You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘CSW53’ tag.
by Malte Lei
The CSW – the Commission on the Status of Women – is an annual event. Hundreds of women from all around the world come together in New York in February in order to advocate for the rights of women and girls. These women come from all backgrounds – they are professors, teachers, social workers, economists, pastors, students, or mothers. They know what’s really going on in their communities, and are well aware of the needs of the people, probably more than the average government official in the UN system. To help the UN to hear the very needs of women and men, boys and girls “on the ground”, and to incorporate these needs into a strong statement – the Agreed Conclusion – is a main goal of the participation of women during CSW and the reason why they are invited by Ecumenical Women.
Confidence, culture, childcare and cash: four factors which Anne-Marie Goetz of UNIFEM identifies as keeping women out of high level decision making bodies in both public and private spheres.
Confidence: women need to learn that their voices are essential for the best decision making to happen. This will only sink in when men as well as women welcome the full participation of women at every level of political and public debate. It will also only happen when women support women and don’t feel that their own individual inclusion in the elite is change enough.
Culture: we need to work for a radical attitudinal change in cultures where women are still purposely excluded from public life. And we need to ensure that women’s participation is more than token in cultures which only superficially include women.
Childcare: women need to know that their children are not losing out through their mother’s choice to participate in the world outside the home. We need to create societies where child-caring is a shared responsibility between women and men and where there is funding to allow families to pay for help when needed. Which leads us to the fourth and final factor:
Cash: women are the poorest of the poor – 70% of the world’s poor are women. Equity of pay, and social assistance proportionate to need, are essential prerequisites to allow women to offer themselves for public office.
And one final churchy question: exactly how well is your denomination doing in including women at every level of decision making? We should be leading the way, not lagging behind!
more about “Picasa Web Albums – Ecumenical – Ecum…“, posted with vodpod
Photos taken by Kim Llerena.
by Jacqueline Mukamusana
On Wednesday 04 March, 2009 at CSW meeting in the UN Auditorium, UNIFEM organized a Panel where speakers from various organizations, grassroots, government and UN agencies to discuss on the issue of caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.
Around the word, gender norms assign women the primary role in caring for people, especially those who ill and dying from HIV and AIDS.
Poverty and inadequate health systems have fostered reliance on home-based, unpaid care. While many family members provide support out of love and compassion, those who are already poor are frequently pushed into destitution by additional financial and emotional burdens. The tendency to rely on women for care greatly reduces their access to opportunities for education and decent work. Political participation and other avenues to women’s empowerment suffer as well.
According to the discussions, the following areas needs more action:
- Value and visibility of care work: care work must be recognized and valued by individuals, communities, civil society and government and its gender implications acknowledged.
- Resources: Governments, donors and private sector should provide resources to meet diverse needs of care givers, including for infrastructures and social support
- Policies: Health and social policies need to ensure care can be provided without placing excessive burdens on households.
- Education: both parents should work together to educate their children in care work both boys and girls
UNIFEM is doing much to respond:
- Investing in research for better understanding
- Promoting community initiatives to address the gender equality dimensions of HIV and AIDS
- Convening care givers and partiers to develop advocacy strategies
- Integrating gender dimensions of HI and AIDS in national plans and programs
- Supporting participation and leadership of women affected by HIV in national responses.
Ecumenical Women’s Advocacy team has been hard at work this week, putting together a platform of our coalition’s interests. Below, please read our “short and sweet” draft recommendations for the CSW Agreed Conclusions.
Elizabeth Lee of the WCC speaks at an Ecumenical Women Advocacy Meeting
Partners for National Responses
Promote national responses that are inclusive, and recognize the role that civil society, the private sector, faith-based groups, community groups and families and a broad array of sectors and stakeholders must play in developing, implementing and monitoring efforts to respond effectively to the HIV epidemic and to increase capacity for treatment, care and support (Based on A/62/895 (para 48) and A/Res/60/262 (para 14)).
Women in Decision Making Processes
Enhance and ensure equitable opportunities for women and girls to shape, design and implement public policy, allocate resources and expenditures so that their interests may be recognized and addressed (Based on Beijing Declaration, para 185).
Caregivers
Develop multi-sectoral policies and programmes and increase resource allocations to strengthen and support home-based care providers, including through improved access to information on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, as well as training, basic equipment and resources; (based on E/CN.6/2009/2, para 78(p)). Read the rest of this entry »
by Mary Button
The Ecumenical Women Parallel Event, Positive Masculinities and Gender Partnership for Equal Sharing of Responsibilities, was a packed event. We quickly reached capacity and people had to be turned away from the room. Dr. Ezra Chitando started the panel off with a bang. He introduced his presentation with the words; “it is better to build up boys than to repair men,” which was met with wild applause. These words became a mantra and were reiterated by the other panelists, which included Dr. Fulata Mbano-Moyo, Chaitanya Motupalli, and Doreen Boyd.
