Framework.

CSW59:

Much of the CSW was framed around CEDAW.  CEDAW is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  From a postcard addressed to U.S. Senate Leaders:  “CEDAW is a landmark international agreement that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. 

Ratifying CEDAW will strengthen the United States as a global leader in standing up for women and girls.  The US. Senate leadership should continue our country’s proud bipartisan tradition of promoting and protecting human rights by making CEDAW a priority and ratifying it now.”

The three highlighted objectives of CEDAW essentially match two of the three critical global issues for World Mission as defined by our International Partners in conjunction with World Mission personnel.  The World Mission critical global issues are:  Education (particularly females), stopping violence against women and girl children (reconciliation) and Evangelism .  The CEDAW goals are:  Stopping violence against women, ensuring educational opportunities and increasing political participation. 

Increasing political participation involves a number of things.  One must be educated in order to access to halls of power.  There must be in a process of reconciliation in order to recognize that there are different ways of leading and that the contributions of 50% of humanity (female) are just as important as the contributions of the other 50% of humanity (male).  

On to the UN CSW59 itself....

CSW59  Preliminary:

Notes that I have from the three orientations that I participated in before the official start of the CSW59 include:

In terms of the slow progress of things like the eradication of violence against women, of educating equal amounts of girl children with boy children, etc., someone made the statement, “maybe we are working on changing the wrong things.” 

Someone else suggested that for me it is just normal to have 88% men and 12% women in parliament.  The world is affirmative action for men; men are competent until proven otherwise.  Women are incompetent until they prove otherwise.

Giving birth should not limit and define a woman’s life.   Patriarchy divides women and leaves some women behind. 

Trying to change within the existing patriarchal paradigm is not permanent change.  Instead we must change the paradigm.  The world must change, not the women.  Change begins at the bottom and transforms the top.

A statement that was very eye opening for me was:  There are thousands of women’s NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations).  What we lack is being in politics where economic power can be challenged and also accessed. 

I, Debbie, would personally also argue that interpretation of Holy Scripture has a huge influence on the lack of forward momentum for women.  Christian Scripture, the Muslim Quran, etc., can hold human beings in cultural prisons.  Women and men who see Holy Scriptures through a liberating lens need to become scholars that can help leadership and grassroots re-interpret and free the Holy Scriptures, whatever the religion.  Scriptures were written by men in specific cultural contexts and are treated as though they are written in stone.  I believe that the stone of culture needs to be shattered so that the life giving revelation of Scripture can be brought forth and renew humankind.  As a Christian I clearly focus on the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament.  I include the Muslim Quran and other literature considered holy by other religions because the United Nations is made up of the global community and this includes other faiths as well as Christianity.