Disappointingly,
the 56^th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women failed
to adopt agreed conclusions. As a result of this outcome, Soroptimist
International, together with partner women’s rights organisations signed a
statement to discourage any re-opening of negotiations on the already
established international agreements on women’s rights. Collectively,
we called on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote,
protect and fulfil the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.

Soroptimist
International now wants to take our concerns and CSW 56 policy recommendations
to leaders in all 125 Soroptimist countries but to do this, we need your help! SI
has developed an advocacy letter which we are asking Soroptimists around the
world to send to their decision makers responsible for gender or women’s issues
within Government.

Whilst
the debate is still going on, we need to take this opportunity to remind our
leaders of their responsibilities towards women all over the world, to share
once again the policy recommendations forwarded by SI at the 56^th Commission on the Status of Women, and to urge global leaders to stand up for the
fundamental freedoms of women worldwide.

Below you
will find links to the Soroptimist International CSW 56 Statement, a copy of
the statement Soroptimist International supported in April, and the letter we
are asking you to download, complete with your details and send to your national leaders on women
and gender.

SI CSW 56 Statement November 2011 (pdf)

Joint Statement on the Outcomes of CSW April 2012 (pdf)

Post Session Advocacy Letter 2012 (word document)

To find out who is responsible for gender and/or women in your country, click here.

To find out more about the SI CSW 56 statement, including explanations of some of the language used, click here for a FAQ document.

Please
share this request with your clubs and report your action and any
response received through the PFR database.  You can also share through the SI facebook page or through twitter via @SoroptiTweet! We look forward to hearing about it!

 

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To catch up on all the Soroptimist International CSW news since the close of the sessions, follow the links below:

Soroptimist International Addresses CSW 56 – March 2012

Soroptimist International’s Message to CSW 56 – March 2012

Women’s Organisations Say No to Safeguarding Traditional Values at the Expense of Human Rights – April 2012

All CSW 56 Resources can also be found on the Project Tools and Resources page.