The Preliminary UNCSW 54 Post-Mortem

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Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations

This is the final part of a series on the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Click on a link to read further.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 , Part 8 , Part 9
I will probably write more than just one post-mortem on the 54th Commission of the Status of Women for me. I’m writing while staying up too late in Calgary, waiting impatiently to be home with my kids, and have stayed up to that point that I’m scared that if I go to sleep that I will miss my plane.

I didn’t actually get to see Senator Clinton. I had referred to her in my tweets, facebook and blog as “Hillary” and some other tweeple sent out a message to people blogging and tweeting the CSW asking that we refer to the Senator by her proper title. The Feminist communication on this is that when people refer to male politicians they do so by either the proper title and last name, or simply last name.

I suppose referring to a public or professional official by their first name kind of implies a familiarity that isn’t seen as respectful as the title-last-name thing. I’m not that picky about much. I usually refer to people by name because I’m never totally sure of their proper titles (unless it’s an easy one like “president” or “minister”) and I’m usually too lazy to google.

All of that, however, is secondary to the fact that I didn’t actually get to see her address the United Nations on the last day of the CSW. I did wait for over two hours in a line where I was shouted at by UN security personnel. I started livetweeting that after one of the security guards yelled viciously at a woman who looked over seventy. She had approached the guard because she wasn’t sure which line she should have been in.

UNCSW 54: March 4

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Commission on the Status of Women, international women's day, United Nations

This post is part of a series on the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Click on a link to read further.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 , Part 9 , Part 10
I am lagging lagging lagging behind, but luckily for me, I have been live tweeting, which means that not only can interested readers follow along in point form (search #csw54 at twitter.com) but I can go back and refresh my memory from the tweets!

March 4th (Thursday) seemed to hold a Rural women’s theme. I began the day at a session highlighting the work of the Salesian Sisters in rural South America. The Sister’s panel was made up of women who had accessed their services in Ecuador and Guatemala. The women talked about the circumstances that they had come to the Sisters from.

UNCSW 54 March 3rd

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Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations

This post is part of a series on the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Click on a link to read further.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 8 , Part 9 , Part 10

March 3rd was the day that the United Nations Celebrated International Women’s Day. The occasion is celebrated a few days before the actual event to allow Delegates to the UN the chance to get home in time to celebrate with their communities.

I started the Day at the NGO general briefing at the Salvation Army. A South East Asian delegate asked if we could lobby for a resolution specific to women in extreme poverty and women with disability with our respective government meetings and regional caucuses. The Women’s Labour Congress also asked us to join them in their lobby for a resolution on women’s economic empowerment, and women from Arabic women’s caucus would like to see a resolution on women in occupied territories, and the general women’s labour group finished and released a draft of their open letter to the Secretary General about the long lines and poor state of the UNCSW.

After the NGO debrief I moved back to the main building and made my way to the overflow room (Conference Room 2) to watch the UN celebration of International Womens Day.

It was very nice, the Secretary General made a wonderful and engaging address. He spoke about the way that he honors women because he is a husband and a father and a grandfather. He talked about how important he felt it was for men throughout the world to recognize that violence against women is a direct violation of their inalienable human rights.

UNCSW 54 March 2nd Country Reports

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Beijing Platform for Action, Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations

This post is part of a series on the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Click on a link to read further.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 7 , Part 8 , Part 9 , Part 10

The theme of this UNCSW is the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action. You can find the Platform here:

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/

The 54th UNCSW has focused on taking stock of the progress that has been made in the implementation of the platform, as well as using the opportunity to identify and prioritize the ways that we need to move forward. The main indicators that countries seem to be reporting on are access to education, political participation, economic security and violence against women. The latter three priorities are mirrored in the “Three Pillars” that the Status of Women Canada seem to talk about so often.

Mira Hall Reports from the UNCSW!

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Commission on the Status of Women, Gloria Steinem, UN

I am such a terrible blogger! Especially since aside from my participation over the next two weeks at the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women Meeting, I am also finishing up my first review for the Vancouver Sun (to be published this Saturday!). This leaves me with very little time to keep everyone informed on what’s going on here at the UNCSW.

Luckily, my roommate, and friend (also my cuddlebunny, but that’s another story) Mira Hall from the Northwest Territories has been extensively documenting her experience and has agreed to let me post it here. I will be writing a big post over the weekend to catch you up on everything I have experience, including my interview with Gloria Steinem but in the meantime, I think Mira’s posts will fill you in on what’s been going on! So here it is starting with Day One!

I have now arrived in New York. It has been a Harrowing journey, filled with tears, of joy, frustration anger, and from the pungent scent of myself after 48hours in the same clothes…. Traveling.

So, *last* Friday, the news came down that the Status of Women Canada had indeed provided the funding to send me to the United Nations for the 52nd Commission on the Status of Women. This news filled me with absolute excitement, mixed with absolute panic, after all, I didn’t even have a passport.

I immediately called the Inuvik Department of Health and let them know the deal, I NEEDED to get to Calgary with my birth certificate *and* marriage certificate ASAP in order to get a passport in order to get to the commission on time. I am karmically and emotionally indebted to Inuvik. They pulled the amazing and got the certificates printed that DAY. I am so impressed! I’m totally going to write the minister when I get home because they were so amazing and fast!

Then I needed to get the ID to Yellowknife fast, so I thought of everyone I could that lives in Inuvik that could physically go pick it up and bring it to the airport, but to no avail, so as a last resort I phoned Canadian North Cargo, who were also amazing, and even drove back after there was some confusion at the Vital statistics office.

Between IHD, and Canadian North Cargo I was overjoyed at how quickly (as in within a few hours) I had my ID. So the next step was to get to Calgary, I flew out early Wednesday morning, the day after the Senate Hearing, my brother picked me up and took me directly to the passport office, giving me a day to wait and pray to God that everything would come through.

Thankfully, Friday morning, just hours before my flight to Ottawa, on route to New York, I picked up my freshly issued passport, and busted my ass to get to the airport for my flight. I am on 48 hours of wakefulness and am currently and successfully in New York, thanks to the hard work and co-operation of a multitude of forces and have completed a successful and impressive first day!

The delegation that I am with is an impressive (a very impressive) group of women aged 22-67. The women that I am here with are entrenched in all levels of feminist reform in Canada. I drank wine today with an elderly Acadian woman who has worked on gender based economic development strategies everywhere from the Maritimes to South Korea, I’m working with another who has a PHD in economics and well over thirty years spent entrenched in advocating sustainable economic development *even the Northwest Territories!* I am also here with the publisher of “Antigone” magazine, a grassroots publication for political action, and the executive director of one of the most influential women’s shelter in downtown Toronto.

I am humbled by their presence and soaking up their every words as they speak and engage in economic and political analysis of the state of our country, and the other countries represented here. This is not benign philosophical discussion; this is the grassroots for action. This is the pre-negotiation strategizing. This is where we are preparing to determine what we are going stress during the commission. It is powerful and productive, engaging, and wonderful. I am so thankful to the Status of Women, and to FAFIA for providing me the opportunity to be here.