Anglican women gather in New York for 54th annual UNCSW

New York: March 01, 2010, (PCTV Newsdesk)

Thousands of women from around the world, including more than 90representing the Anglican Communion, will gather in New York March 1-12for the 54th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women toundertake a 15-year review of the implementation of the BeijingDeclaration and Platform for Action.

The CSW is the oldest U.N. standing commission. It meets annually toexamine a different theme as it relates to gender equity -- globalpoverty, economics, peacekeeping, human rights, etc. -- from the lens ofthe most vulnerable and exploited communities, mostly women andchildren, said Alessandra Peña, a consultant for the Anglican UnitedNations Thematic Working Group on Women's Right and Empowerment.

"This year is a review year ... there was a five-year review in 2000 anda 10-year review in 2005," she said. "Beijing (is important) because itis still considered the most comprehensive platform on issues of genderequity ... the MDGs were informed by the Beijing platform."

In September 1995, the U.N. convened the Fourth World Conference onWomen in Beijing, China, which focused on action for equality,development and peace and during which 189 U.N. member governmentsadopted the declaration and platform for action. The 12 critical issuesincluded in the platform influenced the eight U.N. MillenniumDevelopment Goals adopted in 2000.

Anglican Observer at the United Nations Hellen Wangusa and her officecoordinate the commission's Episcopal-Anglican delegation. Prior to thecommission meeting, delegates were asked to familiarize themselves withthe overall objectives of the Beijing platform and the MDGs; to deepentheir understanding of the Anglican theological perspective on theissues raised in the platform; and to select one of the platform'scritical issue and write a five- to seven-page report documenting theadvances and obstacles to implementation in the delegate's home country.This was to prepare the delegates to make reports and answer questionsin meetings with U.N. bodies, NGOs and church officials, and to advocateeffectively with their national government's representatives.

"When we bring women, we are using our voice as a critical resource.Critical in the sense that it brings persons from all over the globe,and being the largest women's delegation, and most comprehensive, webelieve that the impact is going to be very visible, and is going to bevery useful," said Wangusa, in an interview at her office in theEpiscopal Church Center. "We are using the same voice to raise criticalchallenges; they have to do with the conceptual development of what wehave been using as tools to advocate for women's empowerment, women'sissues, girls' issues ..."

Deroe A. Weeks of the Episcopal Church of Liberia focused her country'sreport on universal access to primary education for girls. Girls'enrollment has increased in her country as attitudes and policies toward"traditional schools" - a barrier to education - have changed, she said.

It used to be, Weeks said, that girls would be taken out of primaryschools and enrolled in traditional schools that teach them how to bebetter wives and mothers. As a result of Liberia's National Girls'Education Policy, enacted in 2006 by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf'sadministration, girls can attend traditional schools only during regularschool breaks.

Attitudes toward traditional schools vary countrywide and tend to bemore favorable in rural areas; the practice of female genitalmutilation, which is associated with traditional schools, is alsoaddressed by the change in girls' educational policy, she added.

Weeks is a member of Trinity Cathedral in Monrovia, Liberia's capital,and works with the Children's Assistance Program, an NGO that educatesyouth and adolescent girls about sexual reproductive health andHIV/AIDS. She attended the 2000 Beijing conference, she said.

Alice Garrick, of the Diocese of Lahore, Pakistan, focused her report onthe education and training of women.

"If women are educated, skilled and trained, they can deal with life,"she said, adding that she speaks of her experience in Pakistan, wherefundamentalists rule over government and society. "If they are not, itis hard to deal with a male-dominated society."

Since 1995, Garrick said, the diocese has used the Beijing platform as abasis for addressing and discussing social taboos such as domesticviolence, HIV/AIDS awareness, child abuse and the rehabilitation ofhome-based female sex workers.

Garrick coordinates four programs in the Lahore diocese that help womenand children.

"Social harmony within families, society and the church is an outcome ofeducating women," Garrick said.

Both Weeks and Garrick attended an opening Eucharist and luncheon forCSW delegates at the church center Feb. 26.

The UNCSW meets once a year for eight working days; participants includerepresentatives of its 45 member states, observers from other U.N.member states and non-member states (the U.N. currently has 192 memberstates), representatives of U.N. organizations, intergovernmental,governmental, and non-governmental organizations.

Further Information can be found here: http://www.aco.org/ministry/un/women/