European Women’s Lobby in New York for CSW60
The aim: to make sure that the CSW60 conclusions are the most progressive for women’s human rights.
The 60th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) starts on 14 March, and the European Women’s Lobby and its members are getting ready to advance women’s rights one step further during this annual meeting of UN member states.
The priority theme of CSW60 is “Women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development”.
The review theme will be the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls, which was the priority theme of CSW57 in 2013.
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) and its members have issued a joint written statement to CSW60, which highlights the human rights of women and girls refugees and asylum seekers.
The aim is to influence the negotiations to make sure that the CSW60 conclusions, to be adopted by the member states on 24 March, are the most progressive for women’s human rights.
Click here to read the EWL’s amendments to the first draft of CSW60 conclusions.
The EWL is co-organising three side events:
“Men and youth mobilise for the abolition of prostitution” on 15 March will look at men’s and youth’s action and vision from different sectors – political commitment, NGO advocacy and campaigning, artistic mobilisation, for example – and present inspiring examples of mobilisation and change-making.
Decision-makers from different countries will support their efforts by presenting their work towards equality between women and men.
This side event has been co-organised with Equality Now, the Coalition against trafficking in Women (CATW), the Men’s Development Network (Ireland), and with the support of the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UN.
“Displaced Women and Girls: The Price of Gender” on 15 March presents in-depth information about the situation of women and girls refugees in different continents.
And a side-event co-organised with the National Association of Women’s Organisations UK (NAWO) the EWL and the Women’s Refugee Commission will present the first outcomes of their project #womensvoices.
“Respect of sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls” on 14 March will look at the links between sexual rights, bodily integrity and sustainable development. The side-event has been co-organised with the French coordination for the EWL, and is based on the joint statement submitted to CSW60 on this issue.
On 17 March EWL is also co-sponsoring the event for ‘River of Flesh’, a new book edited by Ruchira Gupta, founder and president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a grassroots organisation in India working to end sex trafficking.
River of Flesh is a compilation of short fiction from the Indian subcontinent on the theme of prostitution: 21 stories about trafficked and prostituted women by some of India’s most celebrated writers – Amrita Pritam, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Indira Goswami, Ismat Chughtai, J. P. Das, Kamala Das, Kamleshwar, Krishan Chander, Munshi Premchand, Nabendu Ghosh, Qurratulain Hyder, Saadat Hasan Manto and Siddique Alam, among others.
One unifying theme of all the stories is the inherently exploitative relationship that prostitution imposes on the woman. Another unifying theme of the stories is the economic destitution of the prostitutes.
And many of the stories also bring out the abject condition of the woman who is not the prostitute – the wife, who is reduced to a mute spectator even as the husband openly seeks ‘pleasures’ outside.
Viviane Teitelbaum, the EWL’s president and policy and campaigns director will represent the EWL and speak at different events, including the US National Committee for UN Women, on women, peace and security ’Empowering women in the midst of war: SDG16 Promoting Peace and Inclusive Societies’ on 21 March.
To find out more about CSW60 click here for the official events and information, and here for the NGO Forum and all the NGO side-events.