56TH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
Discussion details
The 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place this year from February 27 to March 9 in New York.
The priority topic has been the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.
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The European Union. The Minister of Gender of Denmark pronounced a speech on behalf of the EU and its Member States (document attached); in the speech the Minister mentioned initiatives taken by the EU to promote gender equality within the Union, such as the Strategy for Equality Between Women and Men for 2010-2015, or the European Pact for Gender Equality 2011-2020; as well as to enhance gender equality in its external action, such as the Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development for 2012-2015. The speech continues reaffirming the importance of - ensuring equal roles and rights in political, economic decision making and social, civil and cultural life; - underlining the importance of promoting political participation of women, key issues for actual political changes. About the CSW session’ focus on the empowerment of rural women, the EU points out some aspects to be considered:
On the priority theme, the Minister has also drawn attention to ongoing negotiations of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (UN Committee of Food Security), which explicitly call for equal tenure rights and access to land. Furthermore the speech recalls the importance of the creation of quality employment opportunities in rural areas, as a key issue to prevent scale migration to urban areas and ensure economic independence of rural women; for this, the importance of the creation of infrastructures and the provision of services, including quality health care for women, is also pointed out. Last but not least, the issue of gender based violence has also been considered in the speech; thus reaffirming the commitment of the EU and its MS in implementing the EU guidelines on Violence against women and girls and all forms of discrimination against them, as key point of EU action in this field. On this issue the Minister also mentions EU support for the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and well as of the Special Representative of the Secretary general on Sexual Violence in Conflict; for the implementation of UNSC resolutions 1325 as well as 1820, 1888 and 1960. The speech ends reaffirming the commitment of EU with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, mentioning also the work of the European Institute for Gender Equality, as well as the support accorded to Mrs Bachelet and UN WOMEN for the goal to promote gender equality and empowerment of women and the effective implementation of equal rights for women and men. The webpage of the CSW Session http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/56sess.htm has been updated and includes details on panels discussions, keynotes, and statements on: |
- Priority theme: The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges
- Review theme: Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women
- Emerging issue: Engaging young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality
The following resolutions have also been adopted by the Commission:
- Ending female genital mutilation
- Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women
- Release of women and children taken hostage, including those subsequently imprisoned, in armed conflicts
- Gender equality and the empowerment of women in natural disasters
- Eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity through the empowerment of women
- Indignenous women: key actors in poverty and hunger eradication
- Women, the girl child and HIV and AIDS
The outcome of the Commission’s consideration of the priority theme takes the form of agreed conclusions, negotiated by all States. The Commission did not adopt agreed conclusions on the priority theme at its fifty-sixth session (see below the comments of Mrs Bachelet on this regard)
UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet, considered the ending of the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women without agreed conclusions “an impasse, which is deeply regrettable”.
Read below the text of her comment on this issue
During this 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, we have witnessed passionate and dynamic discussion with a very high level of participation from governments and civil society.
Unfortunately we have also witnessed an inability to reach consensus on the agreed conclusions on our priority theme, empowering rural women. We have come to an impasse, which is deeply regrettable.
This situation is unfortunate and I would like to express disappointment, disappointment that is shared by many women around the world, especially rural women and girls to whom this session was dedicated.
The discussions during the past two weeks gave us hope that stakeholders were ready to provide both priority attention and much needed resources to further women’s empowerment and gender equality in all its dimensions, including sexual and reproductive health, and access to technology, and other important areas.
I sincerely hope that despite the failure to adopt agreed conclusions Member States will live up to their commitments and responsibilities to improve rural women’s and girls’ lives in all dimensions and ensure their rights.
UN Women stands ready, together with our partners in the UN system, to empower rural women, to provide strong and coherent support to turn the commitments that delegations have mentioned in this session and that remain despite the lack of agreement, into tangible results for women on the ground.
During the session, delegations adopted a number of resolutions on vital matters such as eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity, the key role of indigenous women, and gender equality and the empowerment of women in natural disasters.
I would like to express the hope that we move forward guided by the consensus that has been reached in international agreements over many years regarding women’s rights, as articulated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, and other agreements.
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