13 March 2025, New York - Statement delivered by Ms Stella Ronner-Grubačić, EU Ambassador for Gender and Diversity, at the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women High-level interactive dialogue: Accelerating implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action: the role of the CSW
Honourable Chair,
I am honoured to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States as we discuss how to revitalise the Commission on the Status of Women.
Our common aim is to reinforce confidence in the CSW as the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion and protection of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
The EU supports the call in the Pact for the Future for ECOSOC to explore options to revitalise the CSW to promote the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and to ensure that the Commission is strengthened.
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It is an important day. 30 years ago in Beijing we adopted commitments to ensure full realisation of human rights for women and girls. Today we want to take decisive steps to make these commitments a reality. While we have made considerable progress, only five years from 2030, we are still far from achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women; goal number five of the Sustainable Development Goals. As the UN Secretary-General concluded in 2022, commitment and bold action are needed to accelerate progress.
The EU underlines the importance of continuing to push for gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls through legislative and policy measures, gender mainstreaming and institutions that systematically address the root causes of gender inequalities. This is also why, just last week, ahead of 8 March, the EU adopted a Roadmap for women’s rights, setting out our commitment to continue pushing for gender equality in the EU and in the world. Backsliding on the progress that we have achieved over the past 30 years is not acceptable.
As highlighted in the UN Secretary-General's latest report on Women, Peace and Security, civic space is deliberately becoming restricted, impeding women's work for their rights. We urgently need counter this trend, amplify women's voices and ensure their contributions are considered in our political decisions.
CSW plays a crucial role in the process of achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. In recent years, the CSW has increased its visibility. That is positive. The number of delegates and NGOs attending its sessions has also increased. In recent sessions of CSW, there have been around 120 high-level state officials and over 7,000 NGO representatives, which demonstrates both its convening power and its unused potential to accelerate the realisation of gender equality at the national level and to tackle the backlash against gender equality.
The revitalisation process offers an opportunity to enhance the CSW’s efficacy further and strengthen its central role as an intergovernmental commission with a comprehensive mandate to achieve substantive gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. The EU is going into this revitalization process with the goal to strengthen the existing level of ambition of the CSW, and we will not agree to an outcome that would undermine the current international normative framework on gender equality, the full enjoyment of all human rights by all women and girls, and their empowerment.
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Taking into account these elements, the EU is of the opinion that the options to revitalise CSW and strengthen its ability to carry out its mandate, should be based on the following principles:
preserve the integrity of the CSW mandate, as well as the main elements of the CSW (including the ministerial segment and negotiated outcome document);
aim at increasing the efficiency of the CSW’s work, the actionability of its outcome documents, and improving synergies with other UN processes;
promote full and meaningful engagement of civil society, youth, academia and other relevant stakeholders in the revitalisation process.
ensure that the CSW addresses the most pressing global concerns at any given time and that it’s recommendations are better able to influence global decision making.
Let us mark this 30 year anniversary with our joint firm recommitment to the CSW!