Revitalize the CSW With the Feminist and Women’s Movement

History & Futures Project, Cities for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

During the 2025 Commission on the Status of Women Meeting in New York, I gave this statement about how to strengthen the CSW through feminist leadership.

The UN Commission on the Status of Women has an historic opportunity to revitalize itself and accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. One of the first commissions established by the UN in 1946, it became a standard-setter. Perhaps one of its most notable accomplishments was the creation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that was approved by the General Assembly in 1979. But it also nurtured four pivotal UN women’s conferences. Launched in Mexico in 1975 these gatherings helped galvanize the women’s movement, culminating in the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. Adopted by 189 countries, the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) remains the golden standard for policy on gender equality to this day. For the 50,000 government and NGO delegates, the conferences stood out in history because it elevated women’s human rights as a priority agenda and helped create a vision for an international feminist movement.

Thirty years later, we need to rethink how the CSW can meet the challenges for future generations. Dr. Dubravka Simonovic, former special rapporteur on violence against women believes that the CSW has gradually lost is credibility and its authority to implement relevant human rights and policy instruments. As former chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York, I agree that the CSW’s reputation as the normative voice for gender equality and women’s empowerment is in peril. How and why has the CSW lost its way? One reason is that its review process with priority themes separates the BPfA’s 12 critical areas of discrimination against women into siloes, losing the holistic framework it needs to be a strong policy guide. But the CSW’s greatest error is to lock out NGOs from final negotiations, divorced from its most important constituency—the legions of NGOs-- who have the reach and the power to bring the UN resolutions to life.  Little wonder that when the CSW closes its doors on the annual March session at UN headquarters, the Agreed Conclusion or Political Declaration stays behind as a forgotten file. 

How can we revitalize the CSW?

If we want to strengthen the CSW’s influence, we must heed civil society’s call to make CEDAW an accountability mechanism. To begin, changing the Guidelines for government reporting should be revised so that CEDAW is a core reporting requirement for all 12 critical areas of concern. The CEDAW committee session should also be brought back to New York in February, just prior to CSW. That would allow experts to participate in greater numbers in the plenaries and—equally important-- at the NGO Forum. Further, UN Women can join hands with the NGO CSW/NY to conduct trainings at the regional meetings in preparation for CSW70.This timing is better than during the CSW, itself. And the trainings should be open to member states, UN agencies and donors as well as civil society. The reason: it takes all these stakeholders working together to make a difference.

CSW’s program must change as well. As the Secretary General’s report, “Our Common Agenda” notes, gender equality and women’s leadership are the key to accelerate progress on the sustainable development affecting inequal employment, health, education as well as biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and clean water. Yet the culture of violence that is the core obstacle undermining the leadership of women and girls is barely mentioned in many government reports. This omission is unacceptable. Violence against women/conflict and the culture of peace deserve to be a standing agenda item.

Where can we find the political force to support these changes? The solution, almost literally, lies across the street from UN headquarters at the NGO Forum. Since 1995, I watched an NGO Forum grow into a vibrant networking space, increasing yearly in its advocacy strength. The numbers of NGOs gather in New York grew by the thousands annually. At CSW69 more than 20,000 participants were on the WHOVA app, engaging in 750 in-person and virtual events.

The secret to the enduring richness of the 1995 BPfA was attributed, in part, to NGOs real-time engagement. Today, these dynamic and vital political partnerships are largely overlooked. One reason is that the CSW is disconnected from the NGO the regional caucuses. It is rare for these caucuses to expend their energy on the conflict and drama around the CSW’s outcome document. As a result, the richness of regional preparatory meetings and their own outcomes are nearly invisible at the global negotiations. NGOs understand that they do not negotiate UN documents, but it is a mistake to shut them out entirely. The CSW should restore access for NGO observers to attend the negotiations to the very end. Armed with timely information, NGO observers can report to their caucuses and leverage action when it is needed.

Finally, both the member states and NGOs should rethink the paradigm of multilateralism. The “crises of multilateralism” require a fundamental shift in thinking to a multilayered multilateralism. Global governance cannot be left to national governments. Without action at the local level, there is little hope for the CSW to have a real impact. In many countries, cities are the real centers of political power, wielding power as engines of social and political change. The Cities for CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) campaign is a prime example of how localization of UN mandates can make a difference to the daily lives of ordinary citizens. This grassroots, bottom-up strategy in the US currently covers more than 62 cities, counties and states and embraces more than 82 million people.  Using its mandate, mayors have mainstreamed human rights for women and girls and LGTQ groups in public policy and gender budgeting.

Women of the world deserve a revitalized CSW now. As backlash against women’s human rights gains strength at the highest levels of leadership, revitalization of the CSW is more urgent than ever. It can stand as a beacon of hope in turbulent times to guide the UN and strengthen our ability to combat many crises of our times: inequality, violence and conflicts and climate change. A stronger CSW also promises to help revitalize the UN, itself. Indeed, the UN has the potential to regain its strength and influence if it leans on the power of leadership of the feminist and women’s movement. It must start with the CSW rising to meet its own ambitions defined by our feminist leaders of 1946.