In a briefing Thursday with U.S. Ambassador Patricia P. Brister, delegates attending the Commission on the Status of Women, including those with the School Sisters of Notre Dame, had the opportunity to promote their causes and concerns in a wide-ranging dialogue that addressed the girl child, older women, financing, mental health, trafficking, early marriage and Gender Equality Architecture Reform.

       Ambassador Brister, the United States representative to the Commission on the Status of Women, began the briefing by explaining her CSW involvement, which included the presentation of a statement to the commission on Wednesday on the topics of trafficking, women in conflict prevention, health care and HIV/AIDS.

       The United States Mission to the United Nations also is sponsoring two panel discussions during the CSW on child marriage and on domestic violence, she said.

       She also will be negotiating the resolutions that have been issued and the agreed conclusions in the draft outcome document. That paper has been the subject of review by the caucuses at the CSW, including the Caucus on Girls Issues and Concerns co-sponsored by the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Working Group on Girls of the NGO Committee on UNICEF.

       “In the February 12 draft outcome document, very little is mentioned of girls,” Sister Ann Scholz, SSND, told Ambassador Brister. “Girls were excluded. I am interested in what the United States thinks and how we can more adequately incorporate girls.”

       Some advocates want concepts introduced that include language about Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and men and boys as well as girls, Ambassador Brister said. However, the commission is striving to produce a coherent document on this year’s theme of financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

       “If I might suggest, last year there were some important conclusions that dealt with financing to invest in girls,” said Sister Ann, who spoke on behalf of the Caucus on Girls’ Issues and Concerns, which she chaired on behalf of the Working Group on Girls. “So there is language on the subject already out there, and it is important to continue to remind the commission members that they have a responsibility to girls.”

       Continuing the conversation, delegates from other caucuses repeated the need for wording that is inclusive of women of all ages because older women often find themselves in circumstances, such as widowhood, that leave them marginalized.

       “Older women become invisible because so many programs are directed at women of working age or women of childbearing age,” said a delegate from the Gray Panthers, an intergenerational NGO.
A representative from the World Federation for Mental Health said that the theme cannot be addressed without also talking about psycho-social support and that both physical and mental health must be mentioned.

       Laura Lederer, senior advisor on trafficking in persons at the U.S. State Department, attended the briefing after participating in a morning session on trafficking issues. She reported that the focus now is on demand. Although much has been accomplished on the supply side of the problem, those efforts alone are not enough to adequately address the problem of trafficking.

       Following up on the charge given to participants in the Caucus on Girls’ Issues and Concerns, Kate Calvano, a Mount Mary College student with the SSND delegation, made it a point to speak one-on-one with Ambassador Brister after the briefing. Picking up what Ambassador Brister said about the draft outcome document’s financing theme, Calvano chose one very specific section from the Caucus on Girls’ suggestions.

       “I underlined four words of language - ‘and education sector plans’ – and showed that part of the document to her,” Calvano said. “I just thought that education was the most important thing that we could add to the document that would benefit girls.”

close this page