CSW60
The 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) kicks off on Monday 14th March to 24th March 2016 in the UN Headquarters, New York. FEMNET will join over 8,000 NGO representatives and governments delegation to discuss and agree on actions for implementing the priority theme women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development, and the review theme on ending violence against women and girls.
Effective participation and contribution by African women’s rights organizations before, during and after the 60th CSW meetings and side events is significant and opportune, as it is happening a few months after the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. Several women’s rights organizations (including FEMNET) were at the helm of mobilizing and facilitating African women and girls’ participation, engagement and influencing of the Post-2015 development agenda discussions and negotiations that culminated in the 2030 Agenda.
The role of women’s rights organizations in the entire follow-up and review architecture of the 2030 Agenda cannot be underscored. This is especially in leveraging their collective power and voice at national and regional spaces to ensure that the global commitments spelt out in the 2030 Agenda translate into evidenced local actions. In addition, the much-needed role of harmonizing accountability mechanisms for the 2030 Agenda with already existing commitments relating to the respect, protection and fulfilment of women’s human rights, such the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa popularly known as ‘Maputo Protocol’, Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Beijing Platform for Action, is one that women’s rights organizations must champion.
In February during the Africa Pre-CSW60 Strategizing meeting, representatives of African women’s rights organizations, CSOs, academia and media working to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa met in Nairobi, Kenya from 10 – 12 February 2016 to develop a common position and roadmap for engaging with African governments prior to, during and after the CSW60 and recommended key policy actions. Click to download, read and share the Policy Recommendations.
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