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AWID’s Programme at CSW59
Member states and women’s rights advocates and organizations will gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9-20 March 2015 for the 59th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59). The 2015 session will focus as a priority on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and will address opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda.
AWID will be at CSW59 contributing to the debate about the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as well as contributing to strengthening the post-2015 development agenda by putting human rights, women’s rights and transformational change at the core of the framing.
In collaboration with our partners, AWID will also be working to:
- advance the integrated protection, security and an enabling environment for Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs);
- inform and support positions on development, women’s rights and human rights that challenge the use of religion, culture and tradition to roll back and violate rights;
- raise visibility of and support for effective funding strategies to support women’s rights and feminist organizing.
Please join us at the following events and activities
Sponsored by: Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Permanent Mission of Tunisia to the United Nations (TBC), Amnesty International, International Civil Society Action Network, Just Associates, International Service for Human Rights and Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition.
Featuring: Hans Brattskar (Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Ivan Simonović (Office of the High Commisoner of Human Rights), Cristina Hardaga Fernández, (Just Associates), Mary Akrami (Afghan Women’s Network), Reine Alapini-Gansou (African Commission), Mozn Hassan (Nazra for Feminist Studies), Mohamed Khaled Khiari (Tunisian Permanent Representative)
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
14.30 – 16.00 hours
Salvation Army Auditorium, 221 East 52nd Street
Meet and hear from the winners of our End Gender Discrimination Now! Contest. The competition was organized by four partners: Gender at Work, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, BRIDGE, and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales Argentina. Three first prizewinners and six runners-up were selected from more than 250 submissions from 63 countries. Prizes were awarded for examples of innovative initiatives that challenge gender discrimination.
Organized by: Gender at Work, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, BRIDGE, and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales Argentina
Featuring: Tashia Peterson (Malaysia), Momal Mushtaq (Pakistan) and Lilian Soto (Paraguay).
18.15 hours
2nd Floor, Church Centre for the United Nations, 777 UN Plaza
Violence against women and girls is the most widespread and persistent violation of human rights worldwide. As we near critical momentum for the realization of women’s rights and gender equality, governments and the international community must urgently step up their efforts and take leadership to end violence against women and girls in the years to come. How can this be done? What is being done already? And what is needed to achieve real change?
Sponsored by: Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Action Aid, Due Diligence Project and Oxfam.
Featuring: Dr. Ranjana Kumari (Center for Social Research, India), Angelika Arutyunova (Association for Women’s Rights in Development)
The rise of religious fundamentalisms around the world constitutes a growing and urgent challenge to the full realization of women’s human rights and gender justice, without which development cannot be achieved. The ongoing post 2015 process provides a critical opportunity to address religious fundamentalisms as a key structural barrier to gender equality and women’s rights and inextricably linked to all sustainable development goals. This event seeks to engage in a critical discussion of how to strengthen the responses to religious fundamentalisms from a gendered and comprehensive perspective in the development framework.
Sponsored by: Association for Women’s Rights in Development and Oxfam International
Featuring: Shareen Gokal, Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Ayesha Imam (Independent expert), Sepali Kottegoda (Women and Media Collective), Maria Consuelo Mejia (Catholics for the Right to Decide – Mexico), Monica Rijal (United Nations Development Program – UNDP), Sussan Tahmasebi (International Civil Action Network – ICAN)
The Buck Stops Here: The Road to Addis, Financing Gender Equality and Mobilizing for Political Momentum
Friday, 13 March 2015
12.30 hours
Salvation Army Auditorium, 221 East 52nd Street
In the context of the ongoing negotiations around the post 2015 sustainable development goals, this event will explore opportunities for engagement by feminists and women’s rights advocates on the road to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (13-16 July 2015, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and will address what is at stake regarding financing for gender equality and women rights.
Organized by: Feminist Task Force, Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Llamado Global de Acción ante la Pobreza, Latinoamérica y el Caribe (GCAP-LAC)
Featuring: Rosa Lizarde (FTF), Nicole Bidegain (DAWN), Tessa Khan (APWLD), Zohra Khan (UN Women)
The views of grassroots groups are often excluded from spaces like the Commission on the Status of Women. Through this parallel event, VGIF is making sure the voices of current and former grantees – women leaders working on the Beijing Critical Areas of Concern locally – are heard in discussions about women’s rights and gender equality at the UN.
Light Trust Project Coordinator Margret Joeji from India, and FIDA Program Coordinator Saratu Mahama from Ghana will participate in this parallel event at CSW59. Both local women leaders will highlight their efforts to address the Beijing Platform for Action’s Critical Areas of Concern in their communities.
Sponsored by: VGIF and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development
Featuring: Margret Joeji (India), Saratu Mahama (Ghana) and Kim Bylander (VGIF)
Sponsored by: Association for Women’s Rights in Development, MADRE, CIVICUS, Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, Amnesty International and Urgent Action Fund.
Featuring: Maryam Alkhawaja (GCHR), Nimalka Fernando (IMADR), Shehnilla Mohammed (IGLHRC), Sara Garcia (Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto) and Charlotte Bunch.
Organized by: UN Trust Fund on Violence Against Women
High Level Meeting on the Role of Governments in Ending Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Women
Organized by: Coalition of UN Member States, Observers, Council of Europe, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Women, Human Rights Watch and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
High Level Session From Commitment To Action: Financing Gender Equality In The Post-2015 Agenda
Organized by: Switzerland, Sweden, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
18.15 – 19.45 hours
Ballroom 1, Armenian Convention Centre, 630 2nd Avenue
Organized by: ASR Resource Centre, Institute of Women’s Studies Lahore and Center for Women’s Global Leadership
Honoring Charlotte Bunch – Founding Director, Center For Women’s Global Leadership Rutgers University (CUNY School Of Law, The Dean’s Social Justice Award)
Organized by: CUNY School of Law, Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice, Center for Women’s Global Leadership Rutgers and MADRE
No more shoestrings! Financing the Transformative Change Needed to Secure Progress on the Beijing Platform for Action and Post-2015 Framework
Drew Room, UN Church Centre, 777 UN Plaza
Organized by: UN Women