Over 13,000 people gathered in New York City for the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the second largest convening at the United Nations Headquarters. This year was significant as it reviewed and appraised 30 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), which continues to be the most comprehensive global blueprint for gender equality adopted by consensus by 189 governments at the Fourth World Conference on Women.

SGI has continued to engage in the CSW session in various ways, including organizing and co-sponsoring various events. Additionally, as Co-Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York, Ivy Koek of SGI helped bring civil society together from all over the world to take part in the NGO Forum, which runs parallel to the official CSW session.

The adoption of the BPfA was a watershed moment. The Platform consists of 12 critical areas of concern, one of which is “Women and Armed Conflict.” Strategic objective E.4 of this concern outlines, “Promote women’s contribution to fostering a culture of peace.” After this momentous Fourth World Conference on Women, the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (resolution /53/243) and Security Council resolution (SCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security were adopted in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

In an effort to draw attention to this unknown reference to the culture of peace, SGI organized an event on “Activating an Intergenerational Movement for the Culture of Peace” co-moderated by Koek and Dr. Suchi Guar, World YWCA Senior Director of Strategy and Operations. Participants of the intergenerational roundtable discussion shared various perspectives, representing their homelands of Bangladesh, Cameroon, Japan, Palestine, Lebanon and Sweden. Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN and Founder of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace—who was instrumental in the adoption of the two resolutions referenced above—gave a behind-the-scenes personal account on how the resolutions came about and its significance. Miyuki Kawaoka of SGI addressed how the culture of peace has to be translated in people’s lived realities and shared various accounts from women who have witnessed that translation. Many speakers stressed education as an important component for the culture of peace. Shirine Jurdi, President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, shared one of her projects to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda through murals in her local neighborhoods, which help raise awareness and bring hope to her community.

Additionally, SGI was involved in side events with faith-based partners. At one event hosted by the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) Gender Equality and Empowerment Workstream, participants engaged in roundtable discussions with experts on ways faith actors are partnering to advance the rights of women and girls. ACT Alliance was the lead organizer of an event co-sponsored by Finland, Colombia and Norway on “Advancing Women’s Role in Peace and Security.” Panelists included Rev. Sally Azar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land in Palestine (the first female pastor ordained in the Holy Land); Yordanos Asnake of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; Aziza Maalim of Finn Church Aid Kenya; and Koek of SGI.

Formed in 2023, the Working Group on Peace and Gender Equality, which SGI serves as Co-Chair, held its first event during CSW, which consisted of testimonials and group discussions. The working group is advocating for CSW to address the Beijing Platform for Action critical area of concern on, “Women and Armed Conflict,” which was last addressed as a priority theme in 1998. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by continuously increasing armed conflict around the world, and more attention and action are needed to change it. The event concept note reads in part, “The growing inability of institutions to adequately respond to current challenges fuels a lack of trust. It has also led in many cases to highly securitized responses to complex threats of violence, further delaying the building of societies based on the culture of peace. Until societal transformation takes root within mindsets, the underlying causes of prejudice and discrimination embedded in the systems and structures of societies will remain unquestioned and will continue to perpetuate injustice. We see the potential of all actors in the multilateral space to be part of this transformation to help realize the peaceful world we seek.”