United Nations, New York, USA, March 10 2016 – Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), briefs journalists on the sixtieth session of the Commission on Status of Women (CSW60), scheduled to take place at UN headquarters from 14 to 24 March 2016. Also addressing the press with her was Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, CSW Chair and Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN. Photo by: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
by Britta Schmitz
UNITED NATIONS, March 11 2016 – The empowerment of women and ending violence against women and girls are the main themes of the upcoming 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60).
The CSW forum, which is a highlight in the annual UN calendar, will be held from March 14-24 at the UN Headquarters in New York. It is the single largest forum for the advancement of the women’s empowerment agenda and the first within the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The CSW, a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is supported by UN Women.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, referred to the upcoming forum as a “festival of ideas”.
“We are trying to channel these ideas towards implementation, implementation, implementation,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said at a press briefing.
Discussions will focus on goal number five of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is gender equality. Women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development is the priority theme of CSW60, the review theme on the agenda will be the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.
United Nations, New York, USA, March 10 2016 – Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, CSW Chair and Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN and Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), briefs journalists on the sixtieth session of the CSW, scheduled to take place at UN headquarters from 14 to 24 March 2016. Also addressing the press with him was Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) today at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Photo by: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
At the end of the session CSW will come up with agreed conclusions. The agreed conclusions are an analysis of the priority theme and a set of recommendations for different stakeholders
One recommendation already made by UN women, with regard to the incidents of sexual assault around UN peacekeeping missions, is to increase the number of women that participate in security forces.
“We engage with all member states, those that are in conflict and those that are not, to increase the number of women that participate in their security forces. Right now it is less than five percent of women that participate in that whole area of security, not just peacekeeping,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said at a press briefing.
This recommendation, among others, might become a part of the agreed conclusions.
A record 208 events are scheduled to take place at CSW, while NGOs have planned about 450 more side-events at the UN and all over the city. Around 80 ministers and 8,100 NGO representatives are expected to take part in the event.
“Women and girls are at the front line of climate change and of new epidemics such as the Zika virus disease by which women are disproportionally affected,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka also announced the launch of a barometer which will check the implementation of the SDGs starting from year one.
“We want to make sure that in this CSW60 we balance between the greatest challenge that we face and the greatest opportunities that we have to advance gender equality. Women’s resilience is critical to finding sustainable solutions to poverty, inequality and recovery from conflicts, disasters and displacements.”
United Nations, New York, USA, March 10 2016 – Antonio de Aguiar Patriota (left), CSW Chair and Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN and Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), briefs journalists on the sixtieth session of the CSW, scheduled to take place at UN headquarters from 14 to 24 March 2016. Also addressing the press with him was Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (right), Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) today at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Photo by: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
UN and government officials hope that the “spirit of 2015” will have an impact on the work of CSW60.
“The year of 2015 was a very good year for multilateralism, both in the adoption of the 2030 agenda and the Paris agreement on climate change,” Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, said.
CSW60 overlaps with the first ever high-level panel on women’s economic empowerment. The panel will issue an action-oriented report in September this year.
“The two coaches of that panel, which is the President of Costa Rica and the CEO of IKEA Switzerland, will brief the CSW on the works of the panel and the areas that the panel will be covering,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Another highlight of this year’s CSW session: The CSW Youth Forum on youth and gender equality will be held for the first time from March 11-12, “providing a historic opportunity for young people to come together and advocate for the issues that affect them,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Source: EuropaNewswire