Full text of Statement at the last CSW Briefing held on March 21, 2024
Fellow delegates, my name is Pam Perraud and I am here representing the US Women’s Caucus, an alliance of dozens of US-based NGOs
committed to women’s rights, including FAWCO, the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas, an organization which I have
proudly served as UN representative for over 25 years, as well as Zonta.
There is a much-quoted Chinese saying that “women hold up half the sky.” This is often given out as a truism showing women’s equal
partnership with men; however, the statement overlooks the realities we all now know: that while women are trying to “hold up their part of the sky,” they continue to struggle with more of the burden, with fewer resources, receiving less pay and less recognition for their efforts. This continued inequality is no longer sustainable, and without major changes for women, particularly for poor women, “the sky may indeed
fall.”
In terms of the US Women’s Caucus statement for this year’s CSW, I believe the many sessions have produced the data documenting the issue; shown concrete examples of best practices; given specific recommendations and provided practical solutions to many of the problems poor women face. The US Women’s Caucus recommendations include:
- Enforcing equal pay laws across employment sectors.
- Using targeted direct cash transfers.
- Providing fairer access to bank and lending institutions, including mobile banking and more investment in women’s entrepreneurship.
- Passing fair inheritance and ownership laws, particularly for widows, indigenous people and women in rural areas.
- Expanding access to education and technical training, particularly in the STEM fields.
- Strengthening social safety nets to include universal heath and full reproductive care.
- Providing quality, affordable childcare as part of vital infrastructure.
- Promoting quotas to expand women’s access to leadership positions across industry and government.
- Promoting broader outreach to include more vulnerable women, including indigenous, minority, migrant, older, disabled or women of African descent.
Most of the solutions to poverty reduction we endorse are not new, and they are known to be effective tools. We now know these solutions are not only effective; they are doable. Many of these recommendations are in this year’s proposed Agreed Conclusions and, like many others at the CSW, the US Caucus feels that it is up to governments to support these recommendations, honor their commitments and take action, now.
But NGOs must also do their part. The Secretary General has a said we now must “push back on the push back,” and this week the head of UN Women said NGOs must now “push forward.” Clearly, our task as civil society representatives is to start that pushing, moving states from words towards more concrete action and specific deeds. But it is also time to ask for accountability from nation states.
In terms of the ideal CSW, let me say, like other NGO representatives here, I am grateful for access to the CSW every year and hope NGOs will continue to be able to participate to the fullest extent possible. However, I long for the days when negotiations were held in the open and there was more access to delegates and more transparency, and I truly lament the ever-shrinking space for NGOs. The UN can and should do better in this regard.
Going forward, I would also like to suggest that a good way for NGOs to have clearer benchmarks and regularly measure the accountability of member states might be for UN Women, after each CSW, to come up with a 10-point targeted summary of the most important Agreed Conclusions to monitor. That way, we can all better measure what specific progress has – or has not – been made on vital commitments.
I think we need to be clear about our aims. Women are not asking for the moon and the stars; women are only asking for their fair share in order to continue to “hold up their part of the sky” for a fairer, more just world for all.