Calendar of virtual side events

The specific objectives of the session are to:

1. Raise awareness on the role of EMBs in facilitating the participation of women in all phases of the electoral cycle, as voters, candidates, party agents, observers, and administrators
2. Showcase the efforts of EMBs in increasing and enhancing the participation of women in elections
3. Discuss strategies and interventions to address the continued obstacles to women’s effective participation and the role of various electoral stakeholders including electoral assistance providers

The promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is central to the UN and the G20, and it is a key concept in the agenda of Italy’s G20 Presidency for 2021. It entails a series of policies and complementary measures to promote empowerment, as well as women’s and girls’ leadership in the economic and social spheres by all involved actors: Governments, local authorities, international organizations, businesses and civil society. The G20 can play a crucial role in addressing these challenges, in connection with the UN agenda and priorities. The event dedicated to women’s empowerment that Italy is co-hosting as Chair of the G20, together with cross-regional co-sponsors, aims at having a debate on the following topics: STEM and digital education; women’s leadership in the public and private sector; work-life balance and adequate social, care and education infrastructure; measures supporting the economic independence of women also as a means to fight gender-based violence; women and the green economy. 

Additional Information: YouTube live stream https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCkBfuYs63lgqdo1ca3CLag

High-level policy dialogue co-hosted by Benin and Luxembourg around a new game-changing flagship initiative, Education Plus, which is co-led by UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, and which will be launched during the Generation Equality Forum, in Paris, France.

The high-level advocacy initiative is focused on a rapid scale-up of multisectoral action and investments in response to the alarming numbers of adolescent girls and young women acquiring HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Its vision is a world in which every adolescent girl and young woman completes secondary education and is empowered to lead a secure, healthy, fulfilling and productive life, free from gender discrimination, violence and HIV. Leaders from African governments, continental bodies, development partners and young women’s movements will engage in a compelling exchange about the initiative and on how to arrive at the gender transformation we all want to see by the Sustainable Development Goals deadline.

Additional information: https://www.care.org/our-work/reports-and-resources/she-leads-in-crisis-report-card/

In response to the global health crisis, countries in Africa have introduced restrictive measures affecting the movement of people and merchandise. UNECA and UNCTAD have active work on the impact of such measures on those who earn a living by making regular trips between countries. As has been the case with other shocks, women risk bearing the brunt of this pandemic. A more tailored package of measures is needed.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 as a comprehensive and visionary agenda for the empowerment of women and girls. It contains a call for the removal of systematic and structural barriers that prevent women and girls from enjoying their human rights across social, economic, political and environmental domains, and policy actions to achieve the vision. 2020 was meant to be a perfect opportunity to celebrate the significant progress made in many areas and to follow up the existing and emerging challenges and remaining gaps.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the scenario unprecedentedly. With the spread of the coronavirus all around the World, even the gains made in the past decades are at risk of being rolled back. The outbreak poses a serious threat to health, safety, employment and livelihoods of women. It has also been deepening the already existing inequalities and vulnerabilities in social, political, and economic systems which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic on women and girls’ lives. Across every sphere from health to the economy, security to social protection, women and girls have been disproportionately affected by this outbreak.

Besides, since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, emerging data and reports have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, have intensified. Calls to national hotlines reporting domestic violence rose five-fold in some countries after people started working from home due to isolation policies implemented during the outbreak.

The restriction of movement, social isolation, lockdowns and economic insecurity caused more vulnerability and domestic violence against women, while most of them were also forced to be isolated in the same house with the perpetrator of the violence.

In this context, the virtual Side Event of Turkey seeks to further analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls and to highlight the important role of national authorities and international organizations in addressing the pandemic. Furthermore, it aims to;

• Share the best practices among stakeholders and identify what is needed to better value the role of women to address the pandemic,
• Review and highlight the role of SDG’s in the pandemic and identify the challenges to achieve them due to the outbreak. 
• Identify new ways to accelerate the empowerment of women and girls in the post-pandemic era in light of the lessons learned.
• Highlight the best practices in combating violence against women and girls in pandemic times,
• Highlight the key roles and challenges of healthcare and social workers many of whom are women working at the frontline

American Sign Language (ASL) and Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) will be provided during the event.

Co-organizers: ACT Alliance, Global Interfaith Wash Alliance, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities, Lutheran World Federation, Side by Side: Faith Movement for Gender Justice, United Society Partners in the Gospel

A round table discussion hosted by the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (Gender Work stream), unpacks how Member States, intergovernmental organisations and civil society are contributing to the Beijing Platform for Action. Keynote speaker Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, will be followed by interventions from government, inter-governmental and civil society members, who will share their experiences, journeys, challenges and potential solutions for working as / or with religious actors to progress the gender equality agenda. As each participant exchanges their contribution, we will begin to derive meaningful lessons for future engagement and learning.

