Yesterday at the very well-attended CSW IWD event, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Under Secretary- General and Executive Director of UN Women and the Chair of CSW56 Marjon Kamara spoke about the importance of IWD, CSW and working towards gender equality. It was wonderful to hear from the Secretary-General about how high a priority empowering women and girls is for him, and that this has been a high priority since day one of being S-G. And, the S-G is committed to ensuring that the UN leads by example by having a good representation of women working at all levels throughout the organisation.
As some of you may have seen from my tweets, the S-G believes that improvements in gender equality are necessary throughout the world, and he is regularly updated on the numbers of girls in schools, right up to the numbers of women in executive and board positions in different countries and brings this up with leaders. He also emphasised the need to focus on empowering rural women, recognising that barriers holding back rural women from reaching their full potential are detrimental to entire communities and nations. Similarly, Marjon Kamara and Michelle Bachelet recognised the importance of empowering women, particularly rural women, recognising them as economic agents and as a critical part of efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Most importantly, yesterday’s panel emphasised the importance on IWD to celebrate the achievements that have been made and recognise all the work that is being done by individuals, NGOs, private sector organisations and governments throughout the world to empower and improve the lives of women and girls. So to that, I would like to recognise Julie, all of the UN Women Australia staff, board members and volunteers for all their hard work, dedication and brilliance. And to all of you for reading these posts and following me on this CSW journey!
In a separate session on IWD, I attended an event called ‘Change Makers and Peacekeepers’ about the representation of women in the military and peacekeeping. It was enlightening to hear from an Admiral of the US Navy, accompanied by a number of female naval officers in very high rank, non-traditional positions, about the gender evolution that is taking place in the Navy. There are now 55000 women serving throughout 93% of the units in the US Navy and great emphasis has been put on changing the culture in the Navy to recruit, retain and support women in the Navy. This includes ensuring women are in high-level and visible leadership positions to both be involved in decision-making and determine acceptable behaviours towards women; provision of mentoring for young female officers; and implementing life-work integration policies such as options for a 3 year sabbatical, a 1 year deferment of operational duties after having a baby, paternity leave and provision of childcare. Indeed, my favourite quote of the session demonstrated the focus that is being put on family-friendly policies: ‘It should not be about the Navy or my family, but it should be about the Navy and my family’.
Unfortunately, however, this increase in the numbers of women working throughout the US Navy is not consistent in peacekeeping and negotiation roles – less than 4% of peace negotiators and less than 2% of signatories to peace agreements have been women. Indeed the UN has never had a woman as a chief mediator. The panel promoted the benefits of having women involved in peacekeeping roles, in particular because of their ability to bring particular gender and cultural sensitivity to the process. As such, it was strongly advocated that a critical mass of women in military and peacekeeping throughout the world should be pursued, and to achieve this it may be necessary to ‘raise the floor as well as break the glass ceiling’.
Happy IWD everyone!

