Soroptimist International welcomes the
Agreed Conclusions on violence against women and girls that were
agreed at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57) late last
night in New York. The agreement, hailed by Michelle Bachelet of UN
Women as “historic”, was reached after several days of tough
negotiation and concerted lobbying by NGOs, with some governments
trying to weaken the language and in some cases undermine existing
international agreements.

The final document emphasises the need
for education in preventing violence, including for men and boys, a
key tenet of the Soroptimist International written statement to
CSW57. Women’s reproductive rights were also explicitly recognised
in the text, as were the risks faced by human rights defenders.

SI’s Assistant Programme Director
Anusha Santhirasthipam, who led SI’s delegation in the second week,
particularly welcomed the stronger wording on femicide and female
infanticide, the subject of a joint oral statement delivered on
Thursday.

“It is a sweet day for us and NGO/CSW
Vienna because our proposals to end femicide have been adopted and
included. More specifically, our strong call has led to specific
clause wording to end female infanticide ie killing of girl babies.We
dedicate our hard fought victory to these lost women and girls. Now
we must make sure our Governments honour the commitment and roll out
action”

“This was in the end a very good
example of collaboration and bridge building. The team spirit among
NGOs and UN Women staff was phenomenal”.

SI were among 600 NGOs to have
representatives lobbying at CSW57. The 40 delegates met many
government’s representatives during the two weeks.

Read more about the CSW agreed
conclusions from UN Women.

See the regular updates sent from CSW57 by SI delegates at www.soroptimistinternational.org/CSW57

Pictures from the SI delegation to CSW57: