Thousands of delegates from the government, international NGOs, and women's groups will meet at the annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to address the discrimination and violence that girls face around the world. Women activists will also jointly lobby for the implementation of the proposed UN gender architecture.

End discrimination and violence against girls. This is the call to action of the 51st Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN Headquarters in New York City. The two-week session, which began on February 26 and will close on March 9, 2007, has for its priority theme: “the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.”

Representatives of UN Member States will evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards, and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women around the globe.

Around 200 girls, from the 4,000 non-government organisations and government delegates, will speak at the UN floor and organise their own caucuses. They will develop their own strategies to raise awareness on the needs and concerns of girls in addressing the discrimination and violence they face in their countries.

On March 8, 2007, a panel discussion will mark the UN official observance of International Women's Day. The panel will examine strategies and good practices to end impunity for violence against women and girls, from the global to the local levels.

At the end of the session, the CSW is expected to come up with the “Agreed Conclusions” on this year’s priority theme, to include a set of concrete recommendations for governments, intergovernmental bodies and other institutions, civil society and other relevant stakeholders, to be implemented at the international, national, regional, and local level.

To learn more about the 51st session of the Commission on the Status, visit <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/51sess.htm>.

The girl child, today

All over the world, many girls are being denied education, refused health care, subjected to female genital mutilation, and exploited both sexually and economically.

The Report of the UN Secretary-General, “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence,” last December 2006 affirms this grim situation faced by many girls. The report analyses the current situation of the girl child and offers recommendations for consideration by CSW.

Among the findings of the report include the following:

- Fewer girls than boys survive into adulthood because of harmful attitudes and practices, such as son preference resulting in prenatal sex selection and female infanticide, female genital mutilation, early marriages including child marriages, violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, discriminatory food allocation and other practices related to health and well-being.
- Harmful traditional practices, including female genital mutilation/cutting, and early and forced marriages, still persist.
- Poverty and social and economic upheavals caused by armed conflict and the HIV/AIDS pandemic further exacerbate the risk of abuse and exploitation.
- Institutions charged with the protection of girls, including families, schools and communities should be implicated in the violation the rights of the girl child.
- Discrimination and violence against the girl child persist in all parts of the world, despite progress in raising awareness about the rights of the girl child.

The report identified awareness-raising, community mobilisation, and education and training as the key solutions in ensuring that all stakeholders work together in eliminating attitudes and practices which negatively affect girls.

To read the full text of the report, visit <http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N06/657/13/PDF/N0665713.pdf?OpenElement>.

Civil society action

Parallel to the CSW, NGOs also organised their events and forums. On February 25, 2007, The NGO Consultation was held at the Farkas Auditorium, New York City, sponsored by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women and the Working Group on Girls of the NGO Committee on UNICEF. The consultation, with the theme, “CSW at 51: Making Girls Visible,” featured panel discussions about various girl-related issues and included a breakout session in which participants  learned more about HIV/AIDS and other girls' health issues; domestic and institutional gender-based violence in all settings; empowerment strategies; trafficking in girls and commercial sexual exploitation (sexual violence); girls associated with fighting forces (girl soldiers); addressing the poverty of social minority and marginalised girls; partnering for girls; and ensuring girls their human rights.

There will also be an “NGO Artisan Craft Fair” on March 1, 2007 for NGOs who wish to sell crafts or other artisan goods.

For the complete schedule of parallel events organised by NGOs for the CSW 51st Session, visit <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/conf/seforms/dspUNcalendar.asp>

Call for a new UN agency on women

For women's organisations globally, the 51st session of CSW will be a venue to urge Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help implement the proposal for the creation of a new UN women's agency.

In November 9, 2006, the UN High-Level Panel on System-wide Coherence included in its recommendations the creation of a stronger agency for women as well as the creation of a new high-level Under Secretary General position on gender, who would serve as the head of the new women's agency. This new agency would consolidate the three already-established units of the UN dealing with women and gender issues. These are the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues (OSAGI). The new agency is expected to have substantially increased budget and additional staff for its work at global and country levels.

June Zeitlin of the Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), in an interview with Inter Press Service News Agency, said “We are hoping that when women from around the world are present in New York for the CSW, we will have an opportunity for the secretary-general to hear firsthand how critical this reform is, not only for improving women's lives, but also for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and improving the well-being of all.” 

“There is a clear consensus that the current structure is insufficient to meet the needs of women around the world or to fulfil the commitments governments have made in Beijing (at the 1995 Women's Conference) and other UN world conferences,” Zeitlin added.

Other parallel forums on the UN gender architecture at the 51st CSW Session are:

- UN-system wide coherence: Recommendations of the High-level Panel on the gender architecture of the United Nations [February 26, 2007; organised by United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) and UNIFEM]
- UN Reform and Gender Architecture: Where Do We Stand? Part 1 [March 1, 2007; organised by International Women's Tribune Centre (IWTC) and Asia-Pacific Women's Watch (APWW)]
- UN Reform and Gender Architecture: Where Do We Stand? Part 2 [March 5, 2007; IWTC and APWW]
 
For the list of parallel events organised by UN Missions, UN Entities and Inter-Governmental Organisations for the CSW 51st Session, visit <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/conf/seforms/dspUNcalendarUN.asp>.

For the complete schedule of parallel events organised by NGOs for the CSW 51st Session, go to <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/conf/seforms/dspUNcalendar.asp>.

Related articles:
“UN Panel calls for more solid gender architecture” in we! November 2006, No. 1
“Proposed centralised women's agency at UN needs support” in we! December 2006

Sources:
“NGOs Campaign for New U.N. Women's Agency” from Inter Press Service News Agency, posted on February 14, 2007, <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36570>.
“The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child,” Report of the Secretary-General, United Nations Economic and Social Council, December 12, 2006,
<http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N06/657/13/PDF/N0665713.pdf?OpenElement>.