Womankind Worldwide statement following the Commission on the Status of Women, 67th Session (CSW67)

March saw the convening of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women – the main intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and women’s rights. Womankind Worldwide has reflected on its attendance at this year’s session and issues this response to its outcomes.

Given our strategic focus, our participation at the event and the importance of the issues at hand, Womankind eagerly awaited CSW67’s Agreed Conclusions around the theme Innovation and Technological Change and Education in the Digital Age for Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls.

Womankind stands alongside the Women’s Rights Caucus (WRC) – a global intersectional and inclusive coalition of more than 200 feminist organisations, networks, and collectives that advocates for gender equality at the United Nations, of which we are a part – in welcoming the adoption of these Agreed Conclusions (see the WRC’s full response here).

The Commission reaffirmed the commitments it made within the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and in other documents and spaces towards gender equality and the rights of women and girls and stressed the need to further strengthen their implementation.

Womankind endorses this reaffirmation in the face of sustained rollback on the rights of diverse women and girls across the world and welcomes the commitment to a rights-based approach towards realising gender equality and addressing violence against women and girls.

We also support the emphasis on the need to ensure every person can participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development and fully realise their civil, political, economic and social rights in the context of innovation and change in the digital age.

We also welcome the recognition in the Agreed Conclusions of:

• The need for open, secure, stable, and accessible and affordable information and communications technology environment for all women and girls.
• Strong focus on policy actions for the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence, including gender-based violence that occurs through or is amplified by the use of technologies.
• The critical role digital platforms can play as spaces where all women can advocate, mobilise and participate fully, equally, and meaningfully in public life. 

Condemnation of coordinated pushback from regressive governments

Womankind recognises CSW67 took place against the backdrop of continued backlash against women’s rights globally, from increased violence against women in the public space, to the gender impacts of the earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye, to the daily horror that women and girls face in emergency and crisis settings including in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran and the continued infringement of the rights of women and girls with due regard to their bodily autonomy and integrity.

With great dismay, we noted and condemn the coordinated pushback from regressive governments against the advancement of the gender equality agenda witnessed in this year’s negotiations, attempting to roll back long-standing agreements in the context of CSW – further evidence of the shrinking civic space when it comes to gender equality.

A free, fair, feminist internet

Womankind joins with other organisations who attended CSW in calling for universal access to a free, fair, feminist internet. There is a stark gender digital divide – with certain groups, including rural and disabled women, facing barriers to accessing the internet, technology knowledge and opportunities.

Especially in low-income settings, girls have less access to the internet and fewer opportunities to acquire digital skills. It is vitally important to close the gender gap in technology and innovation. If digital transformation is to benefit everybody.

Visa justice and rotation of CSW venue

Womankind and our partners also call for visa justice and for the rotation of the location of CSW—including to locations in the Global South. We share the WRC’s concerns about increasing challenges to civil society participation in the CSW and other UN spaces, including difficulties with processing and approval of non-immigration visas for those attending CSW in person, especially for those coming from marginalised groups and Global South countries.

Alongside WRC, we call on all actors involved, and in particular the USA as host country, to adequately address this question for next year’s CSW and all gender equality events held at the UN. 

Our commitment to partnership

CSW exemplifies Womankind’s commitment to partnership and to Global South voices being heard through meaningful participation globally, regionally, nationally and locally.

Womankind joined together with representatives from six Global South partner organisations at CSW67 – EWDNA, FIDA- Kenya, FOWODE, NUWODU, SWDA, Women Challenged to Challenge – to carry out joint advocacy to take forward our shared interests and objectives as part of the AWESOME consortium to is in line with our strategic goal to: Influence the Agenda.

A major highlight of CSW for Womankind was our event with our partners on the AWESOME project on 15th March: Rural Girls’ and Women’s Feminist Movement Strengthening. Women’s rights organisations from the Global South shared their experiences of working with rural women from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, from an intersectional feminist movement strengthening perspective.

For more information on this statement or for media enquiries, please contact Chris McWilliams on chrism@womankind.org.uk