Seminary Conclusions.

The UN Commission on the Status of Women/ ECOSOW

This last Wednesday and Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the Commission on the status of Women at the United Nations for a few days out of their two month long commission. It was an amazing experience, full of information, resources, networking, and passion.

Some background before I give my personal reflections.

There are generally
around 3,000 people in town for this meeting including governments, UN
staff, and NGOs. Many NGOs come with the expectation to lobby their
governments on "agreed conclusions", this generally takes place during
the second week of the meeting, and is done in caucus groups.

The Commission on the Status of Women (hereafter referred to as “CSW” or “the Commission”) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.

The Commission was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946 with the aim to prepare recommendations and reports to the Council on promoting women's rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. The Commission also makes recommendations to the Council on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women's rights.

The Commission the Status of Women, is an important world-wide gathering. The Commission this year is focusing on Economics and the Status of Women, having many resolutions and conclusions coming up for revision. The Organization of Ecumenical Women has worked hard to alter some of the language of the decisions, so that more compassion is included towards women.

During the Commission, I had the opportunity to attend various sessions on a multitude of topics. Due to my research on Human Trafficking I choose to attend sessions dedicated to this topic or about violence against women. Attending these sessions will hundreds of other NGO representatives was a great opportunity to learn more information, find out what other organizations are doing to bring awareness to these issues, and how the advocating is occurring on a international realm.

Being privy to the inside areas of the UN building, it was an awesome time to see that so many people are involved from various countries in organizing laws and understanding surround such important issues for society, and especially for women. It was a blessing to have seen the inner-workings, and hopefully to have the opportunity to be in that format as an official representative one day.

Overall, although I didn't get the opportunity to see any friends that live in NYC, I had a great time. I stayed at the Seafarer's and International House, run by the ELCA. It was great to view this vital ministry to the people that travel to NY and have to find somewhere to stay.

As far as more information on Human Trafficking, I will post more links when I have some, and will also post my paper in a shortened form when I complete it by the end of this semester.

Blessings.

Labels: advocacy, ELCA, seafarers, Trafficking, UN, women

posted by Dana @ 9:01 PM