The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), amid fears over the dangers of the spread of COVID-19, has decided to cut short the events of its 64th session that were going to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York from March 9 through 20. The CSW will hold a procedural meeting on March 9 – the day after International Women’s Day – to adopt a draft political declaration marking 25 years since the historic women’s rights declaration signed in Beijing.
At the direction of the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the format of the 64th session has been changed, and member states will participate in the session through their permanent representations at the UN. Whereas, the session was supposed to host about 12 thousand representatives from member states, UN subjects and NGO’s all over the world. The agenda of the procedural meeting on March 9 only includes opening remarks by Mher Margaryan, Chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the UN Secretary-General, as well as a number of high-ranking UN officials, which will then be followed by the adoption of the Political Declaration and decisions regarding different resolutions. The event will then close until further notice: no general debate will be held, while multiple side-events that were already planned have now been cancelled.
In a letter to all UN ambassadors, Mher Margaryan has reaffirmed the UN Secretary-General’s recommendation to delegations and other stakeholders to refrain from travelling to the UN Headquarters in New York.
According to Reuters, many civil society representatives have expressed concern that the cutting short of the main meeting at the UN that deals with gender equality issues amid fears of the coronavirus may become a big blow to the advancement of the rights of women and that it needs to be rescheduled in order to include diverse opinions.
Representatives of NGO’s and experts that were planning to participate in the session are alarmed by the fact that the two-week annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is a key event in terms of promoting equality and female empowerment, will last for just one day. This means that there will be no general debate and dozens of side-events will be cancelled, thus excluding all civil society representatives across the globe from the discussions format. These activists believe that a full two-week meeting needs to be rescheduled to ensure active participation of civil society that is typical of all Beijing procedures.
“CSW without civil society is no CSW at all,” wrote the British Mission to the United Nations in its official Twitter feed after Monday’s announcement. “We must ensure full & inclusive #CSW64 discussions take place later this year.”
On Twitter, We Effect, a Swedish development group, concurred, saying: “In solidarity with women’s movements across the globe We Effect joins the demand to #postponeCSW. #CSW64 on #genderequality can’t be held without safe, meaningful and informed participation of women.”
However, rescheduling a two-week meeting for 12,000 civil society participants may be difficult, said Vanessa Jackson, the U.N. Representative for CARE, an anti-poverty and social justice organization.
According to her, the CSW is key to building momentum ahead of two huge forums to advance women’s rights and spur progress towards gender equality to be held by U.N. Women in Mexico in May and in Paris in July. The forums are seen as critical to meeting the U.N.’s global goal of achieving gender equality by 2030 and the decision to cancel the activities of the CSW session also put the effectiveness of these forums in jeopardy.
Commenting on the potential resumption of the Commission by the end of the year, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General, told journalists that it was up to the member states to decide and if they agree on resuming the session, the UN will do everything to meet this request.
