AskHer at United Nations!

By Sandra D'Souza, CEO

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to be part of the Commission of Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

What is CSW?

For those unfamiliar with CSW, it is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The principal purpose of this global policy-making body is to further the work towards gender equality and advancement of women. Each year, the Commission prepares and presents recommendations and reports for ECOSOC in order to promote women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. In addition, the Commission sometimes makes recommendations to ECOSOC on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women’s rights.

Who participates?

Government representatives attend each year from the “Member States” of the United Nations. They meet at U.N. 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. However, governments aren’t the only ones who attend though! Women and men from around the world including myself attend this meeting to hold their governments accountable and to work to influence decisions. I was there as a non-government organisation (also known as NGOs) representative from Australia. The NGO was BPW International (see http://www.bpw.com.au/).

What happens or how does it work?

The principal outcome of the Commission is the so-called Agreed Conclusions, a document whose topic is the priority theme for that year. Agreed Conclusions contain an analysis of the priority theme and put forward a set of specific recommendations - for Governments, intergovernmental bodies and other institutions, civil society actors, and other relevant stakeholders - to be implemented at the international, national, regional and local level. The final report - usually an agreed upon text of the Agreed Conclusions - is submitted to the ECOSOC for adoption.

What was the theme for this year?

The priority theme was “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS” but there were a lot of workshops that had sub-themes some of which I attended:

• Shared responsibilities between women and men in a life cycle approach
• Empowering women through physical activity and sport
• Promoting sexual and reproductive choice
• Male involvement in the elimination of violence against women
• Gender budgeting and pay equity: The direct way to equal sharing of responsibilities
• Women and the financial crisis - Impact and responses
• Gender equality and climate change
• The role of parliaments in promoting equal sharing of responsibilities between men and women

What did Australia do? It was great to see our very own Federal Minister for Status of Women The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP sitting alongside United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon addressing the assembly of women delegation from all around the world on International Women’s Day Commemorative Event. Australia’s Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick was also attending CSW and she presented at the Equal Pay Workshop organised by BPW International. Her presentation along with other presenters from Europe showed that Australia still has a long way to go in achieving Equal Pay. It is disappointing that in this day and age, women still experience inequalities in their salaries for the same work performed by men and I believe that this is an important issue that requires continuous awareness. Lastly, the Permenant Mission of Australia to United Nations presented an insightful and moving documentary called “Yajilarra”. It is about about the courage and resilience of Aboriginal women in the remote Kimberley region of outback Australia fighting to limit alcohol sales in their community. The women who inspired the documentary also attended the screening and were present at the Q&A session afterwards. The audience from other countries as well as the Australians were touched by the courage of these women.

So little time and so many workshops to attend...

That week at the United Nations was exhausting for me and it didn’t help that I was six months pregnant but the experience was certainly worth it. It brings together the concerns and issues for women on a global scale and that we are part of a consensus to bring peace, harmony and equality to our gender.