The UN is ours, but it has lost its way. We need to get it back!
A statement by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom: “As governments across all continents continue to adopt laws and policies curtailing civil society participation in democratic spaces, international sites have become even more critical to confront and hold governments accountable.
The United States’ anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, and anti-Muslim travel ban which prevented many activists from attending this year’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York represented the latest – and most extreme – obstacle to civil society participation in multilateral spaces.
The meaningful participation of women and gender justice advocates in convenings at the UN is essential to ensure that the needs of those women who have been historically marginalized and are today on the frontlines of our global crises are centered in UN decision-making processes.
On 20 April 2017, women’s rights and feminist activists from around the world joined a Tweetathon hosted by AWID and WILPF, to share their ideas and experiences about the space that they currently occupy and – even more importantly – want to occupy in the UN.”
SOURCE: ARROW SRHR Info and Resources No.9 May 2017 ; AWID Storify