Collected by Grove Harris, TOU UN Representative
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) in NYC is an incredible opportunity for connecting with others doing advocacy around the globe. So many of the sessions offer truly inspirational resources and are crucial for the systemic transformations we need. From systemic survivor-centered approaches to ending trafficking in sexual exploitation, to critique of the Vatican, to art as a form of healing, to an overarching strategy to meet the Sustainable Development Goals within planetary boundaries, to the concurrent environment assembly in Nairobi, incredibly diverse efforts to reshape our world in more just and sustainable ways are happening.
Sex Trafficking
Our colleagues at Mercy International Association released Inherent Dignity: an Advocacy Guidebook to preventing trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and to realizing the human rights of women and girls throughout their lives.
This work gets at the systemic causes and promotes transformation. Listening to survivors is key to their systemic approach, which was beautifully demonstrated at their session at the CSW63. Their advocacy guide, available in its entirety online, is a comprehensive and accessible tool to move us forward toward ending human trafficking.
From the forward:
A human rights approach to trafficking means that all those involved in anti-trafficking efforts – from law enforcement agencies to victim service providers – should integrate human rights into their analysis of the problem and into their responses. This approach requires us to be rigorous in considering, at each and every stage, the impact that a law, policy, practice or measure may have on women and girls who have been trafficked or are at risk of being trafficked. It means embracing responses that empower and protect. Critically, it also means rejecting responses that risk compromising rights and freedoms. A useful example of this risk is the still-common practice of detaining women victims of trafficking in shelters. While there may be good reasons to seek to protect trafficked women from further harm, denying adult victims their right to freedom of movement in this way is not in keeping with a human rights approach.
The trafficking of women for sexual exploitation is a global wrong that implicates us all. But like so many challenges facing our fractured, troubled world, it is not amenable to a quick, technical fix. More than money or expertise, an end to the exploitation of human beings for private profit requires moral and spiritual leadership – it requires us all to stand up and say “this is wrong, this must stop”.
From 1.5:
Survivors of trafficking report that they were victimized from childhood to early adulthood, making them prey to traffickers. Their opportunities for decent work were severely limited, as were the supervision and support provided by their families, their safety at home and in the community, and their education. These precursors to trafficking all reflect a more sinister and structural oppression in which girls and women are made vulnerable to predators. Understanding systemic victimization over the life course is key to a holistic and preventative approach to human trafficking.
Catholics for Human Rights
Another CSW63 parallel event featured a panel of powerful speakers, a coalition of Catholics for Human Rights. It was followed by an afternoon forum for further discussion on abuses, harm reduction and healing. According to their press release, they discussed
the central role the Holy See has played in obstructing any progress by the CSW in many areas of human rights, including in sexual and reproductive rights, and how the Holy See as a religious body exceeds their powers at the CSW and at the UN. In part, this is manifested by not complying with treaties related to the treatment of women and children, as well as to condemning and denying rights of those the committee is dedicated to protecting, from women and children to LGBTQ people.
Gender and Science, Technology, and Innovation
A side CSW63 event on Gender and Science, Technology, and Innovation: UN Initiatives offered a panel of women speakers on topics such as investing financially in women and encouraging women to register patents, on employment pathways such as “African Girls Can Code,” and on other ways that women need to “redesign the table” rather than simply sue for inclusion. At that session, Chantal Line Carpentier of UNCTAD mentioned an important strategic report about our way forward to sustainability, written for the Club of Rome, October, 2018. The report lays out four pathways – “same,” “faster,” “harder and smarter,” and finally simply “smarter,” a much more compelling option.
Excerpts from the executive summary:
This is the world’s first study – to our knowledge – on how to optimally achieve all SDGs within all PBs through an integrated Global System Model. We find that a piecemeal approach to attaining the goals sets up trade-offs and conflict among goals. The pursuit of each and all SDGs is necessary, but not sufficient to succeed in the longer run, and potentially even counterproductive. A transformational approach to SDG achievement is needed. The elements of this transformation are presented in our scenario 4) but further analysis and modelling are needed to support the necessary changes worldwide.
It seems necessary to implement transformational and extraordinary policy changes, in order to achieve near full success of SDGs within PBs. These policies need to go well beyond the conventional policy toolbox. …
2. Transformative change is possible, through five strategies that seem to be powerful ways to reach most SDGs within most PBs. The five measures are:
1) accelerated renewable energy growth sufficient to halve carbon emissions every decade,
2) accelerated productivity in sustainable food chains,
3) new development models in the poor countries,
4) unprecedented inequality reduction, and
5) investment in education for all, gender equality, health, family planning.The choice is the simplest way we have found to achieve all SDGs both social and environmental. They represent five “leverage points” to intervene in the globally interconnected geo-bio-socio-economic system. Together, they are capable of shifting the global system onto a new path in the decades ahead.
Women, Girls, and Families
Not all CSW63 sessions are as rigorously intellectual; blessedly, for example, there was a parallel event on art as a tool for self-esteem and healing for girls in Rwanda and Haiti.
The Temple was also present at a strategy session with UN Women, where we learned of their forthcoming edition of Progress of the World’s Women (June 2019) which will focus on the theme of “Families in a Changing World.” Note that it is families plural, which indicates a feminist perspective that there are diverse forms of families, all of which need respect and support. It is anticipated that the data shows about 25% of families are currently in the “nuclear” model. Other family forms include single-headed households, multi-generational families (more than two generations), and family structures impacted by migration.
Interfaith Climate Advocacy at UNEA
At the same time as the CSW63 in New York City, the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) took place in Nairobi. Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, the acting Director-General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi and Executive Director of UN Habitat opened the session:
“The theme of this Assembly – ‘Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production’ – is both timely and relevant. Changing today’s unsustainable consumption and production patterns, including through innovation and creative approaches, is essential if we are to succeed in tackling the mounting environmental challenges facing our world.”
You can review her statement and those by other opening plenary speakers, regional and political groups, and national statements online.
The interfaith presence at CSW63 was strong through our colleagues on the Parliament’s Climate Task Force. The TOU has been consulting with the Climate Task Force as it gains in strength.