WUNRN
UN COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN – REPORT ON WAYS
& MEANS TO FURTHER ENHANCE THE WORK OF CSW
The UN Commission on the Status of Women has a specific history, structure, process, and through ECOSOC, the UN Economic & Social Council. This report, though 17 pages, contains very significant information to help us understand the inner workings and functions of CSW. It also show the intersectionality over time of the CSW Programme of Work with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for action. You will see that each dimension of CSW is backed by a UN Resolution, and this is the format for actions within the UN System. Indeed, many of us are so busy at CSW running back and forth from government and UN agency events to NGO panels in multiple locations, and going through security checks many times a day.
10. “The Commission on the Status of Women is the unchallenged leader on issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women at the global level. It is a deliberative, consensus building, and policymaking body that has one of the highest profiles of any of the intergovernmental bodies that meet at the United Nations.”
This document also includes Recommendations, and entry points for potential inclusion of civil society as a “stakeholder.” PAGE 11 of the document specifically refers to PARTICIPATION OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS.
Recommendation: “The Commission may wish to consider expanding opportunities for non-governmental organizations to contribute to its work through allocating more time to interventions by non-governmental organizations during the general discussion, according greater priority to their interventions during panel discussions, and granting a limited number of regionally diverse representatives access to negotiations.”
Another Recommendation: The Commission on the Status of Women may wish to expand its interaction with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in regard to thematic issues on the Commission’s programme of work, for example through panel discussions.
We as NGO women advocates might raise questions on how the CSW mechanisms are monitored, and what is the accountability. We might ask how decisions are made on who are the “experts” on specific gender issues. We might wish to have more input into the Draft Agreed Conclusions.
Assuredly, understanding the full spectrum of the Commission on the Status of Women will help us further our CSW advocacy, lobbying, analyses, and strategic outcomes.
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Direct Link to Full 17-Page UN Document:
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/CN.6/2014/14
