CSW – Violence Against Women, Sexual, Reproductive Health

CSW 2012

The fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 27 February to 9 March 2012. The closing meeting was held on 15 March 2012.

The 2012 session focused on the following key areas:

1. Priority Theme: The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges
2. Review Theme: Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women
3. Emerging Issue: Engaging young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality

 

CSW 2013

Representatives from Member States, UN entities, and NGOs in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) from all regions of the world will attend the session. The two-week session will include a high-level round table, interactive dialogues and panels, and parallel events.

The 2013 session will focus on the following key areas:

• Priority Theme: Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls
• Review Theme: The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women focuses on eliminating violence against women and girls. The fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 4 to 15 March 2013.

UNITED NATIONS, NYC —

The elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls will be the focus of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
 
 
The Commission, exploring ‘Links between Violence Against Women and Sexual and Reproductive Health’, is to convene in New York from 4 to 15 March, 2013, is the main global policy-making body that addresses gender equality and women’s advancement.

During CSW, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will underscore the importance of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in efforts to prevent and mitigate violence against women and girls.

It will also organize a number of events with partners to address these issues, including:

Tuesday, 5 March

High-Level Side Event on Sexual Violence: Forms, Consequences and Interventions

Where: Conference Room B, North Lawn Building, UN Secretariat
When: 11:30 A.M – 12:45 P.M

Participants will discuss the forms of sexual violence that are prevalent in different settings; consequences of such violence on victims and survivors; some of the promising practices that address the issue; and the kinds of obstacles and challenges faced in addressing sexual violence in various settings.

Executive Directors’ Forum on Violence against Women and Girls

Where: Conference Room: 2, North Lawn Building, UN Secretariat
When: 1:15 P.M. – 2.45 P.M.

Thursday, 7 March

High-Level Side Event on the Role of Data in Addressing and Preventing Violence against Women and Girls

• Issues to be addressed include key areas that data collection systems on violence against women and girls must focus on; some promising practices in related data collection and analysis; and key obstacles and challenges faced in collecting and analyzing such data.

Where: Conference Room B, North Lawn Building, UN Secretariat
When: 11 A.M. – 12:45 P.M.

Joint Inter-agency Initiative on “Critical VAW Services” – Commitment by UN Agencies

• During the event, UNFPA and UN Women will launch a global initiative on access to critical services for victims and survivors of violence.

Where: UN Secretariat (TBD)
When: 6:15 P.M. – 7:45 P.M.

Media Interviews

Journalists interested in interviewing UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, or other participants, please contact:

Mandy Kibel: Tel: +1 212 297 5293; [email protected]
Omar Gharzeddine: Tel: +1 212 297 5028; [email protected]

NGO access will again be extremely limited at official CSW session meetings and events in the North Lawn Building, due to
the significantly high number of NGO representatives who have registered. However, all official meetings will be webcast.
You are welcome to follow these broadcasts live or on demand via the CSW webpage HERE. or the United Nations Webcast .

You can also follow @UN_CSW on Twitter to find out about side events, room changes, when check-in lines are shortest and when to pick up side event tickets. Join the Twitter conversation using #CSW57 to share information about your own events.

Madeleine Rees will be participating NGO’S through WILPF – A former UN human rights lawyer in Bosnia, Madeleine Rees now leads Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, an organization with sections in 37 countries.

Statement: Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls

In March 2013, WILPF International and WILPFers from all around the world are participating in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a functional Commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Read the Written Statement by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom for the 57th Commission on the Status of Women.

WILPF International started in 1915, when 1,200 women from a diversity of cultures and languages came together in The Hague during the First World War, to study, make known and eliminate the causes of war.

They issued resolutions, sent out delegations to most countries engaged in the First World War and created our organisation: the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. WILPF for short.

At that time, as well as now, the purpose in founding WILPF was to have an organisation through which women could work for peace and freedom by claiming women’s right and responsibility to participate in decision-making on all aspects of peace and security.

Below you’ll find just a few of the ways in which WILPF has made progress as an organisation and impacted on a global level.

100 YEARS OF WORK FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM

The American author, activist, and civil rights leader Coretta King makes a speech 1968

Almost as soon as it was created, WILPF’s values were hailed and adopted by some of the world’s most powerful leaders. WILPF’s International President Jane Addams was personally received by President Woodrow Wilson in Washington.

WILPF’s beliefs provided President Wilson with nine of his famous Fourteen Points, the basis of a peace programme that was used when Germany and her allies agreed to an armistice in November 1918.

Not only do we take pride in being the oldest women’s peace organisation in the world, we can also boast two Nobel Peace Prize winners within WILPF’s history.

In 1931, Jane Addams, WILPF’s International President was awarded the prestigious prize for her peace-keeping efforts. Shortly after, in 1946, WILPF’s first International Secretary, Emily Greene Balch, was also presented with the award – an obvious acknowledgement of WILPF’s success in its endeavours.

During its lifetime WILPF has organised dialogues between women in the Middle East, sent delegations of women to North and South Vietnam to oppose the Vietnam War, and worked closely with the UN to enact change for women’s peace and security.

 
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