Advocacy
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
ICUUW champions gender equality and the health and rights of women and girls. We connect people, ideas, and resources to drive solutions for girls and women.
Through advocacy and campaigning, ICUUW promotes the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal #5 (SDG5): “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
As an organization in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), ICUUW participates in the yearly sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the UN’s principal body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
On 26 July 2019, following a two-year complex and rigorous application process coordinated by former ICUUW business manager Karen LaFrance, the International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women (ICUUW) was granted special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The special status bestowed upon ICUUW confirms that the activities of the ICUUW are relevant to the work of the UN and invites the organization to actively engage with ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, as well as with the UN Secretariat, programs, funds, and agencies.
As an international women’s organization in special consultative status with ECOSOC, ICUUW contributes to the accomplishment of the goals and mission of the United Nations, advancing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal #5 (SDG5): "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls."
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the main global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, meets every year in March to consider what needs to be done to improve the lives and the political situation of women around the world. Member states, women’s rights organizations, as well as UN entities gather to discuss the progress and gaps in implementing the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the blueprint for gender equality. Running parallel to the official sessions, a two-week NGO CSW Forum offers civil society from around the world opportunities to discuss issues pertaining to women and girls, network, and share strategies/best practices. As an organization in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, ICUUW contributes to the CSW by actively participating and hosting parallel events at the NGO CSW Forum.
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
ICUUW Spring Seminar - March 2025
Speaking Up for Liberal Religious Values at the UN During the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
March 15-16, 2025 in New York City
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
In accordance with our consultative status at the UN, ICUUW fielded a large delegation at this year’s meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68). We continue to increase our knowledge of the workings of this enormous event. This year Ellen Barfield, Carmen Capriles, Marjorie Davidson, Tina Huesing, Carol Huston, Bruce Knotts, Karen Kortsch, Phyllis Marsh, Beth O’Connell, Genia Peterson, and Julie Steinbach attended in-person sessions at the UN Headquarters; a former Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO), Fran Mercer, was with us for dinner and some parallel events.
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
This year, the annual meeting of the CSW took place in person at the UN headquarters in New York and virtually from March 11-22, 2024. The priority theme of the 68th session of CSW (CSW68) was “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.” As in previous years, ICUUW had a delegation in New York attending the events in person and hosted two virtual Parallel Events at the CSW NGO Forum.
- Details
- By Beth O’Connell, ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee, USA
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations to eliminate poverty and create a more equitable society and a safer environment by 2030 are at the midpoint this year for that target date – and in need of a rescue plan.
- Details
- By Rev. Carol Huston, Chair, ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee, USA
The March meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) have been our advocacy focus since we began developing a presence at the UN in 2019. Our colleague from Bolivia, Carmen Capriles, who was active at the UN long before that, has urged us to attend other events. This year we did just that: The most significant was participation in the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July. Then in September, a few of us attended the People’s Assembly, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, and the March to End Fossil Fuels.
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the main global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, meets every year in March to consider what needs to be done to improve the lives and the political situation of women around the world. Member states, women’s rights organizations, as well as UN entities gather to discuss the progress and gaps in implementing the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the blueprint for gender equality.
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
The Global Gag Rule (also called the Mexico City Policy), first enacted by President Ronald Regan in 1984, prohibits foreign non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) from receiving any U.S. funding if they “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.” This includes counseling, referrals, or advocacy; U.S. aid would be withheld from organizations receiving U.S. family planning assistance even if a given NGO used their own (non-U.S.) funds or funds donated by another country. This policy is effectively a "gag," blocking access to health care, stifling local advocacy efforts and public debate on abortion-related issues, and undermining reproductive rights worldwide.
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
The International Convocation of UU Women has voiced solidarity with vulnerable genders in Afghanistan and is increasingly alarmed by reports of eroding human rights in the country. On July 20, 2022, the UN published the following information from their Assistance Mission in Afghanistan:
[The UN Mission] “confirms the erosion of basic human rights across the country since the Taliban takeover in August last year, pointing out they bear responsibility for extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and violations of fundamental freedoms.”
- Details
- By ICUUW Staff
The International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women unequivocally asserts that reproductive rights are human rights. Abortion is healthcare. It is a moral imperative that any gender with the ability to become pregnant has access to safe and legal care that respects their dignity, privacy, and freedom.
Women in the U.S. have now lost that freedom. On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the Constitution does not confer the right to abortion, thus overturning Roe v. Wade, a 1973 court case that recognized the right to abortion in the U.S. The U.S. joins Poland, El Salvador, and Nicaragua as the only countries to roll back legal access to abortion in the past three decades. (In the same time period, nearly 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws, according to the global advocacy group Center for Reproductive Rights.)
- Details
- By Marjorie Davidson, ICUUW Delegate at CSW66, USA
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meets every March around the United Nations offices in New York City. In pre-COVID-19 times, CSW brought thousands of women to New York for reports, workshops, and networking; in 2021 and 2022, CSW shifted from in-person meetings to virtual formats. In March 2022, more than 15 women from our IWC community attended virtual sessions and events related to CSW.