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by Mary Gindhart, the Grail
The U.S. Delegation to CSW 2009 gave an informal briefing to participants in CSW yesterday. The participants and NGO community gave the delegation statements of what they wanted in the Agreed Conclusions for the 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The delegates only began to work together in the last few days, and given the still-new Obama administration, many of the questions raised by participants are still being reviewed by the State Department.
To respect the wishes of the U.S. delegation, we will not report on what the U.S. delegates said, as the meeting was “off the record.” However, a number of themes were raised by representatives of NGOs and Ecumenical Women, including:
- The ratification of CEDAW, the Optional Protocol; the rights of the Child and the December 18, 2008 statement about sexual orientation
- The proposed gender architecture of the United Nations
- Working on Violence Against Women
- The impact of climate change on the lives of women; and
- Reproductive health, justice, and rights
I managed two hours of the High Level Roundtable Monday afternoon till the heat in the gallery got to be too much. One message that came through from many of the nation states who were speaking was that changing patterns of care-giving and responsibility between the genders will take more than governmental action and legal change. It needs a sea-change in cultural understanding that reaches into the hearts of families and transforms them from within: a sea-change that awakens men to their responsibilities in the home and frees women for their duties in the world.
This reminded me of an event in a very different context – a college chapel in Cambridge University. I had used a Janet Morley psalm in a service exploring different ways of talking about God – one that starts “I will praise God, my Beloved, for she is altogether lovely” and continues using passionate female imagery for the divine. I had expected this to resonate with the women present – and it did – but the strongest response came from a male student of engineering. He said it was the first time he had encountered language which allowed him to begin to adequately express his relationship with God, and that it liberated him from understanding divine power as purely masculine.
Theologians as well as governments, law-givers and UN delegates have their part to play in changing the world we live in. We need more language which speaks of our father God as care-giver and new hymns which sing to God our mother as the source of power and life. In this way our faith can help both women and men to find new ways of being and new ways of relating which liberate them both.
For the first time ever, young adult women have organized themselves into a caucus for the 53rd session of UNCSW and beyond. Representing 8 NGOs, the group of 42 women and 1 man began meeting on Sunday March 1 at the Episcopal Church Center to discuss issues, partnerships and goals for the caucus over the next 2 weeks. Thee NGOs that were represented were:
- The Episcopal Church/ACC
- The National Council of Churches
- World Student Christian Federation
- World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
- World Council of Churches
- Worldwide YWCA
- Girl Scouts USA
- Voices of Canadian Women for Peace
Jessica Hawkinson from the Presbyterian UN office facilitated and introductory exercise with the group, after which Kaburo Kobia from Worldwide YWCA and Bernadette Fischler from WAGGGS facilitated small group discussion on the theme and the oral statement to be made in plenary. The caucus will meet again on March 3 at 11:30am and March 4 at 1:00pm in Conference Room B.
Look for them. They are wearing lime green stickers and ribbons.
by Mary Gindhart
The Grail
The hustle and bustle of getting to New York for CSW faded when I arrived at the Opening Worship organized by Ecumenical Women as the story of Ruth and Naomi was enacted.
This familiar story was being re-told as we gathered to prepare for two weeks of advocacy on the CSW theme: The Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.
My heart was touched, I thought of women all around the world struggling. I looked around at the women who were present. I saw the dance movements, I heard the spoken words and chants. I felt strength, support and calm that we could face the challenges of the next two weeks at the UN together.
The communion service was a corporate expression of our oneness in faith in Jesus Christ and commitment to a new covenant in which all are cared for, both the caregivers and those needing care, both the men and the women. Both the elderly and children. Both the black and white, the brown, yellow, blue and green.
Ecumenical Women began early this morning another year of historic advocacy at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The morning began with a rousing Opening Worship.
Women from all over the world listened, watched, and responded to an artistic retelling of the story of Ruth and Naomi. We performed together a ritual of rememberance, saying together:
God of our ancestors, God of us all
This morning, and throughout this week,
We remember women.
We remember those who have woven
and now weave the threads of history
We remember those who gave and give to the world.
We remember…
Those who make music,
who do labor, who mother children, who struggle, who laugh, who have wisdom, who make art, who have visions
We remember…
Those who have survived horrors, who told the stories, who made a way out of no way, who fought for freedom, who knew the truth and lived it, who died because they dared.
We remember…
Those who bear the cup of life;
Who pour it out to heal the ground on which we stand
Those who bake the bread of life
Who bid that we taste and see who good it is.
Remember with Ecumenical Women today, the next two weeks, and for ever the women who struggle for the hope of a better world.
In preparation for the March meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-53) at the United Nations, Ecumenical Women has launched an advocacy guide: Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church: Ecumenical Women’s Guide to Advocacy.
The resource prepares delegates from faith-based non-governmental organizations for effective action at the annual United Nations meeting.
Including a brief history of advocacy by women of faith at the United Nations, the guide provides an overview on how to advocate for women’s rights at the UN, gender-equality action strategies for congregations, and theological reflections on gender equality written by women and men from around the world.
DOWNLOAD Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church: Ecumenical Women’s Guide to Advocacy
DOWNLOAD Ecumenical Women’s Addendum, CSW-53
DOWNLOAD Press Release
Emily Davila, Assistant Director of the Lutheran Office for World Community and chairperson of Ecumenical Women at the United Nations,
will facilitate a conversation about faith-based NGO’s involvement and impact on the 53rd UN Commission on the Status of Women to by held March 2 –13, 2009 here in NYC. Download Flier
This Brown Bag lunch is co-sponsored by National Council of Churches, USA — Women’s Ministries and Ecumenical Women. It is one in a series of monthly brown bags co-sponsored by the NCC.
Tuesday February 17, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Dinning Room C-D (1st floor)
Interchurch Center
475 Riverside Drive at 120th Street
New York City
Statistics show that women and girls comprise of nearly 90% of care providers. This is a huge burden on women, and very rarely does it receive adequate attention. Please help us by filling out a survey on
the topic of women and caregiving in the context of HIV and AIDS.
Your responses will be used to help us create our advocacy position and inform our research in the role of faith-based organizations advocating for the caretakers of those living with HIV and AIDS. We very much
value your response. Please send your responses by Oct. 25.
~
Las estadísticas demuestran que las mujeres y las niñas están encargadas de casi el 90% del cuidado de las personas enfermas. Esto es una carga enorme para las mujeres y no recibe la atención adecuada. Le estamos enviando esta encuesta en preparación a la 53.a Sesión de la Comisión de la Condición Jurídica y Social de las Mujeres (CSW) que será celebrada en las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York del 2 al 13 de marzo del 2009. El tema de la reunión es “La distribución igualitaria de las responsabilidades entre las mujeres y los hombres, incluyendo el cuidado de pacientes afectados por el VIH/SIDA”.
Haz click aqui: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kH_2fnkWuO94he7Hwl_2bNsXRw_3d_3d
Sus respuestas a esta encuesta nos ayudarán en nuestro aporte a la Comisión, y contribuirá a nuestro trabajo de investigación sobre el rol de las organizaciones religiosas en la defensa de los derechos de las personas que están encargadas del cuidado de la gente viviendo con VIH y SIDA. Nosotras valoramos mucho su respuesta. Envíe por favor sus respuestas antes del 25 de octubre del 2008.
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.
