Six students (Jeannette, Mary Grace, Katherine, Chinwendu, Christine, and Tavia) and two faculty members (Mary and Margo) from Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) are now part of the SSND delegation to CSW63. Today we have photos of them to share with you.
We also took some time today to explore New York City, which had some of our delegates jumping for joy.
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Below are some CSW63 highlights for the day.
NGO Briefing Focus: Beijing+25
In 2020, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action. We also celebrate the first 5th year review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 75th anniversary of the UN, the 10th anniversary of UN Women, and several other anniversaries. (UN 2020 website) It is good to remind ourselves of our achievements for the equality and justice agenda; this encourages us to continue. The review process of the Beijing Platform for Action is underway in countries. NGO engagement is needed. Regional reviews will follow. This will take us into CSW64 when we will look at it globally and review gaps of implementation. This will lead into the Global Civil Society Forum for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights, which is now being planned for the summer of 2020. What will success at the Global Forum look like? An agenda of accelerated implementation for 2020-2025, so that when we come to 2030 we will see embedded equality.
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Journalism and the empowerment of women: new challenges in the digital world
Panelists at this side event spoke from personal experience about the impact of digital media on women’s empowerment. Digital media has made it easier to have social impact. An example is the #MeToo movement which raised the visibility of sexual harassment and sexual violence and resulted in changes in social behavior and accountability. On the other hand, journalists, especially female journalists, who cover topics related to justice and women’s rights, face increased threats and intimidation through digital media: cyberstalking, hacking, invasions of privacy, defamation campaigns, rape threats, and much more. The impact can be life altering. Panelists shared advice on how to deal with these challenges. (View webcast)
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Preventing Trafficking of Women and Girls for Sexual Exploitation: Understanding States’ Obligations to Address Demand under the Palermo Protocol
Data suggest that human trafficking is getting worse. “Vulnerability does not mean that trafficking is inevitable,” said Val Richey, acting coordinator of OSCE office for combating trafficking in human beings, who introduced the session, “rather demand factors are primarily responsible in that they create the financial incentive for trafficking, … to take advantage of the vulnerability.” The Palermo Protocol states in Article 9. 5: “States Parties shall adopt or strengthen legislative or other measures, such as educational, social or cultural measures, including through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, that leads to trafficking.” Later regional directives repeated the need to discourage and reduce demand. However, we have not made much collective progress in addressing demand. This is a social issue. We need strategies to reduce demand for women’s bodies, for bodies, for goods made by trafficked labor. (View webcast)
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