United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
 
Organization type Subsidiary organ of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
Abbreviation UNCSW
management Mher Margaryan Armenia
ArmeniaArmenia 
status active
Founded June 21, 1946 in New York , USA
Headquarters New York City, USA United States
United StatesUnited States 
Upper organization United NationsU.N. United Nations
UNCSW website

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women , engl. Commission on the Status of Women ( CSW or UNCSW ) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations . The UNCSW describes itself as a UN body with the task of promoting gender equality and the advancement of women. Every year, the representatives of the member states meet at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to evaluate progress in the area of gender equality, to set global standards and specific tasks to promote gender-independent equality and women 's rights worldwide. In April 2017, ECOSOC elected 13 new members to UNCSW for the period 2018–2022. One of the new members is Saudi Arabia , which is heavily criticized for dealing with women's rights in its own country.

The UNCSW is one of the UN commissions that are not only open to states. For example, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can also take part in the meetings and events and organize their own parallel events via the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in New York. This is particularly important for areas with a controversial legal status such as B. Taiwan important, which is not a member of the UN. In recent years, Taiwanese NGOs such as the National Alliance of Taiwan Women's Associations have been able to attend UNCSW meetings.

The UNCSW has developed several landmark conventions and declarations, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979. It initiated the establishment of women-focused organizations such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), both of which later became part of UN Women .

structure

The UNCSW consists of one representative from each of the 45 member states, who are selected by ECOSOC from the total number of UN members according to a representative geographical distribution key: 13 members from Africa, 11 from Asia, 9 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 8 from Western Europe and other countries and 4 from Eastern Europe. The members are elected for a four-year period.

The Presidium (the so-called Bureau ) of the UNCSW plays an important role in the preparation and evaluation of the annual meeting periods. The presidency changes every two years and is always appointed immediately after the end of the previous two-year period. The Armenian Mher Margaryan has headed the organization since 2019.

history

The UN Charter of 1945, which already contained a reference to the goal of equality between men and women, was signed by 160 representatives of the contracting states. Among them were just four women, namely Minerva Bernardino from the Dominican Republic , Virginia Gildersleeve from the USA , Bertha Lutz from Brazil and Wu Yi Fang from China .

On June 21, 1946, the UNCSW was founded as a mechanism to observe and promote the political, economic, civil, social and educational rights of women. A unique institution was created to draw attention to the issues and opportunities of women within the UN. The UNCSW met for the first time in February 1947 in Lake Success , New York. In contrast to other UN bodies, all delegates were women, which was to change in the following years, but women always made up the majority. During the first session, the Commission stated as a key guiding principle

"To improve the situation of women, regardless of nationality, race, language or religion, to achieve equal treatment of men and women in all areas of human activity and to eliminate all discrimination against women in legislation and the administration of justice."

One of the first tasks of the UNCSW was to work on the formulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Commissioners advocated gender-equitable language ; for example, they resisted equating the term " man " with humanity and expressions such as " all men are brothers " and were able to introduce a new, inclusive language into the declaration against resistance from members of the Human Rights Commission .

The fifteen founding members of the CSW

First Tasks and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Immediately after its founding in 1946, the commission began to specifically introduce women's rights on the international stage. This was achieved in a number of ways, first and foremost by collecting data to document discrimination against women. In cooperation with the emerging global women's movement , the UN and UNCSW proclaimed the years 1976 to 1985 as the Decade of Women . During this time reproductive rights became a key issue in the Commission's action plan. In 1981 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) came into force. This convention stipulated that due to the reproductive rights of every human being, reproduction “must not be a basis for discrimination”. The document emphasizes the social importance of motherhood and states that child welfare and maternity protection are integral rights and that these should be extended to all areas of women's lives. CEDAW is the only international human rights treaty that explicitly takes a stand on questions of family planning . It is stated that it is a human right of women “to decide freely and independently about the number and distance of their children and to have free access to education, information and resources in order to be able to exercise these rights”. Each signatory state is obliged to provide educational opportunities for family planning and reproductive rights, including various forms of contraception . Forced abortion or sterilization are prohibited by the treaty. 189 states have signed the treaty. The United States has signed the CEDAW, but is the only industrialized country that has not yet ratified it . The commission subsequently dealt with women's rights and the special focus on reproductive rights in several global conferences. Conferences were held in Mexico City in 1975 , in Copenhagen in 1980 and in Nairobi in 1985 .

