Blog by Pat Black, SI Special Advisor to Advocacy.
The Committee of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) continues to meet in formal session at the United Nations and online. During the last session on 16 March, the members have been considering Agenda Item 3:
Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty first century.”
Regional groups of Member States presented the progress which has been made on many aspects of changing the lives of women and girls since the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. UN Women is charged with monitoring progress since 1995 and reporting regularly. This is usually included as a mandate in the Agreed Conclusions of each meeting of CSW. UN Women are also responsible for monitoring the progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 Gender Equality.
The Member States working as groups such as the European Union, the Arab States, the African States, the Pacific Islands and the Portuguese speaking countries reported on what had taken place in countries across their regions. They pledged themselves to continue to make progress and to fully implement gender equality as defined in SDG 5 and other UN agreements and resolutions. In addition, thematic groups contributed to the discussion with groups such as the Group of Friends on the Rights of Older Persons identifying specific areas of concern.
The Cross Regional Group of Friends for the Elimination of Violence against women and girls represented by Argentina, Namibia and the European Union set out their priorities to make the world a safer place for women and girls. They emphasised the increase in violence especially domestic abuse which had emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic and set out a series of actions for Member States to undertake. The first was that women and girls should be respected and their human rights recognised. They expected full and equal participation in all aspects of life for women as well as the scaling up of any existing strategies to eliminate gender-based violence. It was suggested that the collection of data should be improved, ensuring that it was accurate and disaggregated. They stated that dialogue should be fostered especially with Civil Society and Human Rights defenders and activists. Finally, the Spotlight Initiative Regional Programme was promoted, which is a EUR 500 million programme which deploys targeted large-scale investments in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific with the aim of ending all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.
However, the highlight of the afternoon was the appearance of Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States of America. Under the previous administration, the USA had become estranged from the United Nations and its various agencies.
Screenshot of Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States of America speaking at CSW65.
Vice President Harris started her speech by talking about the importance and status of democracy which protects Human Rights and upholds law. The status of women is dependent on the status of democracy. She said that democracy needs constant updating and improvement but is increasingly under great strain. She believes that “it is critical that we continue to defend democracy.”
To that end, the USA would strengthen its links with the United Nations and reinstate their link with the Human Rights Council. She stated that this was important to women. Their participation at all levels would strengthen democracy. The US is now making progress with more women than men voting over the last few years. The recent appointments made in the US administration had brought women to a place of leadership. However, the COVID-19 pandemic was an enormous threat to women especially for all aspects of their health so this needs to be combatted on all fronts.
Vice President Kamala announced that the USA would be rejoining the WHO and would be revitalising their relationship with UN Women. She finished by saying, “The status of women is the status of democracy.”
This was an historical contribution to conclude this session of the meeting of the Commission. To have the USA once again contributing across the UN family is a giant step forward but also taking a leading role for women was truly inspiring.
Afterwards, I spoke with a group of young women who had also been watching Vice President Harris – it was truly wonderful to see how inspired and motivated they were. My generation may have been motivated and inspired by Hilary Clinton in Beijing in 1995 but in 2021 the new generation have found another inspirational woman.
You can watch the recording via UNWebTV by following the links for Part 1 and Part 2.