Additional Information: https://www.partner-religion-development.org/work-streams/gender-equality-and-empowerment

Watch the archived webcast here: http://webtv.un.org/search/violence-against-girl-children-in-armed-conflicts-and-the-role-of-the-international-criminal-justice-system-csw65-side-event/6241356293001/?term=CSW65&sort=date&page=2

Data concerning violence against girl children in armed conflict are alarming: their conditions are extremely fragile and they are more exposed to the risk of psychological and physical violence, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, sexual enslavement and forced marriage, which have become a method of warfare. Additionally, not all cases of sexual violence are reported and denounced: girl children have evident difficulties to access Courts and are often not supported (if not refused and expelled) by their families and communities in accessing competent instances to claim a remedy for the violence received. The event aims at tackling these issues in a comprehensive way, with contributions from Member States, the UN, the international justice system and civil society.

The event will include remarks By H.E. Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the US and the UN, H.E. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the UN, Lili Ben Ami, Founder and Chairperson of the Michal Sela Forum, H.E. Åsa Regnér, Assistant Secretary General & Deputy Executive Director at UN Women, H.E. Ambassador Olof Skoog, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the UN, Eric Goldstein, the CEO of UJA-Federation, Jacquelline Fuller, VP of Google and President of Google.org, and a special message from Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

The EDVAW Platform will take stock of the joint work it has been involved in since its inception, and will also launch an e-booklet on how the EDVAW Platform and the CSW can work together to develop implementation strategies for the elimination of violence and discrimination against women.

Additional information: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/CooperationGlobalRegionalMechanisms.aspx

Statement submitted by All India Women’s Education Fund Association (AIWEFA)

The Generation Equality Forum's Action Coalition on Body Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) will launch a new global momentum to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The side event at CSW65 is part of the dynamic launched during the Coalition's working group on SRHR and aims to foster exchanges between "Coalition champions", states, civil society organisations and international organisations.

Speakers will address in particular the priority areas of action to be taken within the Coalition and their implementation; they will call to join the SRHR Coalition and convince new members to commit to this global initiative.

The overarching objective of this event is to explore women’s political participation in Africa with a view to advancing the goal of gender equality in politics and governance. The fact of great concern is that the poor levels of women’s political participation has existed for a long time and, in consequence, experience has been built and work carried out over time by an array of institutions, actors, networks, and campaigners aimed at redressing the situation. Yet, the numbers of women in political participation remains low. The quest for improving greater participation of women in Africa has a rich history and this side event will bring together a diverse group of actors with rich lessons of experience in order to add strategic value to the issue of women in leadership in Africa. The side event aims to explore challenges and opportunities for women in political participation with the aim of:  

a) Contributing to an increase in the voice and presence of women in all domestic political processes and institutions in Africa at the different levels at which they exist.

b) Stepping up advocacy for and expand awareness towards increased demands for the inclusion of women at all levels of local/sub-national and national political participation and decision-making.

c) Enhancing the capacity of local and national women’s organisations, groupings, networks, mobilisers, community activists, elected female office holders, and others to engage, negotiate, forge alliances, advocate, and campaign for change in favour of women’s greater political participation.

d) Explore ways of working with key institutions of democratic governance such as political parties, parliaments, the media, etc. to build constituencies, alliances, norms, templates, and targets for reform and change towards greater women’s political participation.

e) Generating and share new research knowledge to serve the goals of policy and political reform, capacity enhancement, and advocacy that will be pursued.

Additional Information:

https://wpp-africa.net/

www.idea.int

This event will highlight the importance of investing in the equal and full representation of women in justice delivery. It will seek to: (a) identify challenges to and pathways for increased investment and action, especially within the current COVID-19 context; (b) discuss policy and programmatic directions for prioritizing gender balance in the justice sector; and (c) provide recommendations for better data, research and analysis in support of SDG 16.7.1.

Additional Information:

• IDLO's CSW65 page is available at: https://www.idlo.int/news/highlights/csw65-idlo-commission-status-women
• The Women Delivering Justice: Contributions, Barriers, Pathways report is available at: https://www.idlo.int/publications/women-delivering-justice-contributions-barriers-pathways.
• The Women’s Professional Participation in Kenya’s Justice Sector: Barriers and Pathways report is available at: https://www.idlo.int/publications/womens-professional-participation-kenyas-justice-sector-barriers-and-pathways.
• The Women’s Professional Participation in Tunisia’s Justice Sector: Pathways and Opportunities report is available at: https://www.idlo.int/publications/womens-professional-participation-tunisias-justice-sector-pathways-and-opportunities. 

