On Friday, March 23, the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women concluded in New York. Equipop followed the negotiations in a new context, particularly due to the conservative stance taken by the US government.
Once again this year, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was the major international event focusing on gender equality issues. Beyond sharing experiences on a predefined theme, which this year was "Challenges and opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls," the main challenge remains, year after year, to assess diplomatic power relations.
In line with the 2017 negotiations, the United States announced very early on that it would take a more conservative stance than in the past, not only on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), but also on comprehensive sexuality education and climate change. Nevertheless, a consensus was reached among the member states of this UN commission and,for the first time in five years, all the paragraphs of the text were agreed "ad ref": that is to say, all member states were satisfied with the wording of the paragraphs.
The international feminist civil society welcomes the fact that these conclusions contain strong language on women human rights defenders and recognition of the diversity of women and girls around the world. However, sexual rights are still not part of the agreed language, and the conclusions of this 62nd CSW have even taken a step backward, confining sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights to the Cairo and Beijing Conferences, thereby limiting countries' flexibility to address issues not covered by these conferences and their review conferences.
On the French side, this CSW was an opportunity to deliver a powerful speech in favor of women's rights, which shifted the boundaries: terms such as "human rights," "feminist diplomacy," and "right to abortion" were uttered on the international stage. This proactive speech was both essential and courageous: it highlighted important issues and denounced the attitude of certain conservative countries. France also took advantage of this speech to announce a €10 million contribution to the She Decides initiative. It would appear that this funding is not additional, but Equipop welcomes the government's effort to accurately account for SRHR-related items.
Photo credit: UNWomen
