The 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. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide. In April 2017, ECOSOC elected 13 new members to CSW for a four-year term 2018–2022. One of the new members is Saudi Arabia, which has been criticised for its treatment of women.
UN agencies actively followed their mandates to bring women into development approaches and programs and conferences. Women participate at the prepcoms, design strategy, hold caucus meetings, network about the various agenda items being negotiated in various committees, and work as informed lobbyists at conferences themselves. The CSW is one of the commissions of the UN that do not limit participation to states only. For example, NGOs are also allowed to participate in sessions of the CSW, attending caucuses and panels and organizing their own parallel events through the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY). This is particularly important for contested territories such as Taiwan, which is not a member of the UN. In the past few years, NGOs from Taiwan (such as the National Alliance of Taiwan Women's Associations) have been able to participate in the CSW sessions.
CSW consists of one representative from each of the 45 Member States elected by ECOSOC on the basis of equitable geographical distribution: 13 members from Africa; 11 from Asia; 9 from Latin America and Caribbean; 8 from Western Europe and other States and 4 from Eastern Europe. Members are elected for four-year terms. Among its activities, the CSW has drafted several conventions and declarations, including the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 1967 and women-focused agencies such as UNIFEM and INSTRAW. The commission's priority theme for its 57th session (57th session) was the "elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls". Ahead of that, an Expert Group Meeting (EGM): prevention of violence against women and girls was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 17 to 20 September 2012.
History
The UNCSW was established in 1946 as a mechanism to promote, report on and monitor issues relating to the political, economic, civil, social and educational rights of women. It was a unique official structure for drawing attention to women's concerns and leadership within the UN. UNCSW first met at Lake Success, New York, in February 1947. All 15 government representatives were women, which distinguished UNCSW from other UN movements, and UNCSW has continued to maintain a majority of women delegates. During its first session, the Commission declared as one of its guiding principles:
to raise the status of women, irrespective of nationality, race, language or religion, to equality with men in all fields of human enterprise, and to eliminate all discrimination against women in the provisions of statutory law, in legal maxims or rules, or in interpretation of customary law.
One of UNCSW's first tasks was to contribute to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Commission members inserted gender-sensitive language — arguing against references to "men" as a synonym for humanity and phrases like "men are brothers". They received resistance from members of the Commission on Human Rights, but succeeded in introducing new, inclusive language.
Original members
The first session (1947) had 15 members/delegates in attendance, all women: Jessie Mary Grey Street, Australia Evdokia Uralova, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Zee Yuh-tsung, China (at the time the Republic) Graciela Morales F. de Echeverria, Costa Rica Bodil Begtrup, Denmark Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux, France Sara Basterrechea Ramirez, Guatemala Shareefah Hamid Ali, India Amalia C. de Castillo Ledón, Mexico Alice Kandalft Cosma, Syria Mihri Pektaş, Turkey Elizavieta Alekseevna Popova, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Mary Sutherland, United Kingdom Dorothy Kenyon, United States of America Isabel de Urdaneta, Venezuela