Activists, MPs prepare for upcoming New York Commission on Status of Women

AMMAN — A group of activists, MPs and government officials met on Wednesday to discuss the latest preparations to ensure valuable and engaging participation in the upcoming 64th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which will be held in New York at the United Nations Headquarters. 

During the CSW, the government and non-governmental local organisations are expected to present efforts and achievements made in the Kingdom towards forming concrete policies for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

“The aim of the meeting today is to explain to the government officials, MPs and NGOs that will participate in the CSW meeting in New York the activities that they will be taking part in,” said Solidarity Is Global Institute (SIGI) Executive President Asma Khader.

She added that the meeting also aims to “pinpoint priorities for civil society and the women’s movement so that we can discuss them during the meeting”.

Khader was speaking during a one-day event held at SIGI’s headquarters in Amman titled “Arab and Jordanian Preparations to Take Part in the CSW 64 Meeting”.

“The main priorities for women in our region that will be discussed during the meeting include topics such as refugee rights, peace and security, occupation and conflict zones and gender-based violence,” Khader said. 

Meanwhile, Jerash MP Wafa Bani Mustafa said that the Jordanian delegation “should have a clear vision of what we want to discuss during the CSW meeting”.

“The government always tends to discuss achievements, so we will make sure to fill in the CSW on what still needs to be accomplished and then return home and push our government to apply our recommendations,” Bani Mustafa told the gathering.

Also addressing the gathering was Diana Haddadin from the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW), who said that the commission has several issues that it plans to address during the CSW meeting.

“Our focus will be on issues such as women’s access to justice, women in peace and security and political and economic empowerment of women,” Haddadin added.

The year 2020 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was espoused by 189 governments. 

The declaration was a comprehensive roadmap for gender equality, the empowerment of women and the human rights of women and girls, according to a statement that was published on the JNCW website.

UN member states are called upon to undertake comprehensive national-level reviews of progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the JNCW statement said. 

The reviews should include an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievements in gender equality and the empowerment of women, according to the statement.