Yesterday at the very well-attended CSW IWD event, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Under Secretary- General and Executive Director of UN Women and the Chair of CSW56 Marjon Kamara spoke about the importance of IWD, CSW and working towards gender equality. It was wonderful to hear from the Secretary-General about how high a priority empowering women and girls is for him, and that this has been a high priority since day one of being S-G. And, the S-G is committed to ensuring that the UN leads by example by having a good representation of women working at all levels throughout the organisation.
As some of you may have seen from my tweets, the S-G believes that improvements in gender equality are necessary throughout the world, and he is regularly updated on the numbers of girls in schools, right up to the numbers of women in executive and board positions in different countries and brings this up with leaders. He also emphasised the need to focus on empowering rural women, recognising that barriers holding back rural women from reaching their full potential are detrimental to entire communities and nations. Similarly, Marjon Kamara and Michelle Bachelet recognised the importance of empowering women, particularly rural women, recognising them as economic agents and as a critical part of efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Most importantly, yesterday’s panel emphasised the importance on IWD to celebrate the achievements that have been made and recognise all the work that is being done by individuals, NGOs, private sector organisations and governments throughout the world to empower and improve the lives of women and girls. So to that, I would like to recognise Julie, all of the UN Women Australia staff, board members and volunteers for all their hard work, dedication and brilliance. And to all of you for reading these posts and following me on this CSW journey!
In a separate session on IWD, I attended an event called ‘Change Makers and Peacekeepers’ about the representation of women in the military and peacekeeping. It was enlightening to hear from an Admiral of the US Navy, accompanied by a number of female naval officers in very high rank, non-traditional positions, about the gender evolution that is taking place in the Navy. There are now 55000 women serving throughout 93% of the units in the US Navy and great emphasis has been put on changing the culture in the Navy to recruit, retain and support women in the Navy. This includes ensuring women are in high-level and visible leadership positions to both be involved in decision-making and determine acceptable behaviours towards women; provision of mentoring for young female officers; and implementing life-work integration policies such as options for a 3 year sabbatical, a 1 year deferment of operational duties after having a baby, paternity leave and provision of childcare. Indeed, my favourite quote of the session demonstrated the focus that is being put on family-friendly policies: ‘It should not be about the Navy or my family, but it should be about the Navy and my family’.
Unfortunately, however, this increase in the numbers of women working throughout the US Navy is not consistent in peacekeeping and negotiation roles – less than 4% of peace negotiators and less than 2% of signatories to peace agreements have been women. Indeed the UN has never had a woman as a chief mediator. The panel promoted the benefits of having women involved in peacekeeping roles, in particular because of their ability to bring particular gender and cultural sensitivity to the process. As such, it was strongly advocated that a critical mass of women in military and peacekeeping throughout the world should be pursued, and to achieve this it may be necessary to ‘raise the floor as well as break the glass ceiling’.
Happy IWD everyone!

A great number of events at CSW56 have focused on domestic violence. These events and the related discussions are particularly significant in preparing for CSW57 where the priority theme will be domestic violence.

In many, many countries, particularly developing countries where paternalistic hierarchies dominate and the educational levels of women are low, the rates of domestic violence are very high. And not surprisingly, the difficulty in accessing services and support in rural areas create additional hardship for women experiencing domestic violence in rural areas of developing countries. However, by no means has the fight been won in developing countries like Australia. Indeed, I was shocked during my consultations with young women throughout Australia prior to CSW to learn how prevalent domestic violence is among young women, how many young women have friends in their close circles that are in violent relationships and how big a concern it still is.

One of the most powerful and emotional experiences I have had at CSW56 is meeting and listening to two women, Catherine and Vicki, a mother and daughter from rural Australia, who are here with the support of Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Liz Broderick, to share their experience of domestic violence. Catherine and Vicki shared with us their suffering, their harrowing story about the difficulties they and their families have had with authorities in Australia over a period of more than 30 years, and their fight for justice. A key factor in the difficulties that they faced were as a result of living in rural and remote areas, where services, including policing, were not adequate or easily accessible. And such shortages continue today – as exlpained by Catherine who, since sharing her story in Australia, has been contacted by a very large number of women who are facing the same difficulties in rural areas today.
We must do better at identifying and ensuring the provision of critical services for women in rural communities throughout Australia and the rest of the world, to ensure that wherever possible there is adequate support and opportunity for them to leave situations of domestic violence. Additionally, it is my belief that it is time to take the next step in domestic violence awareness campaigns and provide information about what to do if you know or suspect that a friend, relative, colleague or neighbour is experiencing domestic violence. We all must stop presuming that it is not our business, that it does not happen to ‘people like us’ and accept that each of us has an individual responsibility to act.

I can’t believe I have come all the way to New York and been so powerfully affected by two other women from Australia! But I am so very glad and honoured that I was here to listen to their story. Catherine and Vicki have been through huge adversity, and through heartbreaking times seeking justice. However, now that they have achieved it they are putting all their energy into talking about it, sharing their story and telling as many people as they can - even at the United Nations! - about the issues they faced and what can be done to ensure that this doesn’t happen for more women. Catherine and Vicki really are an inspiration, and I would sincerely like to congratulate them and thank them for their wonderful advocacy efforts, for sharing their story with us all at CSW56 and reminding us all that we cannot stop the fight against domestic violence, in Australia or anywhere else.

