Photo Credit: NGO CSW/NY
The April 2023 monthly meeting of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY) examined the outcomes of the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67), which discussed technology and innovation and its impact on gender equality. CSW67 hit a new record with the largest number of youth participants of any CSW to date. The session also held its first youth interactive dialogue.
CSW67 hit a new record with the largest number of youth participants of any CSW to date. The session also held its first youth interactive dialogue.
After panels on Generation Equality and Youth Engagement at CSW67, Ivy Koek of SGI, as the Vice Chair of NGO CSW/NY and Co-Chair of the Advocacy and Research Group, moderated a panel on insights gained at this year’s session. Speakers included Jonathan Passmoor, Counsellor on the Third Committee, Permanent Mission of South Africa to the United Nations; Aina Iiyambo, Policy Advisor, Intergovernmental Affairs and CSW Executive Secretary, UN Women; and Ishaan Shah, Co-Founder, Youth for Freedom Collective and UK CSW Delegate.
Passmoor, who experienced his first session at CSW67 and was the expert supporting the Bureau Chair, said, “The first thing that struck me was how difficult it is to understand the scale of the CSW and the intensity of it.” He mentioned that South Africa was quite proud to have had a collective consensus decision within the Bureau. This unity was key to achieving the Bureau’s goal to approach this year’s innovative theme with an innovative approach to the negotiations of the outcome document. CSW67’s Agreed Conclusions is very comprehensive and includes, as Passmoor says, “a body of language that can be referred to” in other UN spaces on addressing the digital world and digital divides.
This unity was key to achieving the Bureau’s goal to approach this year’s innovative theme with an innovative approach to the negotiations of the outcome document.
In the lead up to the session, the NGO CSW/NY leadership, including Koek, met with Bureau members and built a good relationship with the CSW Chair over the course of South Africa’s two-year chairship. Bureau members expressed appreciation for the Advocacy and Research Group presenting to them and Member States the Five Key Recommendations for the Agreed Conclusions, a document that compiled input from over 700 civil society representatives.
