By:Susan O’Malley

IFBPWC UN Representative NGO CSW/NY, Chair ex officio Professor Emerita, City University of New York UNChair@nfbpwc.orgsusanomalley4@gmail.com

IFBPW Summits CSW68 Statement to UN Women

NGOs in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council

(ECOSOC) may submit written statements on the thematic issues considered by CSW68, in accordance with Council resolution 1996/31. IFBPW President Catherine Bosshart submitted our Statement on October 13. It is attached below.

• The Priority Theme for CSW68 is “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.”

• The Review Theme is “Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for

gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (agreed conclusionsof the sixty-third session.”)

The active participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a critical element in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). NGOs have been influential in shaping the current global policy framework on women’s empowerment and gender equality: the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. They continue to play an important role in holding international and national leaders accountable for the commitments they made in the Platform for Action.

To prepare the CSW68 Statement, Chularat Israngkool, 1^st VP for UN with her UN Committee, gathered material from BPW members and prepared a first draft. Helena Finn, Chair of the UN IFBPW Representatives, helped with this process. Then it was sent to me to edit. I recognized excellent material from Lesha Witmer, Tess Mateo, and Marie-Claude. (There were other excellent contributors too. The material did not include names of the contributors as no names are allowed in the CSW68 Statement.) President Bosshart reviewed the final document, and we both gathered names of ECOSOC-accredited NGOs to sign on to our CSW68 Statement.

CSW 68 Parallel Events Information

Applications for CSW 68 Parallel Events are now open. The deadline is 4 December. IFBPW may submit only one in person parallel event but multiple virtual parallel events. Consult the NGO CSW 68 information on the NGO CSW/NY Website.

If you have questions, you may email me at susanomalley4@gmail.com. I will go over your parallel event submission if you have questions.

Click on the image below to open the PDF Statement, or click HERE.