How WILPF US Will Be Part of CSW64 / Beijing +25

Participants in the 2019 UN Practicum for Advocacy.

By Darien De Lu
WILPF US President

March 2020

In 1995, over 30,000 women from 200 countries gathered in a town near Beijing for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women during the nongovernmental organizations (NGO) part of the conference.

Through WILPF connections, I had the privilege of attending the 1995 NGO Women’s Conference. I still recall the exhilaration of being there, pausing on my way to a presentation; I gazed out upon the sea of women – women of so many colors, sizes, and styles; women in Western dress and in traditional apparel, women gathered to make a difference.

The official UN gathering took place just after the NGO Women’s Conference. In Beijing proper, it was smaller but still large, with about 12,000 participants from 180 government delegations and 2,500 NGOs (which are generally comparable to what we in the US call “nonprofits”).

The women’s conferences were put together at five-year intervals starting in 1975. The 1995 women’s conference built on the work and momentum of the three prior ones – and of other UN conferences. In 1995, over a two-week period and with substantial and well-organized pressure from NGOs, the UN member states worked to issue a consensus statement. This was no small task, because the document they had been developing for over two years still had large sections of “bracketed text” that, up to that point, they had been unable to all agree upon. Finally, the member states (often simply called “states”) all signed on to the goals expressed in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which aspires to achieving greater equality and opportunity for women.
 
Many activists have looked on the Beijing Platform for Action, stemming from a relatively progressive global era, as setting a high mark for a UN declaration. Fearing that the outcomes of another Women’s Conference would represent backtracking and losses, they’ve resisted having another such conference since. The 1995 conference was, in fact, groundbreaking.

Highlighting Past, Present, and Future

Now, a quarter century later, the UN diplomats and their staffs will meet during the official UN sessions of the 2020 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to undertake an appraisal of the implementation of the 1995 Platform for Action and the progress on the UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which aspire to end poverty and protect the planet. CSW64 will be held March 9-20, 2020.

What will that gathering be like? What do most of us know of the United Nations? Certainly, from US news coverage, not much! We may think of images of diplomats – often mostly male – seated in an enormous auditorium, listening to speeches. If you add to that many smaller meetings in many other rooms, you’ll imagine something not too far from accurate. Yet for eleven days each year, UN officials share New York City with an outpouring of thousands of women from around the world. The women – and some men – arrive for the NGO programming at the CSW, as well as the UN’s program.

Imagine the thrill of being there, at this event which – more than ever, in this Beijing + 25 year – will be almost a mini-version of the 1995 Women’s Conference! At the NGO “parallel events” that are part of the CSW, hundreds of presentations – such as “Women and Men as Partners for Gender Equality: Key Lessons”, “Preparing the World for Girls”, “Tackling Hate Based on Religion or Belief: Gender Responsive Strategies”, and “Meaningful Conversations: How to Take 25 Years of Learning Forward” – will fill diverse New York venues. 

WILPF US Brings College Students and WILPF Members to the CSW

Many WILPFers would cherish such an opportunity to meet international women and hear programs on women’s lives, circumstances, and advances! And consider in your own life: What would it have meant to you, to go to the CSW as a college student? What new possibilities, life choices, and topics might that experience have opened up for you?

Each year WILPF makes that opportunity possible for a lucky group of students. For about the last decade, WILPF US has crafted a special learning environment to further enhance the rich CSW setting. We welcome the enthusiasm, lively intelligence, new ideas, and curiosity of the students. The “WILPF Practicum in Advocacy” introduces them to the workings of the UN and the feminist pursuits of the CSW, as well as to the history and current work of WILPF.  

The Practicum is joined by a sister program, Local to Global, for a week of exploration, discussion, and discovery. Each year, one or two “seasoned WILPF members” are selected to be Local to Global participants. They work with the Practicum students, in NYC and afterwards, on community projects. At the CSW they all have the chance to attend both official UN sessions and the NGO parallel events.

WILPF Panels on Ecofeminism and the Peace Train to Beijing

Other WILPF members, from the US and from the many country “sections” of International WILPF also participate in the CSW, especially in the parallel events. Usually, WILPF members have a few opportunities to connect with each other at the CSW, including at parallel events sponsored by International WILPF or WILPF US. WILPF US is taking a key role in presenting two such presentations.  

Past president Mary Hanson Harrison has brought together a panel on agriculture issues. “SISTERS, SEEDS and SOIL: Bold Voices & Choices for Ecofeminism” lifts up the often unheralded voices from diverse communities of women farmers, field workers, seed savers, and local and global women’s and children’s rights organization. This panel seeks to help build up a movement to raise public consciousness on related issues, including the rural-urban divide and economic and racial disparities – and the amplifying negative effects of the agricultural-industrial complex. Ultimately, this presentation hopes to inspire community events, teach-ins, and social media usage to highlight the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
 
Our other panel also aspires to support positive change. It starts by looking back, specifically to the 1995 and WILPF International’s “Peace Train,” which traveled for 22 days from Helsinki, Finland (where the WILPF International Congress took place) to Beijing, China. The train stopped in key cities in multiple countries along the way, so that the over 200 riders could hear from local women about their concerns, in order to carry those messages to the Women’s Conference. WILPF US member Robin Lloyd will speak on the panel and show an excerpt from her hour-long documentary on the Peace Train and the UN Conference. You can find and view the film here.

Besides recalling the Peace Train and its effects, this panel, “Beijing Women’s Peace Train – Looking Back, Looking Forward” also seeks to identify what lessons the Peace Train experiment can offer us for today and tomorrow. When standard means of communication left out women’s voices, WILPF found a way to include them at the discussion table.

WILPF International is offering another panel that brings together feminist activists from different parts of the world on critical topics: “Feminist Alternatives: Challenge Militarism to Save Our Planet: Mobilizing on Gender, Militarism, and the Environment,” This panel confronts the interconnections between the crises of climate change, rising militarism, and capitalism.

Bringing it Home

WILPF seeks continuously to assess matters and situations around the world to identify what will help us advance the goals of peace and justice. The CSW this year will focus on the lessons of the 1995 Women’s conference and progress on the Beijing Platform for Action. Those of us fortunate enough to attend the CSW – this year and in prior years – bring back to our towns and WILPF branches our own lessons, as well as valuable information and insights.  

WILPF International was among the very first NGOs to be credentialed by the UN, and WILPF continues to closely track the work of the UN. Recent milestones include Security Council Resolution 1325, calling for women to have an equal place in peace negotiations, and the UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, WILPF recognizes how far the world is from accomplishing both the SDGs and the Platform for Action! In November, WILPF International issued a statement for the CSW firmly addressing this situation: “It didn’t happen!”  

To confront the militaristic and corporate influences at the UN, we must stay informed of UN work and better understand that institution. WILPF US supports such understanding of the UN’s work through our UN CSW programs – the Practicum and Local to Global – and through sponsorship of an ongoing presence at the annual UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (which addresses the progress on the SDGs). You, too, can be better informed by watching for future eNews articles on these topics.

If you are planning to attend the CSW this year, please help us inform you about WILPF activities there!  Send your name and email address to Secretary@wilpfus.org.