A particular issue discussed during CSW that has got me thinking CSW is early and forced marriage. Discussion about this topic has occurred across a number of sessions I have attended, and there was a particularly informative event hosted by Plan International that brought together parliamentarians from countries including the UK, Finland and Pakistan along with girls from countries where early and/or forced marriage is common. These girls have friends who have been married at a very young age, most of them without any say about the union. Indeed, statistics from the UK indicate female UK citizens who have been forced into marriage are aged from 5. (And up to the age of 87! I am also still flawed by the fact  that this is an issue in countries such as the UK and indeed Australia, but that will have to be another post for another time!).

I have learnt that early and forced marriage is a complex issue, as are the motivations for why families arranging early and forced marriages do not centre only on commonly identified factors such as religion. In many countries, women do not have economic independence, earning capacity and are not of particular ‘value’ to their families – rather they are somewhat of a burden. Often therefore families arrange marriages for girls with a view to provide them with more fortunate circumstances and alleviate the financial pressure on the family. However, this takes the woman or girl away from her family and unable to contribute to household chores and caring duties. Adding additional complexity to this issue is that many families actually arrange marriages for their daughters at a young age with the view that this will protect them from experiencing rape or sexual violence that might be prevalent in their communities.
Furthermore, early marriage as opposed to forced marriage should also be considered as independent issues. For example, the young girls presenting at the Plan International event described the marriages of their friends at a very young age (13-15) not as ‘forced’, but instead identified the primary issue was that these girls were still children. Some were excited, and even hoped that their husbands would pay for their ongoing education. However, they did not understand the obligations associated with marriage, including the household duties that were likely to mean they were unable to continue with their educations, and even sexual activity. Indeed, this leads to an important health issue that is associated with early marriage – marrying young often means pregnancy (or pregnancies) at a young ages which can lead to significant health issues.

So while the motivations behind early and forced marriages may be considered noble in some senses, the continuation of this practice will significantly impede progress towards achieving gender equality and indeed many of the Millenium Development Goals, particularly in the impact it has on girls’ education and health. It is encouraging, however, to hear governments such as the UK and Pakistan speaking strongly about the action they are taking to eliminate early and forced marriage both in their countries and throughout the world. Tackling this issue, and the diverse motivations underpinning it, is something that all of use concerned with gender equality should get behind.

 

 

During the first week of CSW I have been so thoroughly inspired by how many young women throughout the world are so active in their communities in trying to empower and/or advance the development of women and girls, and also how much support there is from a diverse range of organisations. I wanted to provide brief summaries from two excellent and thought-provoking events I attended towards the end of Week 1, that presented some of the hard work being undertaken by young women and their supporters.
The first event was presented by WAGGGS – the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. This session outlined just a few of the the community-inspired and community-led programs that are being run and supported by Girl Guides and Girl Scout groups both in rural areas of the US, and overseas. As in Australia, girls from rural areas in the US face significant barriers including difficulties accessing transport, education, health and other critical services. However, through the hard wok and dedication of Guides and Scouts members to initiate and establish projects, other young women have been provided with the opportunity to get involved, achieve something and contribute to the betterment of their community. Furthermore, such projects are providing a social outlet and support for young women in these communities, and the opportunity to work with other community members. And there have been some powerful results – for example, a project that started out with the aim to increase awareness and participation of recycling has now grown to provide employment; and, a small community garden project has been taken over by the local council and now has a significant waiting list of young girls who would like to participate.

I also attended a session presented by young women from throughout the Asia-Pacific including Australia, Fiji, Japan, Sri Lanka and India, talking about the treatment, recognition and experiences of lesbian women. There were significant variations throughout the countries represented in terms of whether this is recognised and discussed publicly, and whether there has been any progress towards legalising the union of lesbian couples. Unlike in Australia, in many other countries there is no public discussion or engagement in this issue at a political level, and indeed Australia appears to be many steps ahead in terms of even considering legislation to legalise marriages between gay and lesbian couples. Some of the stories told were heartbreaking, including for example stories of double suicides of some young women who felt too much social pressure about their relationships with other women. The presenters at this session did a wonderful job sharing these stories, their experiences and views, and the need for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights to remain high on the agenda.

