Tag a Life International (TaLI) Director, officials and LEMHsters last week attended the CSW 67 hybrid session under the theme “Innovation and technological change and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
African women got to discuss challenges, milestones and identifying the gaps and progress in achieving a gender equal world for African women.
Of interest and on board were issues about the need for inclusiveness in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) process, hence rotation of the venue for CSW editions was suggested by the CSW NGO Caucus on Africa. The mention of the issue on this particular event was a follow up from the previously held African Caucus.
Although quite a number of the women from Africa managed to meet in New York City, challenges that hinder them from participating were raised ranging from immigration (visas) to funding for the trips. CSW in New York City therefore remains inaccessible to most women and girls from communities that need it the most.
This African caucus, coordinated by FEMNET reiterated the need to push for rotation in hosting CSW across the world. It was therefore indicated by FEMNET that a declaration had been made and petition released for submission at the UN CSW for this cause.
Other issues necessitating rotation as cited were issues of economic gains enjoyed by the host state like the United States of America at the moment, which should be benefited by others as well.
FEMNET also reported that progress is already being made to push for inclusivity in CSW processes through regional convening which started in Nairobi in 2021 and Lilongwe in 2022. The Caucus however alluded that the African space that FEMNET is working on for pre-CSW should be more accessible to more women on the continent.
Another area of concern that was raised during the caucus was the engagement of the global south especially Africa on the drafting of CSW resolutions.
Members noted that the invisibility of Africans in the drafting of CSW resolutions is undesirable and capacity must be built in African women to competent drafters also involved in the processes to ensure the desired issues of African women and girls are well represented.
Therefore young women in Africa must also be capacitated to advocate and defend their issues by being capacitated to engage in the processes.
In light of this year’s theme, concerns were also raised on the need for women to take front seat in the tech world on innovation, leadership and financial gains so that they are not merely being used as consumers of technology but rather business owners, innovators and intellectual property owners to truly close the digital gaps.
The Caucus (along with many CSW side events) bemoaned the rampant manifestation of gender based violence (GBV) online with many citing that there has been a manifestation of the actual physical life GBV which has been transferred online. Issues of bullying, intolerance, sexism, revenge pornography and outright insults and hate speech have manifested a lot against women and girls online, calling for for States to impose stern measures to end GBV online.
Women and girls were also advised to learn about ways to defend themselves from cyber bullying and online violence that include engaging available platform measures such as strengthening their security, blocking trolls and reporting such violence.
Another issue that was identified as a point of discrimination at CSW was the issue of language. To achieve inclusiveness and remove stigma and discrimination, words like ‘rural women’ must be changed to ‘women in the rural areas’.
Lastly, the African Caucus submitted that while it is critical to engage men and boys in ending all forms of GBV and discrimination against women and girls, we must be careful to have clear mandate on what their role is. This is for the purposes of keeping the messages clear that it is about women and girls, and also to make sure that they are aligned with the agenda of being positive by-standers and collaborators, and not owners of the agenda. It was cited that women and girls must remain the voices of their own struggle.
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