Turtle Bay, the small neighborhood of New York that is home to the United Nations, is much quieter this week. Over the weekend, the last of the more than 6,000 advocates who were in New York for the United Nations’ annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) returned home.
This year’s CSW was the largest gathering ever assembled to address violence against women and girls, the theme of this year’s meeting. Some advocates, especially those who were unable to stay the full two weeks and see the meeting through to its conclusion, left weary and discouraged. It’s not that these advocates, of which I was one tired of hearing women’s stories, or failed to be inspired by the millions of women, girls—and increasingly boys and men—from South Sudan to Burma who are working to eradicate gender-based violence. These civil society activists, parliamentarians and others who spoke are models of how to work in extremely challenging conditions to end human rights abuses and gender inequality. Their efforts on behalf of the most vulnerable, including girls, those with disabilities and migrant and displaced women, moved everyone who heard them.
The frustration and fatigue instead arose from listening, day after day, to stories detailing governments’ and communities’ apathy towards, and sometimes actual complicity with, violence against women. Most depressing of all were the accounts of what was occurring behind closed doors during the negotiations of CSW’s policy statement (known as the meeting’s “Agreed Conclusions”). Numerous government delegations were denying that many forms of violence against women were in fact violence. A number of delegations also forcefully argued that survivors of sexual violence should be barred from accessing the full range of reproductive health services that they may need and request. Even if they are raped during a conflict, and especially if they are a girl.
Despite these discouraging tales and disturbing push-back by many countries, when CSW finally came to a close well past 5:00pm on Friday, UN Member States had actually produced a set of Agreed Conclusions that reaffirmed the right of women and girls to live free of violence, and the obligation of governments to prevent and respond to violence perpetrated against women and girls due to their gender. And so, those of us who were able to see the meeting felt our spirits lift. This apparent turn around and positive conclusion was not arrived at easily, or by chance. It was a result of not just two weeks of work by those 6,000 + supporters of women’s and girl’s rights, along with many government representatives, from Norway to the Philippines, who worked literally day and night. It was also due to months of preparation by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies and governments to seize this opportunity to condemn violence against women in all settings—including war and natural disasters—and to remind governments at all levels that they are responsible for the prevention of this violence and the provision of full reproductive health and mental health services to those who have been affected by violence.
So, upon reflection, CSW seems to have been an occasion of some celebration. Thousands of vibrant women who are making change in their communities and countries came together to share their knowledge and experience. And while there are indeed issues that have been left out of the Agreed Conclusions, there is a great deal that is in there—and against which governments will now be measured.
That’s why the Women’s Refugee Commission hangs in there and seeks to push better guidance, policies and official statements in official UN forums and from UN agencies. WRC knows that refugee and displaced women’s and girls’ lives can be profoundly affected when, for example, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, updates its guidance on working with people living with disabilities or when the UN’s Security Council issues a new Presidential Statement on Sexual Violence in Conflict—or when CSW issues a successful Agreed Conclusions.
As obscure and technical as these might sound, they help displaced women and girls—and boys and men as well., And that is why, despite fatigue and despite the challenges, we continue to undertake this work.
Elizabeth Cafferty, senior advocacy officer, directs WRC’s advocacy work at the UN in New York City.