For the first two weeks of March three SustainUS members, including myself, attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at UN Headquarters in New York City.  This was the first time SustainUS attended CSW, and helped us explore a broader definition of sustainable development, one that includes gender equality.

For probably the only time each year, CSW is a time when thousands of women from around the world descend on UN Headquarters to discuss women’s rights.   Men are few and far between in all of the official sessions, from plenary to workshops and panels.  These women represent thousands of NGOs who work in all corners of the globe on women’s issues and have on-the-ground experience with the issues being considered.  The priority theme this year was “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.”  Some sobering statistics around this theme include:

•    Women are responsible for approximately 2/3 of the paid and unpaid work done worldwide, and receive only 10% of the world’s pay.
•    1/10 women die from pregnancy-related causes, 99% of these deaths in developing countries.
•    The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, providing access to maternal health and family planning, has one of the worst records of all the MDGs.

So how does the UN and CSW try to address their priority theme and these statistics?  The objective is to come out with a set of “agreed conclusions” addressing the priority theme, which is a normative framework country governments will use to inform national policy.  The agreed conclusions are “binding,” in a non-binding sort of way. The primary objective of NGOs is influence the text of the agreed conclusions on their issue of interest within the priority theme, whether that be family planning, prevention of HIV, sexual education, responsibility for caregiving, etc.  They do this informally by chatting with government delegates, or more formally in country-sponsored briefings.  Days are also filled with side events and panel discussions about a multitude of women’s issues.  These are sponsored by governments and NGOs and are largely an educational experience.  Groups of NGOs also form caucuses to lobby around specific issues.  Examples of caucuses include the youth caucus and climate caucus.  Besides lobbying on specific points, these caucuses are a great opportunity to network with like-minded NGOs.

SustainUS members joined in with the youth caucus to discuss specific policy points.  The idea is to get a hold of the most recent copy of the agreed conclusions (generally through a relationship with a government delegate) and find pieces of text that you agree with, or would like to see changed.  Through working with the youth caucus we learned a great deal about some of the most important policy pieces.  We also attended a briefing sponsored by the U.S. Mission where State Department representatives facilitated a policy discussion with NGOs.  The following is a summary of what I saw to be some of the most interesting points of contention in the agreed conclusions. 

There was strong disagreement about what type of language should be used to describe sex education.  In the initial drafts, the United States suggested “age-appropriate” sex education.  Many NGOs disagreed with this text, believing that it suggested abstinence-based education.  The final draft uses the language “as well as sex education based on full and accurate information in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of girls and boys, and with appropriate direction and guidance,” which has slightly different meaning than the original suggestion.  Many U.S. NGOs also called for language concerning climate change and women, and for strong language to ensure government legislation for both maternity and paternity leave.  Both of these issues made it into the agreed conclusions, although the U.S. Mission to CSW could not answer a question about who from the State Department deals with climate change.  I was surprised to hear such a poor answer from State Department representatives.  One NGO representative asserted that this Commission, and the UN in general, remain very heterosexist, with little to no mention of homosexual issues.  An early version of the text included a statement about caregiving in the context of “various forms of the family.”  This of course could mean many things, including same-sex parent families.  Some countries refused this language, instead replacing it with this language: “caring associated with family kinship and community responsibilities.”  In my opinion this language is much weaker and does not offer any recognition of same-sex couple families, an important issue that a conference on women should address. 

Another issue being debated during a panel discussion was national policy approaches to HIV prevention.  A major tenet of HIV prevention for many years has been based on preventing HIV transmission from mother to child.  The language is now shifting to prevent HIV transmission from parent to child, encouraging the father to take a more active role in prevention.  At many times throughout the Commission I noticed the concentration on incorporating strategies for men and boys into women’s issues, which I view as an important step in ensuring a more gender-equal burden for HIV prevention. 

The most surprising policy issue of all, however, was the discussion surrounding CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  I had no idea that the U.S. is one of only a few countries in the world that has not ratified this Convention, along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.  The State Department officials said that the current Congress may have a greater chance of passing this than before, but I was appalled to learn that ratifying this Convention is even a contentious issue.  

Overall, I CSW was exciting, engaging, and dynamic, with ample opportunities to network with NGOs and lobby government officials on specific policy points.  I hope that SustainUS participates again next year and sends a strong team dedicated to women’s policy issues.  Unfortunately I had to catch my bus back to DC before the negotiations ended, but the final draft of the agreed conclusions is available here: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/53sess.htm#agreed.