From left to right: Fulata Mbano-Moyo, Ezra Chitando, Chaitanya Motupalli, and Doreen Boyd
Dr. Chitando shared with us his personal experiences about the five areas of socialization for boys. He identified these areas as: home, community, school, church, and the media. In particular, I really responded to his criticism of the church’s role in the socialization of boys. He pointed out that the heroes of the Bible, as singled out in typical Sunday School settings, emphasize men like Samson and David, overlooking the rich stories of strong and powerful women like Esther, Ruth, and Sarah.
Speaking after Dr. Chitando was Dr. Mbano-Moyo who spoke of her personal struggles and triumphs raising three sons. Specifically, she identified the church’s model of fatherhood as one that ignores the extended family thus creating a friction that isolates boys and does not empower them to seek out father-son relationships with men in their extended biological and church families.
At the conclusion of Dr. Mbano-Moyo’s talk handouts were distributed to the audience which included the text from 2 Samuel 13: 1 – 22 (NRSV), the story of the rape of Tamar.
Dr. Chitando and Dr. Mbano-Moyo proceeded to lead us all in a short Contextual Bible Study. Among the questions we discussed were:
- How did David, Amnon, and Jonadab (as main characters) conceive ‘what it means to be a man’?
- How did the men in Tamar’s life understand her role as a woman?
- Can we identify men such as David, Amnon, Jonadab in our contexts?
Chaitanya Motupalli spoke about how his mother inspired him to positive models of masculinity.
While the story of the rape of Tamar is difficult to hear and more difficult to internalize and contextualize; our distinguished panelists brought levity, humor and thoughtfulness to our discussion. The next two speakers were Mr. Motupalli and Ms. Boyd, who also shared their personal reflections and experiences empowering boys and men; Mr. Motupalli in the Christian student movement in India and Ms. Boyd among parishioners in the Caribbean. Mr. Motupalli spoke about his relationships with his mother and father and how profoundly influenced he has been by these relationships. Ms. Boyd talked about the ways in which she has successfully combated domestic violence in the Caribbean by empowering men and women to challenge gender stereotypes.
The presentations concluded with a rich question and answer period. Among the issues raised were the inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender voices in discussion about the equal sharing of responsibilities; the usage of gender sensitive language in the liturgical setting; and the most effective ways to facilitate inter-generational conversations around the subject of gender stereotypes. Leaving the panel, everyone was incredibly energized by the strength of our diversity, the compassion of our ecumenical thinkers and the great work that we have ahead of us at CSW!
Resources from the Panel
- Contextual Bible Study Slideshow (Fulata Mbano-Moyo and Ezra Chitando)
- Woman Slide Show (Doreen Boyd)
- Many people expressed interest in a book mentioned by Doreen Boyd. Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight is a neural anatomist’s personal journey into the workings of the brain in the wake of her stroke. For those interested in Bolte Taylor’s work, watch this amazing lecture that she gave at TED 2008.
- Biographies of the Panelists
by Rev. Kathleen Stone, Chaplain, CCUN
On March 2nd, the east coast was pummeled with a snow storm. Still 120 women from around the world showed up in the Chapel at the Church center for the United Nations for Anglican led worship at 8:00 a.m! It was tremendous.
Part of our worship is dedicated every morning to the sharing of prayers for those women around the world who we represent. Those prayers are written on pieces of colored paper from around the world and are to be made into paper beads and sewn to Ruth’s dress in a participatory artwork commissioned by Ecumenical Women.
Well, we had other people to clothe this week! Delegates from around the world who come from warm climates definitely did not have the clothes they needed to wade through the cold deep snow of this season. Shivering from the cold, wet feet and underdressed top coats all around us, Ecumenical Women quickly moved into action. Salvation Army, a member of Ecumenical Women, determined to donate a truck load of coats, boots, hats, gloves, sweaters to the Chapel! And so, all day long delegates came from near and far to receive the miracle of loaves and fishes in coats and boots.
by EW delegate reporter Ellen Clark-King
Monday morning started with us marching in the light of God and continued with us wandering slightly less certainly around the bowels of the UN as we all struggled to orient – or reorient – ourselves to this confusing building. Registering about 6,000 women was obviously proving the same headache as it did last year with the line snaking throughout the main entrance concourse.
Those of us who managed to find – and to squeeze into – the observer balcony of Conference Room B were treated to speeches by high level UN personnel (the President of ECOSOC, the Deputy Secretary General, among others) stating their support for gender equality and particularly the more equitable distribution of care-giving between women and men. Inequity in this area was seen as a particular and widespread example of the oppression of women, with the Deputy Secretary General calling it a form of violence against women.
The most memorable quote of the morning came from the Under Secretary for HIV/AIDS. He focused not only on the role of women in caring for those with HIV/AIDS but also on the risks that they run of being infected, especially in cultures where they are not allowed responsibility for their own sexual health and contraceptive choices. Applause greeted his statement that: “A woman should never need her partner’s permission to save her own life.”
So the day goes on. We greet, talk, laugh, share coffee and then focus in again on the reality of women’s vulnerability across the globe.
