Upcoming UN Feminist Conference, US Cuts UNFPA Funding & Other Stories

United Nations

🗞The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), established in 1946 by ECOSOC, is an annual conference convening governments, civil society, and UN agencies to discuss women’s rights issues. This year’s CSW is coming up on Monday with two weeks full of programming.

Concerns surrounding CSW:

• CSW is run by pro-abortion feminist activists who promote abortion access as an international human right. Although UN member states never agreed to such a right, UNFPA, UN Women, along with a long list of NGOs and "human right experts” make the case that women’s rights and women’s empowerment cannot be achieved without access to abortion.

• The organizers of CSW promote a one-sided view on abortion and silence dissident voices. CSW never platforms pro-life speakers or NGOs. Pro-life advocacy is oftentimes labeled as “anti-women,” “anti-rights,” and as “backsliding” of women’s empowerment.

• UN agencies, along with progressive governments and NGOs, will push for controversial ideas to be included in the CSW agreed conclusions. The agreed conclusions represent a set of commitments negotiated by member states months prior to the Commission. Progressive governments are leveraging their geopolitical power to pressure more traditional countries to include controversial references to sexual and reproductive health, comprehensive sexuality education, diverse gender identities, to name a few, in UN agreements. Although the agreed conclusions are non-binding agreements, they can give rise to customary international law: the mere repetition of a given phrase could be referenced as evidence that is now a mainstream idea.

This year at CSW:

• CSW will run Monday to Friday, March 10th to March 21st and will adopt its political declaration right at the beginning of the Conference on Monday, March 10.

• This year’s CSW is seeing an increase in the number of events about fighting “backlash” and “anti-feminist” movements. See some examples below:

Feminism for the Win: Strategies to defy and defeat anti-feminist movements hosted by the German Mission

Sexual and gender-based cyberviolence: Challenges and solutions to counter backlash and build a digital world free from violence against women and girls hosted by the Mission of France

Addressing the backlash: Pushing forward to secure sexual, reproductive, health and labour rights hosted by the Missions of Belgium and Mexico

 Parliaments and Beijing +30: Resisting backlash and shifting paradigms towards gender equality hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

The Rise of ‘Family Values’: Strategies for Family Law Reform hosted by the Swedish Mission

Religion, Rights and Resistance: How to Reclaim Gender Equality in Times of Backlash: Scandinavia House hosted by the Swedish Mission

• To see the full list of CSW side events, check out this list. Please keep in mind that the majority of events ask for a valid UN pass. 

• Pro-life and pro-family groups will host a parallel conference to CSW, the Conference on the State of Women and Family. Here is more information about their programming if you are interested in showing support.

Other UN Stories

🗞 Hungary-EU Asks to Erase “Motherhood” at UN, Wants Gender-Ideology Term “Parenthood”. Stefano Gennarini’s has the story here.

🗞 Statement: Commission on the Status of Women cannot be revitalized without conservative group participation, Rebecca Oas reports.

🗞 US funding cuts for UNFPA confirmed. “UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, notes with deep regret the termination of all funding agreements by the United States Government.” Check out the press release here.

🗞 UN Human Rights Chief deeply worried about 'fundamental shift' in direction in US. “Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council, Turk voiced his strongest rebuke to date of the dramatic about-face seen in the United States in recent weeks.” Access his full speech here.

International  

🗞 The World Economic Forum Promotes Abortion Access in Their Latest Article. “Research has demonstrated that denying women access to abortion triggers outcomes that reverberate throughout their lives, impacting everything from the school years they complete to how much they earn.” Full article here.

🗞 Pro-lifer Linda Gibbons remains in jail after last week’s arrest at Toronto abortion mill. “Pro-lifer Linda Gibbons declined the offer of bail this week following her February 13 arrest for silently witnessing outside of Toronto's Morgentaler Clinic. Last week's arrest marks her 5th arrest since last May.” News piece here.

Opinion

🗞 In her latest op-ed for IYc, Our Culture & The Eugenic Mindset, Chiara McKenna argues we need to resist and reject the culture of death that promotes eugenics as “solution” to life’s tough problems. Access it here.