The United Nations (U.N.) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the U.N.’s six major organizations. Placed under the ECOSOC, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission engaged in issues related to women’s rights.
Accredited with NGO Special Consultative Status to the ECOSOC, the Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (KFAW) participates in an annual CSW held at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, in order to exchange information with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) both from Japan and other countries and present our research results.
The 57th U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57) was held for 12 days from March 4, 2013 to March 15 in New York. The CSW57’s priority theme was “Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence against Women and Girls.” This theme attracted much more participants’ attention than usual, from 131 countries.
This year, on top of participating in CSW, KFAW, in conjunction with Ripple Fukuoka, held a parallel event as part of the NGO CSW Forum for Women that coincided with the regular session of the U.N. CSW. Ripple Fukuoka is a citizen group established by dating violence preventive education facilitators trained by KFAW. The theme of the parallel event was “Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women and the Prevention on Dating / Domestic Violence.”
The event included KFAW’s presentations on our various efforts to prevent dating / domestic violence, such as training dating violence preventive education facilitators, providing dating violence preventive education at schools in Kitakyushu City, and holding a symposium “Get United – To Eliminate Violence against Women and Girls” at “Kitakyushu Conference on Asian Women.” The event also included Ripple Fukuoka’s presentation on its dating violence preventive education activities.
After the presentations, audience members asked many questions. Of particular note was the presentation by Ripple Fukuoka, which provides dating violence preventive education at high schools, universities, and other schools in Kitakyushu City. Its presentation drew strong attention from the audience, leading to a high-level and active Q&A session.
In the 90 minutes allocated to KFAW, four presentations and a Q&A session were held. During the CSW period, approximately 360 parallel events were held by NGOs at four venues in New York.
Additionally, 128 CSW57 official side events were held. Featuring timely and important themes, such as the elimination of child marriages, preservation of disabled people’s rights, and achievement of justice and delivery of full-scale services for violence victims, these events included active discussions.
The outcome of the CSW took the form of conclusions to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls, which were agreed to by the 45 member countries.
At the end of the CSW57 on March 15, U.N. Women Executive Director Michelle BACHELET announced her resignation during her CSW closing address. She said that she would return to her native country, the Republic of Chile. She promised that she would continue to do her best to achieve empowerment and gender equality for women.