Day 2 at CSW56 and it was a day of side events, organised by some inspiring NGOs. This morning I attended a session run by the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch on women and disaster, which is of course of particular relevance to rural populations .In this session we heard from women from disaster-affected areas across the asia-pacific region including Thailand, Sri Lanka, Fiji and Australia.
Some of the key points coming out of this session were the importance of community based disaster recovery and mitigation, including the benefit to quickly organise women in the time following a disaster and utilise their skills and capabilities – even things as simple as cooking in evacuation shelters.

 Also, there is a need to ensure that following disasters, women’s ownership of land is acknowledged and reinforced. Most particularly, speakers expressed ongoing concern that gender concerns remain at the margins in disaster preparations, response and recovery. In this context, there is a significant responsibility for the media to recognise that women and men experience and react to disasters differently, and ensure that the views and experiences of women in disaster-affected areas are adequately represented in order to enable their issues to reach the recovery agenda, rather than just those of the most ‘visible’ actors in society. Finally, many of the speakers shared views and stories about how the rebuilding phase after a disaster can provide an opportunity for women to be entrepreneurial and innovative, and improve their economic conditions.

This afternoon I attended a very inspiring and thought-provoking session run by Plan International on early and forced marriage. Ministers from the UK, Iceland and Pakstan reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate early and forced marriage in their own countries and throughout the world, and the Australian Global Ambassador for Women and Girls discussed the importance of this issue and the progress towards developing legislation to outlaw these practices in Australia. The UK presented some fascinating statistics on early child marriage, showing that the age of female UK residents forced into marriage range from 5 to 87.

Also speaking at this event was a young woman from Sierre Leone and another from Pakistan. They told heartfelt stories about friends in their communities who were being married at a very young age – too young to understand the significance and responsibility. They advocated so passionately and strongly for these practices to be eliminated, in order particularly to enable young women to continue their education and practice their right to choose. Through the session the issue of early and forced marriage was also tied closely to another important matter - efforts to improve maternal and child health, as outlined in the MDGs. When girls are marrying young, they become sexually active and pregnant very young, at times too young for their bodies to handle and they suffer health complexities.  This was a wonderful and informative session and shows that the issue of early and forced marriage impacts many areas of gender equality and momentum and action to address the matter should continue.

 

On Day 1, I also attended the Australian Government’s parallel event that focused on whether access to education equals employment. Facilitated by the Australian Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, Penny Williams, this session presented the particular views of presenters from Kiribati and New Zealand and discussed the trend of significantly increased enrolments of girls in primary schools in many parts of the world, but this does not translate to representation in employment and policymaking.

There is concern that this is somewhat of a cyclical issue – without women involved in policymaking and decision making we fail to bring a gendered perspective to the development of policy and delivery services. And this can have some significant, though obvious impacts. For example, not including separate girls and boys toilets or sanitary disposal units may contribute to absences of teenage girls from school resulting in disengagement from their education. These issues in themselves seem very easy to fix, and perhaps would not even have occurred if women were involved at the design stage!

I spent the evening of Day 1 at the Youth Caucus, which is run by World YWCA and the World Association of Girl Guides. Tonight we began discussing and drafting an oral statement that will be submitted to CSW to represent the views and perspectives of young women from throughout the world. There were young women from throughout the globe in attendance, and Australia is being well-represented with both Marnie Grogan (YWCA Australia Youth Rep) and myself nominated to be part of the drafting group to finalise the statement!

Reflecting this morning with the women from the Asia Pacific about the challenges of disasters and disaster recovery, I became acutely aware of the sheer number of natural disasters that our region has faced in the past 12 months.

