The 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 59)
The 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2015 will conduct a global review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) and consider opportunities for strengthening gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda. Intergovernmental processes are well under way to inform and design the future post-2015 development agenda. The 59th session of the CSW will provide an important opportunity to reflect on progress made towards gender equality in the last twenty years, to identify the multiple challenges that have held back progress as well as to consider effective strategies for advancing women’s rights in the post-2015 context.
The CSW this year will be an opportunity for women’s rights advocates to engage with the Post-2015 process and to influence language future UN documents that uphold the rights of women of all ages.
This year CSW 59 will be different from most CSWs there will not be an Agreed Upon Conclusion (Outcome Document) negotiated during CSW but rather on the first day of CSW 59, member states of the Commission will sign onto a "short, concise and action oriented declaration" that will be negotiated prior to CSW 59. (At none of the previous 5-year anniversaries has there been anything but a Declaration of Recommitment to BPfA.)
UN Women will craft the first draft that will then be reworked by members of the Bureau of the CSW* for a starting point for the members of the full Commission (on the Status of Women/CSW) UN Member States. The work will begin in January and should be completed by March 2. This brought many questions from the floor such as when will a draft of this be available and if civil society will have an opportunity to give input into the draft document—but no decisions have been made yet about the role of civil society.
Because it is a review year the commission will not work on an emerging issues but rather the entire BPfA. This will be a very high level event (meaning Presidents and Ministers attend) for at least the first 3 to 4 days of CSW—a place for the extensive participation of ministers. The goal of the first day is to give an opportunity for these ministers to interact with each other. There will be some opportunity for the ministers to network with experts, researchers, private sector and other stakeholders, but nothing has been decided how this will work. There will be the usual panel discussions where good practices and lessons learned will be discussed. The focus will be on political recommitment and accelerated implementation of BPfA.
http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw59-2015/preparations/expert-group-meeting