What is CSW?
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. It is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women.
CSW holds an annual two-week session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, typically in March. During this session, representatives of UN Member States, UN entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world gather to discuss progress and challenges in achieving gender equality and women empowerment.
CSW68
The theme of the 68th session of CSW was “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies, and programs.” This theme highlighted the intersectional nature of gender equality and the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on women and girls, particularly in vulnerable and marginalized communities. The discussions at CSW68 focused on strategies to address these challenges and empower women and girls to participate fully in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and environmental risks, they also highlighted AI’s potential to analyze complex data sets and identify gender-specific impacts of these challenges, aiding in the development of targeted policies and programs.
The key issues and goals of this session were:
- Examine how current economic, ecological, and geo-political crises impact women and girls and the need for reform of the international financial architecture to respond to multiple crises.
- Address poverty and share good practices for strengthening institutions and maximizing financing to achieve gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment.
- Analyze the use of artificial intelligence to advance gender equality, focusing on the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in this context.
- Enhance social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and resource mobilization.
- The key outcomes of the CSW68 highlighted the need for a comprehensive approach to sustainable development, integrating gender perspectives into all policies and programs. It recognized the disproportionate impact of poverty on women and girls, particularly concerning access to resources, education and decision-making.
The Commission also addressed the intersectionality of gender inequality with other forms of discrimination by :
- Emphasizing the urgent need to address violence against women and girls, including online gender-based violence.
- Acknowledging the critical role of women in climate action, peacebuilding, and security.
- Calling for greater efforts to ensure their full participation and rights.
- Shining a light on the importance of education, health, social protection, and digital inclusion in empowering women and girls and eradicating poverty and inequality.
SRHRJ at the CSW68
Some of the agreed conclusions from CSW68 related to women’s and girls’ health and well-being, specifically Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), were:
- Take concrete measures to realize the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health for all women and girls, reduce out-of-pocket spending that further exacerbates the situation of women experiencing poverty and ensure access to, including through universally accessible primary health care and support services and social protection mechanisms, gender-responsive, safe, available, affordable, accessible, quality and inclusive health-care services, including those related to mental health, maternal and neonatal health, menstrual health and hygiene management, and all communicable and non-communicable diseases and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education.
- Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences, including universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes, and recognizing that the human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on all matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, as a contribution to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and the realization of their human rights, including in addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.
- Increase financial investments in quality, affordable, resilient and accessible public health-care systems and facilities, and in safe, effective, quality, essential and affordable health-care services, including preventive, diagnostic, curative and rehabilitation services, and sexual and reproductive health-care services, as well as in health technologies, including digital health technologies and digital tools developed for women’s and girls’ health and well-being; promote decent work with adequate remuneration for women working in the health and social sectors, effective retention and 19 equitable and broad distribution of the health workforce, and in capacities to optimize the existing health workforce; address all rare, communicable and non-communicable diseases, including HIV and AIDS, and waterborne and neglected tropical diseases, and provide information on nutrition and healthy lifestyles, including through community outreach and private sector engagement, and with the support of the international community, with a view to supporting each country’s path towards achieving universal health coverage for all women and girls, including those living in Poverty.
- Develop policies and programmes with the support, where appropriate, of international organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations, giving priority to formal, informal and non-formal education programmes, including scientifically accurate and age-appropriate comprehensive education that is relevant to cultural contexts and that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, and with appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians and with the best interests of the child as their basic concern, with information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, physical, psychological and pubertal development and power in relationships between women and men, to enable them to build self-esteem and foster informed decision-making, communication and risk-reduction skills and to develop respectful relationships, in full partnership with young persons, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators and health-care providers, in order to, inter alia, enable them to protect themselves from HIV infection and other risks.