From 1 March - 12 March 2010, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meets in New York to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action for Equality, Development and Peace 15 years on. Jane Gabriel, and openDemocracy guest writers, some of whom reflect back to their experience in Beijing ahead of this year's CSW, report from New York on the progress on and challenges of advancing women's human rights.

See also our coverage of the Commission sessions in 2009, 2008 and 2007.


UK women: the loss of an independent collective voice

Annette Lawson 27 February 2012
As the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women opens in New York today, women's organisations from the UK find themselves ignored at home and excluded at the UN, says Annette Lawson

Zero tolerance or zero consequence?

Pablo Castillo Diaz and Letitia Anderson 15 March 2010

Laudable yet formalistic plans, committees and laws have been put in place to address violence against women, yet impunity remains rampant. Should the measure of progress be more mechanisms or less violence ?

Guns: the unending cycle of violence

Sarah Masters 12 March 2010
The words of the women paralleled each other as they described how armed violence in the home and community, armed conflict, and the availability and misuse of guns feed each other in an unending cycle. These are not simple issues with easy solutions, but Sarah Masters says that this cannot justify apathy, silence, and inaction

Putting money where our mouths are

Lyric Thompson 11 March 2010
Lyric Thompson, in her last report from New York, writes that as we close the 54th UN Commission on the Status of Women, there’s no mystery as to what it takes to close the tremendous gap between policy and practice: money. Best-laid plans are moot if not resourced. Invest in women. As the UN motto reminds us, it's our world.

Haven't we said so already?

Roberta Clarke 11 March 2010
If the actions recommended by the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action on Equality, Development and Peace were honoured, Roberta Clarke argues that the Millennium Development Goals could be met.

Keeping hope alive in New York

Muadi Mukenge 9 March 2010
Will the government representatives at the CSW remember their commitments when they are back in their home countries? After all, any gains for women and girls translate into gains and advancement for the entire population and by extension, the planet.

Women’s empowerment in Central Asia and movement building

Angelika Arutyunova 8 March 2010
For the first time at CSW, women from Central Asia shared their stories. I realized that this in itself is the empowerment of women. This in itself is the movement building: twelve women talking about the situation of women in Central Asia.

Iran: time to change the question

Jane Gabriel 8 March 2010
Parvin Ardalan spoke to Jane Gabriel at the UN CSW about the link between a conversation with her father and her work fighting for the rights and freedom of both men and women in Iran, and why it's time the international community changed the question: how can we help?

New York: no place for women in action

Margaret Owen 8 March 2010
In an open letter to the United Nations Secretary General, the European Women's Lobby declares that "The 54th Session of the CSW...represents a step backwards by its failure to offer a new vision and mechanisms for implementation"

How about equality of respect?

Jane Esuantsiwa Goldsmith 7 March 2010
Last week the UN CSW54 was accused by the European Women's Lobby of being a 'step backwards' for women. As it grinds on into its second week Jane Esuantsiwa Goldsmith says the women’s movement needs a new twin strategy around equality of respect and quality of experience

An uncomfortable truth: the gender turf war at UN CSW

Lyric Thompson 7 March 2010
Lyric Thompson takes issue with those who argue that men are inherently unqualified to speak as advocates for women's rights, and sees a paradoxical mirror image of the thinking that kept us out of classrooms, voting booths, political offices and boardrooms globally

Courage, controversy and chaos at the UN Commission on the Status of Women

Jane Gabriel 7 March 2010
More than two thousand women's rights activists are in New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action for Equality, Development and Peace. The inside story is being covered daily by openDemocracy guest writers.

The table around which we didn't sit

zohra moosa 5 March 2010
CSW has attracted 1000s of women to its proceedings this year, but there is a danger that we are just talking to ourselves. Two sessions on the financial crisis point to the change that is needed.

The price of peace

Lyric Thompson 5 March 2010
“Peace processes are bad men talking to bad government and other bad men.....women in civil society are doing tremendous work on the ground, but they are not heard, they are not respected, and above all they are not funded.” Mary Robinson speaking at the UNCSW....

Women: reflections on our human rights

Jane Gabriel 5 March 2010
It's seventeen years since women's rights were recognised as human rights at the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna. openDemocracy writers examine the struggle to turn these rights into a day-to-day reality for women and girls and examine the challenges that lie ahead

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