A Two-Word Victory

[Editors’ note: In this time when the need for connection is greater than ever, we are increasing the frequency of our blog posts to three times a week.]

Sometimes a victory is measured in something as small as two words.

After obtaining our official status as a recognized Non Governmental Organization (NGO) in the United Nations last fall, I began to participate in the planning meetings that were shaping the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women.  There were multiple types of meetings being held and many different UN groups directing and participating.  It was dizzying to sort through communications from Generation Equality, UN Women, CSW64, the NGOCSW/NY Beijing+25 Study Group, and many more – not to mention the learning curve of deciphering the acronyms and becoming familiar with the base documents that guide all these UN groups.

Of special focus all year was the fact that 2020 is the 25^th Anniversary of the Fourth Conference on Women held in Beijing. A 5^th Conference has not been scheduled, so women’s groups around the globe have been busy examining the Beijing Platform for Action to see where the world stands on its implementation of the stated mission of “removing all obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making.” What does the data show about how well this has happened and what needs to be added to the already comprehensive recommendations of the Platform?

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, six “thematic clusters” were formed, each examining a particular aspect of accelerating shared power and responsibility.  While I attended the presentations for all the clusters, I paid special attention and contributed notes to the sessions of the cluster on “Participation, Accountability and Gender Responsive Institutions.” 

About a week before the Commission on the Status of Women was supposed to open (heartbreakingly canceled due to the COVID-19 virus!) I received a memo: Recommendations To Be Implemented Based on the Six Thematic Groups.  Each cluster had one very short “recommendation” listed – a condensation of months of work and reams of paper.  Our cluster’s statement called for women making up 50% of a long list of decision-making bodies. But ‘churches’ was not in that list.  I suggested that the words “religious institutions” be added to the list and was delighted that the edit was accepted! The statement now reads:

In order to achieve gender equality, women must make up at least 50% of all decision-making bodies including legislatures, governmental cabinets, corporate boards, city and town governments, religious institutions, conflict resolution bodies (peace treaties), the UN, the court system, academic governing boards, and faith-based institutions. Member States need to report progress on this annually and consider holding an annual Accountability Forum. 

The Holy See has long gotten away with ignoring the accountability requirements to which other nations at the UN are held, but these two words, “religious institutions”, provide one more opportunity to highlight how absurd it is that the Catholic Church continues to be influential at the Commission on the Status of Women.  While it is unlikely that this new addition to the Beijing Platform for Action will have any real influence on a church that is already flouting the accountability expectations of conventions and treaties that they have signed, these two words do give notice to all religious institutions that deny equal rights to women. An entity that refuses to grant equality to half the population of the world has no place in an organization dedicated to the fundamental principle “that the human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights.”