This year the Commission on the Status of Women focus on the priority theme of “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.” The outcome of the conference can inform other UN processes such as the UNFCCC but also national and subnational climate action and promotion of human rights. The priority theme comes in the same year that the Gender Action Plan mid-term review is due. To guide the way for negotiators, APWLD; FEMNET, FOS Feminista und WEDO have outlined the following necessary policy outcomes required to build an equitable and gender-transformative agenda for climate and environmental action. Those demands built upon the feminists’ demand of the Women and Gender Constituency for COP26, and have been further outlined in collaboration with the Women’s Rights Caucus, a global coalition working to advance women’s human rights in their communities and together at the United Nations:
- The five key areas outlined are Recognize and redress loss and damage, centering the most marginalized peoples and communities in addressing climate impacts, particularly women and girls;
- Commit to ending the sovereign debt crisis, to ensure fiscal space for climate action and gender equality;
- Dismantle false solutions, particularly the emphasis on net zero and nature-based solutions in the climate and biodiversity arenas;
- Advance a just and equitable energy transition, shifting from a fossil-fuel based economy to a low-carbon and renewable energy system that upholds women’s human rights and advances social and environmental justice; and
- Fulfill historical obligations to provide gender-just climate finance that is predictable, adequate, transparent, accountable, accessible and in the form of grants rather than loans.
The full position paper can be accessed here.
In addition, the Women & Gender Constituency, has produced the events list below that contains WGC members’ events during CSW66. The list is organized by date and time. All times are in ET which is the New York time zone (GMT/UTC-4).
All events will take place online, few in a hybrid form.
Further details about the events can be found through the registration links.
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More resources and up-to-date information can be found below: