International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women
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Advocacy

Advocacy

Details
By ICUUW Staff
01 April 2025

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.

ICUUW at CSW at the United Nations 2025 - 6 women in a classroom smiling at camera
ICUUW at CSW at the United Nations 2025

Advocacy at the United Nations

Details
By ICUUW Staff
28 March 2025

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."

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ICUUW members at CSW69
ICUUW members at CSW69

Events at CSW

Details
By ICUUW Staff
18 March 2025

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.

CSW69 - 2025
CSW69 - 2025

CSW69 - Spring Seminar

Details
By ICUUW Staff
02 December 2024

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

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Young women’s business program in partnership with Tunawiri Pamoja in Kenya
Young women’s business program in partnership with Tunawiri Pamoja in Kenya

CSW68: Better Understanding and More Effective Participation

Details
By ICUUW Staff
27 April 2024

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.

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CSW68 - 2024
CSW68 - 2024

CSW68 - 2024

Details
By ICUUW Staff
22 March 2024

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.

  • Solar Lights the Path Out of Poverty

  • Financial Education to Fight Poverty: Perspectives from Africa and Elsewhere

UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the representatives from NGOs and activists attending the SDG Action Weekend in New York on September 17-18, warning that the goals are "enormously off track."

SDGs at Midpoint Need a Rescue Plan

Details
By Beth O’Connell, ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee, USA
06 November 2023

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.

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ICUUW delegation at the UN HLPF with a representative from Centrul FILIA, a Romanian women's rights NGO (in the middle)

ICUUW at the UN High-Level Political Forum

Details
By Rev. Carol Huston, Chair, ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee, USA
06 November 2023

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.

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CSW67 - 2023
CSW67

CSW67 - Empowering Women and Girls in the Digital Age

Details
By ICUUW Staff
18 March 2023

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.

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Global Gag Rule

Details
By ICUUW Staff
22 February 2023

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.

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Standing Up for Vulnerable Afghanis

Details
By ICUUW Staff
26 July 2022

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.”

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Reproductive Justice for All

Details
By ICUUW Staff
12 July 2022

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.)

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CSW66
CSW66

Rise in Gender-Based Violence Addressed at CSW66

Details
By Marjorie Davidson, ICUUW Delegate at CSW66, USA
31 March 2022

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.  

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  1. Engaging with the UN Workshop Series
  2. Accelerating Generation Equality Goals
  3. Anti-Racism
  4. CSW65 - 2021

Subcategories

CSW at the UN

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Advocacy

  • Advocacy
  • Advocacy at the United Nations
  • Anti-Racism
  • Confronting the Shadow Pandemic
  • Global Gag Rule
  • Reproductive Justice for All
  • Standing Up for Vulnerable Afghanis

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