to bring change: Malala Yousafzai started a worldwide movement that changed public will for all girls to have equal educational opportunities.

Injustices are socially constructed, and justice solutions can also be socially constructed when we exercise our personal will to mobilize public will and political action.