The Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations is preparing to welcome Presbyterian participants for theCommission on the Status of Women from February 22 through March 4. Presbyterian Women is a key partner in this event.
The Commission on the Status of Women is dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.
This year's commission will address the theme - "access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work."
Presbyterians will gather with women and men from around the world - meeting, networking, sharing stories and ideas, and building community. They will worship, learn, and advocate as the commission works on agreed conclusions - recommendations for ways the nations of the world can work to promote the equality and advancement of women.
Watch Swords into Plowshares, the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations Facebook page, Presbyterian Women's Web page and Facebook pagefor stories about the Commission on the Status of Women
By Mark Koenig, Director of The Presbyterian Ministry at the UN, cross-posted from Swords into Plowshares
2 comments:
If you are looking for a speaker for one of your gatherings during your next program year, see if someone in your synod has attended this UN meeting. (We will get the names out to Synod PW.)
PW has been doing this for six years, and it is fascinating to learn how nations everywhere are being challenged to pay attention to women's rights. The UN Commission on the Status of Women was created just after the Declaration of Human Rights (1946) said women had human rights! It still is a struggle for women in many countries where cultural traditions prevent them from becoming full partners in their societies.
We have heard about some amazing successes and also some horrendous abuses. PW works with Ecumenical Women to advocate for the strongest possible wording of the Agreed Conclusions prepared annually by the CSW. This document sets the standards for the treatment of women everywhere. We will try to keep you posted here as we attend the meeting this year, but consider hearing the first hand experience from someone who has actually been to the UN for this meeting.
The activities of the UN Commission on the Status of Women began today for Ecumenical Women of which Presbyterian Women and other Presbyterians here are a part. A day-long orientation was designed to build connections among the women who have come from all over the world and to ready us to be advocates for women during the two weeks of the CSW.
The Presbyterian group this year includes Milcah Lalam from the world's newest country, South Sudan. She is here to share stories of her work on reconciliation between women in several tribes. Readers of Horizons magazine will recognize her story and know of the support Presbyterian Women has given to her work.
Our day was set in the context of the first verses of Genesis,when the wind/Spirit/ruah of God spread over the face of the deep.
Sharing our stories was important throughout the day as was reflection on what we had heard. We considered the ways in which our stories were similar and how they were different as well.
We moved then to conversations about how we can advocate for women. We reviewed the draft of Ecumencial Women's statement regarding the theme of this CSW: access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and techbnology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work.
We also reviewed talking points for EW's advocacy efforts to impact the Agreed Conclusions, the document that is the outcome of this session of the CSW. We considered the draft of the Agreed Conclusions and asked ourselves what was missing.
During our closing worship we decorated a windmill (technology) with small pieces of paper, notes commenting on our reactions we had to all we'd heard during the day. There was continued talk about the Spirit, the breath of God and the scripture was read in many of the world's languages. We left singing, "We are marching in the light of God."
Conversations continued during a reception and the Presbyterians met to get acquainted, welcoming two Presbyterian women leaders from New Zealand and young Presbyterian Women here with scholarships from the National
Council of Churches and others.
Tomorrow we will attend the Consultations sponsored by the CSW/NGO committee and will hear from the Under Secretary General for UN Women.
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