Advocacy
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- By Carmen Capriles
Carmen Capriles, whose home is in La Paz, Bolivia, became involved with the United Nations as a young adult. With academic expertise in agriculture, she set out to learn about and then engage with the UN on climate and land use policies. Almost twenty years later, she generously offered to teach us in IWC how to make the same journey from learning to influence, in the crowded world of advocacy at the UN.
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- By ICUUW Staff
The UN-sponsored Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City, held online from March 29 to 31, 2021, unveiled the Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality. The plan – to be launched at the follow-up Forum in Paris at the end of June – represents the draft roadmap to speed up progress on gender equality.
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- By ICUUW Staff
The International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women works in partnership with grassroots women's groups, regardless of race or ethnicity, which share our Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist values.
“Wherever we see racism, we must condemn it without reservation, without hesitation, without qualification.” ANTÓNIO GUTERRES, United Nations Secretary-General, 2021
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is March 21. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on the day the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid "pass laws" in 1960.
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- By ICUUW Staff
Overview of the Sixty-Fifth Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW65)
15 to 26 March 2021
By Genia Peterson, ICUUW Representative at CSW65
More than 25,000 individuals from around the world registered to virtually attend the 700 civil society-led parallel events. In addition, they could also participate in 200 events sponsored by UN member states.
The priority theme of the CSW65 was women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
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- By ICUUW Staff
The global lockdowns, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, created environments that increased the incidence and severity of violence against women and girls (VAW/G).
Confinement and restriction of movement fostered tension, distress, and worries for everyone, but they trapped women with abusive partners. Too often, women were unable to access resources and support systems because many of the organizations dedicated to helping victims of violence were unable to operate. The economic fallout and the additional demand for services forced shelters for victims of domestic violence to find ways to stay open even as many operated near capacity.
The global upsurge of VAW/G prompted Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Executive Director of UN Women to declare it a “shadow pandemic” that must be urgently addressed. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for all governments “to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19.” Facing this shadow pandemic, each of us, from individuals to communities to governments, from the private sector to civil society to police and justice services, has a responsibility to act.