ICJW will be actively involved in the 64^th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64), which will be held at the UN Headquarters in New York from March 9-20 2020.

This will be an important session marking 25 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women held in China in 1995, which ended with the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA). This document has guided CSW programs for the past 25 years.

Madeleine Brecher, ICJW’s Representative on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) Committee, explains that the Generation Equality Forum – a global civil society led initiative with two major meetings in Mexico in May 2020 and Paris in July 2020 – and the CSW64 event in March 2020, will look back at the past 25 years to evaluate progress, as well as looking forward to determine concrete actions for gender equality. 

UN Women is convening the Generation Equality Forum as a multi-stakeholder gathering which will be co-chaired by France and Mexico in partnership with global civil society. The theme of the Generation Equality Forum is ‘Realizing Women’s Rights for an Equal Future’. The governance structure consists of UN Women, representatives from France and Mexico, and many advisory groups of civil society members, who will have input in decision-making and all aspects of the recommendations, that will ultimately be brought to the General Assembly in September 2020 for action by member states. This inclusive structure will champion civil society’s vision and expected outcomes of the Beijing+25 process.

This will be a very busy and exciting time for all civil society, most especially NGO CSW NY, which will once again be responsible for organizing all grassroots women coming to NY in March for CSW64, where they are expecting 15,000-20,000 visitors from around the world.  NGO CSW/NY has already begun planning the events that will take place at this grassroots forum in NY from March 9-20, 2020.

As every year, there will be a team of women attending CSW to represent ICJW, which is an NGO with Consultative Status in ECOSOC. The ICJW UN team is planning two very exciting parallel events and a special luncheon for our delegates. There will be a Networking Reception for 500 global women at the New Yorker Hotel on Tuesday evening March 10, which will be co-chaired by ICJW representative Madeleine Brecher. In addition, there are hundreds of relevant parallel events each day, organized by member states and NGOs, and an opportunity to meet the most extraordinary delegates from around the world who are advocating for gender equality and women’s empowerment.