The Beijing Declaration

In 1995 the commission led the Fourth World Conference for Action , at which the Beijing Declaration was adopted. This was recognized by the international legal organization Center for Reproductive Rights as "the most extensive articulation of international conventions relating to human rights of women" ". It emphasizes the importance of reproductive rights in family planning legislation and states that it is the right of every woman “to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable family planning methods of their choice, as well as others Methods of regulating fertility according to your choice, provided that they do not violate the law ”. The action plan urges the governments of the contracting states to review criminal law provisions related to abortion, to strengthen family planning and various contraception methods as alternatives to abortion, and to ensure medical quality standards in the implementation of abortion. The action plan also describes a safe and healthy pregnancy as a human right, which must be guaranteed through access to resources and health care for all women regardless of their economic status.

Reproductive Rights in the 21st Century

At the beginning of the new millennium, the CSW campaigned to include the safeguarding of reproductive rights in the international Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In goal complex 5, universal access to reproductive health was then demanded. The availability of contraceptive devices, the birth rate among adolescents, the use of pregnancy care and the lack of access to family planning were determined as parameters. The 57th session in 2013 also highlighted the importance of reproductive rights as a means of combating violence against women. The declaration sees research into systematic factors as possibilities for preventing violence. Recent UNCSW statements reiterate the importance of sex education in securing the reproductive rights of all women.

UNCSW annual reports

literature

  • Rebecca Adami, Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , Routledge, 2018, ISBN 0429795521 , 9780429795527
  • Jain, Devaki, Women, Development, and the UN , Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005
  • Riofrio Bueno Martha de los A., Gender Equality special report of discrimination against indigenous women , UN Security Council, 1998
  • Alston, Phillip, The United Nations and human rights: a critical appraisal , New York, Oxford University Press, 1992

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/7/press-release-commission-on-the-status-of-women-64th-session-concludes accessed on August 28, 2020
  2. ^ Commission on the Status of Women
  3. ↑ UN Elects Saudi Arabia to Women's Rights Commission, For 2018–2022 Term , Launching 2017 Coordination Segment, Economic and Social Council Adopts 10 Decisions, Elects Subsidiary Body Members amid Debate on NGO Participation
  4. ^ UN Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-first session, accessed July 16, 2007
  5. ↑ In 2002, in order to improve its work and ensure continuity, the Commission decided to hold the first meeting of its subsequent session, immediately following the closure of the regular session, for the sole purpose of electing the new Chairperson and other members of the Bureau (Council resolution 46/101).
  6. ↑ Background information based on The United Nations and the Advancement of Women, 1945–1996 from the United Nations Blue Book Series and the United Nations CD-Rom Women Go Global , 2000
  7. ↑ Brief portraits of the " women who shaped the universal declaration of human rights "
  8. ↑ a b c Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women .
  9. ↑ a b c UN General Assembly, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women , December 18, 1979, United Nations Treaty Series , Vol. 1249, p. 13, available at: http://www.refworld.org /docid/3ae6b3970.html, accessed February 22, 2017
  10. ↑ a b Bustelo Carla: Reproductive Health and CEDAW in The American University Law Review , Vol. 44: 1145, pp. 1145-1150, 1995
  11. ↑ https://www.reproductiverights.org/document/cedaw-advances-womens-human-rights CEDAW Advances Women's Human Rights dated February 20, 2014, accessed on December 15, 2018
  12. ↑ a b http://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/intergovernmental-support/world-conferences-on-women World Conferences on Women , accessed on March 1, 2017
  13. ↑ https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/index.html Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995 , accessed on February 22, 2017
  14. ↑ http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/health.htm
  15. ^ BEIJING + 15 No Equality Without Full Enjoyment of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights .
  16. ↑ a b c United Nations, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, October 27, 1995 . Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  17. ↑ Expanding Millennium Development Goal 5: Universal access to reproductive health by 2015 .
  18. ↑ UN report on the expert meeting on prevention of violence against women and girls 2012, accessed on February 28, 2013
  19. ^ Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls 2013 Commission on the Status of Women Agreed Conclusions .
  20. ^ Lederer, EM (2014, Mar 23). UN document promotes equality for women; it reaffirms their sexual and reproductive rights, endorses sex education for adolescents. St. Louis Post - Dispatch Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1509322389
United Nations system
Main organs

General Assembly • Security Council • Economic and Social Council • UN Secretariat • Secretary • International Court of Justice • International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea • High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) • High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)

Programs

FAO • ICAO • IFAD • ILO • IMO • IOM • ITC • ITU • UNAIDS • SCSL (RSCSL) • UNCTAD • UNCITRAL • UNCDF • UNDAP • UNDG • UNDP • UNDGC • DPKO • UNEP • UNESCO • UNFIP • UNFPA • UN-HABITAT • UNHRC • UNICEF • UNICRI • UNIDIR • UNITAR • UN-O • OCHA • UNODC • UNOPS • UNOSAT • UNRISD • UNRWA • UNU • UNV • UN Women • UNWTO • UPU • WFP • WHO • WIPO • WMO