This morning’s event included women speaking about the experiences of women during and after the thai floods, the Fiji floods, the Japan earthquake, the Pakistan earthquake and the New Zealand earthquakes. 

It was interesting to note that despite the different types of disasters occurring and the different contexts of the affected communities several commonalities exist:
- Women and men are affected by disasters differently
- the media has a role to play in shifting perceptions about women’s role in disaster from being victims to being agents of change
- the recovery process creates new opportunities for women in employment
- women report having opportunities to earn an income as often their husband’s jobs have disappeared – this leads them to realize their leadership potential

For the women attending this event – it was very evident that the damage to communities and to individuals goes far deeper than the costed physical damage to property.  Fear, sadness, hope and courage  - all present in participants who share a common hope for investment in community resilience to become a reality.

Julie McKay, Executive Director, UN Women Australia

Today, I remembered what CSW is all about – I think sometimes the fact that you are choosing between up to 10 concurrent events across four venues,  all while talking to NGOs and Government delegates about the wording and priorities for the agreed conclusions, it is easy to get caught up in the detail of the Commission and forget the big picture.

Today I had the privilege of attending an event run by the Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Corporation where three incredibly brave, talented and inspiring women told their stories about growing up in Australia, living in violent relationships, managing families who experienced violence, alcoholism and social isolation and the journey that eventually led them to university and to run a women’s health centre in Redfern, Sydney.  Stories so personal that they bought tears to the eyes of those present. Stories so personal – that it was hard to imagine that they also reflect the stories of so many indigenous women around Australia.
 
Mudgin-Gal is an organisation that is aiming big.  Recently securing support to roll out their anti-violence awareness training to all NRL clubs in Australia – the story demonstrates the power of a few very dedicated people.
 
One of the key messages of the event was about education – education opens doors, provides opportunities and breaks the cycle of exclusion.  Access to education for Aboriginal women remains a significant challenge.
 
Tonight at the NGO briefing, we will be raising the issue of service access – education, health justice – the basic services that all people deserve.  We will also be reviewing the proposed resolution on Indigenous people as key actors in poverty reduction which has been proposed to the Commission today.
 
To Sonya, Ashley and Dixie – thank you for reinspiring me today, for sharing your stories, for having the courage to speak out – at the United Nations, for your commitment to equality and for your tireless advocacy for your sisters – who so often do not have a voice.

Lauren Burke, UN Women Australia CSW Youth Delegate

Day 1 of CSW 56, we attended the inspiring opening ceremony, which included speeches from the Deputy Secretary General (DSG), and the Executive Director of UN Women and Under-Secretary General, Michelle Bachelet.

The DSG spoke about the advancement of gender equality being a priority in the UN Secretary General’s five year action agenda and the particular need to protect and empower rural women in order to unleash their potential. In particular, the DSG discussed the fact that only 5% of financing for agricultural expansion goes to women, and in 2008-09, only 3% of aid went to programs where gender equality was the primary objective. The DSG argues that ad hoc interventions to improve conditions and opportunities for rural women and girls is an inadequate response, and instead there is a need for strong ,comprehensive action on the ground with effective accountability mechanisms to ensure that global commitments are implemented.

Ms Bachelet argued that listening to and supporting rural women is fundamental to achieving sustainability, and that the empowerment of rural women is not just good for women, but is good for the growth of the economy, food security and the benefit of society more generally. We therefore need to urgently and systematically open opportunities for the participation of rural women. Similarly to the DSG, Ms Bachelet argued that action to improve conditions and opportunities should not be incremental, but rather there needs to be transformation of government budgets, and the enforcement of laws and policies. In particular, Ms Bachelet called for an increase in the participation of rural women in political and policy processes, so the women themselves can lobby for their views to be heard, their needs to be met and their rights to be respected. My favourite quote from Ms Bachelet was: ‘when women have a voice and representation – change happens’. Here’s to taking one big step closer at CSW 56 to that change for rural women.

Stay tuned for my next blog about the opening panel session, the Australian government’s parallel event on women’s access to education and employment, and the first meeting of the Youth Caucus.