Opening Ceremony CSW64

The UK Civil Society Women’s Alliance is the result of a UK grassroots movement to set up a mechanism for NGOs to relate to one another and to government around the UN’s annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings.
The Alliance was established in April 2011, as an alliance model of working, in order to develop more effective ways of collaborating and working with the UK Government to ensure positive outcomes at CSW.


The sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from 11 to 22 March 2024.

Themes
Priority theme:
Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.
Review theme:
Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (agreed conclusions of the sixty-third session).


Previous #CSW Events


The CSW Alliance brings together like minded individuals and organisations who work internationally or domestically but refer to international legal instruments.
They all work with and at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Many also work with other processes such as Agenda 2030 and CEDAW.

The Alliance offers a platform for it’s members to put forward joint action plans, share each other’s events and notices, strengthen the voice behind campaigns and circulate knowledge and awareness of events, year round as well as at CSW.

More specifically, the CSW Alliance, organises civil society in the UK so that it can have more effective outcomes at CSW and after.  It works with other groups to provide up to date information to those attending CSW or interested in  it.  The Alliance works closely with the Government Equality Office and they state that it is the agency with which they work in regard to CSW and civil society.  The expert group provided by the Alliance works with GEO on the zero draft, providing suggestions on text that the UK takes forward in its further negotiations.  This coordination role, which was created by ourselves, is unique in the world.

The Alliance organises pre CSW training, networking and meetings to acquaint members with key issues and provide space to strategise. It also organises the morning briefings for UK NGOS in New York.


What is CSW?

CSW or the “Commission on the Status of Women” is the main global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Member states, women’s rights organizations as well as UN entities gather to discuss the progress and gaps in implementing the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
Once a year CSW meets at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for two weeks around International Women’s Day. (8th March).
NAWO holds a series of events throughout the year around the main themes and topics of CSW.
NAWO members are able to submit requests to be accredited to attended CSW.