CSW61 Statement Release

CSW61 Written Statement Release

20 October, 2016

The sixty-first
session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United
Nations Headquarters in New York from 13 to 24 March 2017. Representatives of
Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world will attend the session.

This year’s priority
theme will be ‘Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work’. The
Review theme is ‘Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the
Millennium Development Goals for women and girls’ (agreed conclusions of the
fifty-eighth session), and the Emerging Issue is ‘The empowerment of indigenous
women’.

Soroptimist International, Graduate
Women International (GWI), the
International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW
International), National
Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO), Widows
for Peace Through Democracy, Women for Water Partnership and Zonta
International, have released a statement concerning women’s
economic empowerment and its link to sustainable development. These seven
organisations are united around the principle of empowering women locally,
nationally and internationally up to the highest level. Based on the expertise
of these seven organisations, the statement calls for:

Concerted action to be taken to
ensure that all women and girls can access continuing and lifelong
education and training, both formal and informal, ensuring that women can
adapt their skills to the changing world of work;

Increased financial awareness
through training to enable the development of women-led and owned small
and medium enterprises;

Improved gender diversity
across all sectors of the workplace, ensuring employers in the private
sector to take specific actions to increase the number of women in
leadership positions and provide more access routes for women into the
world of work;

Recognition of women’s land
rights and inheritance, empowering them to contribute to the economy of
their local communities and providing for their families;

Equal terms and conditions for
women in their employment as men, including equal pay;

For further
information on the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women
please visit CSW61