The 69th Session for the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from March 10, 2025 - March 21, 2025 with the theme of Beijing+30.
The Beijing Platform for Action was the first global policy framework to confirm gender mainstreaming as a key strategy for realizing gender equality. The international community came to a consensus and agreed to a comprehensive blueprint of commitments supporting the full development of women and developing a framework for action in 12 core areas of concern:
Women and poverty
Education and training of women
Women and health
Violence against women
Women and armed conflict
Women and the economy
Women in power and decision-making
Institutional mechanism for the advancement of women
Human rights of women
Women and the media
Women and the environment
The girl-child
The UNA-San Francisco has been attending in person and virtually, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conferences held in New York for the last few years. Current UNA-SF President Ashley Raveche, will attend this year as a CSW-69 delegate for the UNA-USA , and attended last year CSW-68 with the UNA-San Diego delegation. Past President Mary Steiner attended CSW-67 for the same purposes. These conferences have been self-funded or funded through direct appeal of members who have donated and earmarked funding for this purpose. Reach out to the UNA-San Francisco development chair if you would like to help support a delegate fund for future conference participants at development@una-sf.org.
This year, the UNA-San Francisco will be contributing to the conference parallel events through its San Francisco Series, where it plans to host an intergenerational dialogue on the Beijing Platform for Action on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 from 11:30 am - 1:oo pm Pacific/ 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm Eastern. Please register for this event.
The United Nations Association, USA, San Francisco (UNA SF) is pleased to announce the RATIFY MOVEMENT (formerly the New Agenda for US Human Rights: Ratification of the CEDAW and UNCRC.
The top priority is to ratify the UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nearly all 193 UN Member Nations have ratified both the CEDAW and the UNCRC. The US is painfully overdue to ratify the CEDAW and CRC. The only UN Member Nations not to have ratified the CEDAW are Iran, Somalia, North Sudan, South Sudan, Palau, Tonga, and the United States. The only UN Member Nation not to have ratified the UNCRC is the United States.
As we witness a historic change in the Presidential Administration, there is an awakening to the tremendous opportunity for the success of the RATIFY MOVEMENT for Human Rights, including U.S. ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). These two treaties have enjoyed broad American support at times. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter signed the CEDAW, but the Senate failed to ratify. The Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, signed the UNCRC in 1995 with the support of President Clinton. However, the UNCRC was not submitted to Congress. However, the Optional Protocols prohibiting the involvement of Children in armed conflict, the sale of Children, as well as Prostitution and Child Pornography have been ratified by the Senate.
Since the US has not ratified the CEDAW, it is not represented on the UN CEDAW Committee. Thus the US may not provide any oversight of its enforcement domestically or internationally. CEDAW is important to the international community, because it further reinforces international norms and obligations to protect the rights of women as as well as girls. The CEDAW or “Women’s Bill of Rights” intersects with the rights of children (UNCRC).
The overlap between the well being of the child as it relates to the well being of the mother is cause to support the US ratification of the CEDAW and UNCRC. All children should be protected from violent situations to promote healthy and sustainable behavior.
Again, the goal of the Ratify Movement is U.S. ratification of CEDAW and the UNCRC.
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BACKGROUND
On January 16, 2021, UNA SF Advisory Board Members Emily Murase and Antonia Lavine and Young Professional Member Micaela Leonarte Paredes proposed to the UNA SF Board of Directors that the San Francisco Chapter lead the movement for ratification of the CEDAW and UNCRC. The Board voted “Yes.” to the 2-year movement to get the CEDAW and UNCRC ratified by the US Congress.
The movement for ratification was launched during the UN Commission on the Status of Women meetings, March 15 - 26. In a historic partnership between UNA San Francisco, the National Council of Jewish Women San Francisco, the Soroptimist International of San Francisco, the Friends of the Commission on the Status of Women, CareerGirls, and the Geneva-based International Alliance of Women, we convened a "San Francisco Series" as part of the NGO Forum hosted by the UN Committee on the Status of Women New York to coincide with the UN CSW meetings. Covering almost the entire two weeks, this partnership presented panels each day on topics key to the advancement of women and girls, including ending human trafficking, addressing the needs of aging women, expanding economic empowerment, and showcasing local implementation of CEDAW.
The UNA SF is further leveraging the robust national and (international) network of UNAs and lead the initiative in partnership with not only the organizations listed above but also newly identified supporters. There are already over 40 communities across the country that are part of the "Cities for CEDAW campaign" that can be recruited as National Partners Organization.
The RATIFY MOVEMENT Coalition is composed of representatives from each of the Partner Organizations. Nearly 40 government and civil society organizations are engaged and meet regularly. Secretariat duties rely heavily on work-sharing technology and are kept to a minimum. JOIN US!
