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The Division for the Advancement of Women has very recently posted a description of the communications procedure of the Commission on the Status of Women on the website of the Division for the Advancement of Women. Hopefully, this will make the Commission on the Status of Women a more accessible procedure to use for individuals and organizations that are engaged in advocacy work on women’s human rights and gender equality issues. The new communication procedure is LINKED HERE.
This morning, I attended ECOSOC’s special event, “Achieving the MDG’s and coping with the challenges of climage change.” It was of course interesting, as I usually find most things related to climate change, but what I found particularly moving were the comments spoken by the delegate from Belgium (who did not speak on behalf of Belgium, but for the committee for CSW). He outlined how climate change disproportionately and negatively affects women, and spoke about how women can acts as agents of change in the mitigation of global warming.
Of course, this year’s 52nd session of the CSW chose as it’s emerging issue “Gender perspectives on climate change“, where we learned that women’s lives are effected in large part due to their domestic responsibilities. As the moderator’s summary stresses,
In Africa, for example, women have primary responsibility for food security, household water supply, and the provision of energy for cooking and heating. Conditions such as drought, deforestation and erratic rainfall have a disproportionate negative affect on their ability to carry out these duties. As climate change causes African women to work harder to secure these basic resources, they have less time to secure an education or earn an income. Girls are more likely than boys to drop out of school to help their mothers gather fuel, wood and water.
The unequal effects that climate change already has, and will likely continue to have, along the lines of gender, are rarely mentioned. As we move towards mitigation and adaptation to climate change, we must do so with a lens that prioritizes women as the large majority of those greatly affected by climate change.
by Ann Tiemeyer
From February 22 – 26, 2008, seven young women between the ages of 21 to 28 years old participated in the first Young Women’s Leadership Experience facilitated by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC). The group received intensive orientation about the NCC, Ecumenical Women at the UN, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO’s) at the UN and the history of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). More>>
by Jocelyn Tengatenga
The imperative to act on gender equality and development is an integral part of the mission of God. God’s mission and vision for humanity is one of peace, prosperity and justice. We believe that because women and men are made equally in the image of God they are equal players and equal beneficiaries in God’s bounty. This is the new life as God intended it to be, a life of equality which is spelt out in Galatians 3:28, “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for all are one in Christ Jesus”. It is therefore a calling on each one of us as women to be involved in the fight for liberation from all forms of oppression and marginalization. We can only do that if we are united and collectively speak out. As women of faith we have been silent for a long time and now is the time to raise our voices together and join hands in working towards a better tomorrow. As Mercy Amba Oduyoye said,
“As a woman who feels the weight of sexism I cannot go again and again to the stories of the exodus, exile and to other biblical motifs in which the “least” are recognized and affirmed, are saved or held up as beloved by God or at least are empowered to gnaw at the fundaments of the structures of injustice until these fundaments cave in on themselves.”
Read the rest of Josie’s speech here.
On Saturday, February 23, Ecumenical Women gathered for our orientation on the 52nd Commission on the Status of Women. On that day, we joined together as women from many different areas of the world, cultures, ethnicities, denominations, and identities of all kinds, to form a coalition of women advocating for gender equality at the United Nations, from a faith-based perspective. We worshipped together, learned together, reflected together, and ate together! And after all that togetherness… we advocated together!
Photograph by Kimberly Llerena.
Ecumenical Women, together with the Al-Hakim Foundation and Religions for Peace, announces a multi-cultural, multi-religious panel, entitled “A Dialogue Between Cultures: ‘Iraq for All‘” on Monday, March 3, 1:00 - 3:30 pm in the Tillman Chapel of the Church Center for the United Nations. The topics of conversation are: the role of NGO’s in re-building civil society, women as builders, and practicing the Millenium Development Goals.
Panelists:
- Ms. Layla Al-Khafaji, Member of the Iraqi Parliament, Al-Hakim Foundation, IRAQ
- Dr. Michele Fedoroff, Deputy Chief of NGO Section, DESA
- Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, Assistant General Secretary, World Conference of Religions for Peace
- Dr.Bayan Al-Araji, Al-Hakim Foundation, UK
- Dr.Jafar Jawad, Al-Hakim Foundation, US
- Michel Ngoymulunda, Lutheran World Federation, Youth leader in Lutheran Communion in Central and Eastern Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Moderator: Dr. Mohammed Mohammed Ali, IRAQ
Come and join us for some stimulating conversation!
Ecumenical Women is excited to have events planned for the Commission on the Status of Women, which will take place 24 February through 7 March 2008. We hope that governments and NGOs around the world will come together and make real progress on our theme: Financing for Gender Equality.
Just as in previous years, we are planning to hold daily worship services in the chapel at the Church Center for the UN. The schedule for these worship services can be found here.
We will also host two side events:
- Ecumenical Women’s Challenge to Financing for Development
- Gender Architecture in our Religions: Walls and Windows
