[CSW66] Looking Forward: Renewed UN CSW Initiatives on Sustainability and Women Empowerment

Written by: Emily Ekshian

The UN Commission on the Status of Women met on March 25, as a follow-up to the Economic and Social Council’s resolutions and decisions made in the previous week. The Commission discussed a list of commitments moving forward with gender equality, female empowerment and sustainability.

The meeting was part of the sixty-sixth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, that took place from the March 14 to 25, 2022. The priority theme of the session was "achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.”

The Commission on the Status of Women is the primary global body that is specifically geared toward promoting gender equality for empowering women. The commission was established in 1946, as a part of the functions of the Economic and Social Council of the UN. It has been instrumental in promoting women's rights, especially by closely observing and documenting the reality of women's lives throughout all corners of the world. In doing so, the commission has successfully been able to shape the global standards on gender equality to empower women in the context of climate action.

The meeting covered how to empower all women and girls in the context of climate change, and environmental disaster risk reduction policies and programs. The Commission specifically discussed and approved the first-ever draft agreed conclusions on this topic.

The agreed conclusions offer several observations and recommendations for ensuring an inclusive progress of sustaining resiliency and recovery of the environment.

The Commission remained concerned that all females - women and girls - that dwell in developing countries and states, are disproportionately affected by the adverse impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters.

Therefore, the Commission emphasized the urgency for dissolving and eliminating persistent inequalities both historical and highly structural in nature. These inequalities include racism, stigmatization and xenophobia, among others like gender power dynamics, gender stereotypes, and gernder-based violence.

To address these prevailing issues, the Commission approved a range of solutions in the agreed conclusions. It called for creating space for youth, especially young women and girls, to participate in shaping the decisions on climate change. This is because climate change will have a direct impact on their futures. Another recommendation was to focus on enhancing the quality of academics throughout all levels of education.

It also called for strengthening access to gender-responsive, safe, accessible, and inclusive health-care services, while also ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services.

The Commission also urged governments to take action toward strengthening legal and regulatory frameworks and integrating gender perspectives into climate change policies and programs.

Every week, around 5,000 women become infected with HIV globally. Therefore, the Commission also discussed matters of health and sustainability pertaining to HIV health programs and education initiatives.

According to the Vice President of the Commission and Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN, H.E. Antje Leendertse, “Today we are adopting the agreed conclusions of the 66th CSW on the priority theme of achieving gender equality, and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs...This is the first time we address the nexus of gender equality and climate change,” and reorient gears towards stabilizing the relationships between empowering women and girls amidst a global climate disaster.

Delegates worked together on an action oriented proposal to mitigate the negative impacts of the climate crisis on women and girls. The climate crisis is sought to be addressed at the international, national and regional levels. The distinguished representative of the United States said, “We believe that it is critical to emphasize this leadership role not only in governmental and other formal decision making bodies, but also in on-the-ground settings facilitated by women-led grassroots organizations and initiatives, programs and enterprises.” Here, she recognized the importance of the ideological application of sustainable development and gender equality, within the governmental and nongovernmental sectors.

The representative of Liechtenstein said, “In the Beijing Declaration we all agreed that women’s rights are human rights. We are reassured that the agreed conclusions before us reaffirm the Beijing Declaration and acknowledge the human rights of all women and girls.'' She also emphasized her satisfaction with the reaffirmed mutually reinforcing relationship between the Beijing Declaration and the UN 2030 Agenda on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The UN sees climate change as an existential threat and one of three biggest challenges of our time. Gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is a cross-cutting issue and integral to making progress across all SDG targets.

At the conclusion of Friday’s meeting, the Commission emphasized and came to a consensus on the importance of sustaining a clean and healthy environment, and how to prevent the climate crisis from disproportionately impacting women and girls. The Commission would now focus on eliminating discrimination for women and girls in all of their diversity, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, sexual and gender based violence, and women peace and security within the context of the climate crisis.