[Brussels, 01 February 2012] The fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) started on Monday 27 February 2012 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The annual meeting of the principal global policy-making body dedicated to gender equality and advancement of women will continue until the 09 March.
Like every year, the CSW gathers thousands of women’s organisations, activists and representatives of Member States to discuss women’s rights in an international context. This year’s priority theme is ‘The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges’. The CSW also engages with one review theme, which this year is ‘Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women’ – a theme of crucial importance to the EWL and its members.
Several EWL members will be present at the CSW to present their views, network with other NGOs, build alliances and exchange good practices and information.
The European Commission is also active and has organised a side event on the emerging issue of the CSW ‘Engaging young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality’.
Viviane Teitelbaum, EWL Board member for Belgium, was amongst the key speakers and presented EWL’s position on the role of men in achieving gender equality. EWL’s position builds on its 2004 position paper on the issue and on the October 2011 seminar about men and masculinity. Also the second edition of the EWL’s thematic magazine, European Women’s Voice, is dedicated to this emerging issue. The EWL hopes that its recommendations will be taken forward by the European Commission, which is currently developing a project on the role of men in promoting gender equality.
The priority theme of the 2013 CSW will be ‘Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls’.