Additional Information: TFWA Program Fact Sheet, SSCBT Infographic, Gender Assessment Report Executive Summary, tfwa.projects.ecowas.int

UNIDO website on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women

View recorded webcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HgeO7jgTpw&t=4s

The interactive virtual side event will be a curtain-raiser to the Generation Equality Forum kick-off in Mexico City on 29 to 31 March 2021, intending to build momentum towards the multi-stakeholders' drive for commitments for gender equality.  With two weeks to go to the Forum in Mexico, the side event will be a unique opportunity to share exciting leadership and collaboration stories that showcase that the Forum and its Action Coalitions are born of the determination and aspiration of young people and activists and advocates from across the globe over the past two years to effect change.

Furthermore, it will discuss creating an ecosystem to ensure women’s progress. In addition to highlighting women’s access to opportunities, access to financial institutions, social protections, equal pay, informal work, unpaid-care work, and promoting women entrepreneurship and SME’s. The panel will also provide an opportunity for experience sharing with fellow CSW member states.

This side event can also be watched via You Tube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBNdQc0e0Q

Event Link: https://youtu.be/oSgjE3IM9jk 

The Decade of Action offers promises of transforming commitments into action for a more gender equal, inclusive and more sustainable future across the nexus of development-humanitarian-peace efforts. This high-level side-event will turn our attention to local solutions to reverse the negative trends in the most challenging crisis settings.  It will also share insights into how the Covid-19 crisis can be an opportunity for igniting change. The event contributes towards the global campaign Generation Equality and the global action coalitions.

Additional Information: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/justice-and-prison-reform/new-gender-in-the-justice-system-vaw.html

Watch the archived webcast here: http://webtv.un.org/search/what-will-it-take-to-reach-parity-in-political-participation-in-a-post-covid-19-world-csw65-side-event/6243219918001/?term=%22CSW65%22&sort=date

The impacts of crises are never gender neutral, and COVID-19 is no exception. Beyond the public health crisis, COVID-19 has become a full-fledged economic and social crisis. Rampant inequalities, including in the participation of women in political decision-making and leadership, have once again been revealed and further exacerbated. An effective response to and recovery from the pandemic and its social and economic consequences requires strong and sustained leadership, action and the participation of everyone affected. The international goal of achieving balanced power between women and men in decision-making is more crucial than ever and parliaments have a key role to play to scale up political will and transformative actions towards gender parity in political participation. The Parliamentary Meeting will offer a platform to take stock of recent developments in women’s participation in parliament, explore the impact of COVID-19 on women’s access to parliament in 2020 and identify priority parliamentary actions to further progress towards gender parity in political participation.

Additional Information: 

https://www.ipu.org/event/what-will-it-take-reach-gender-parity-in-political-participation-in-post-covid-19-world (English)

https://www.ipu.org/fr/event/que-faudra-t-il-faire-pour-atteindre-la-parite-en-politique-dans-le-monde-post-covid-19 (French)

Additional Information: https://www.who.int/activities/value-gender-and-equity-in-the-global-health-workforce, https://www.who.int/initiatives/beijing25

The side event will present priorities and initiatives of the European Parliament as regards gender equality and the empowerment of women in crises such as the one triggered by COVID-19. It will also provide a forum to exchange good practices and discuss innovative approaches and possible ways forward.

Additional information can be found on the event page.

This event will bring together experts and stakeholders to highlight the importance and urgency of action to prevent violence against women and girls, and promote women’s participation and leadership in all spheres with an aim of enhancing the relationships between the General Assembly and the Commission on the Status of Women. 

The event will examine the impact of COVID-19 on violence against women and civil society organisations on the front lines of response. Since the beginning of the pandemic, UN Women and the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women have been committed to highlighting the challenges and adaptive strategies that civil society, especially women-led and women's rights organizations, have employed to support women and girl survivors at the times of heightened risks of violence. This conversation is of particular relevance as we approach the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico where the commitments of the Action Coalitions will be agreed.

Presentation and discussion on emerging findings from the JP RWEE, showcasing how a holistic, partnership approach to women’s economic empowerment, encompassing social and political empowerment, can enable rural women to realise their rights and achieve empowerment.

Sharing of rural women’s stories relating to the  impact of the COVID-19 crisis, including their response and recovery efforts, and the ways in which the JP RWEE programme approach has enabled rural women and their households to build resilience and withstand potentially devastating shocks to their lives and livelihoods. Discussion on moving forward with women’s economic empowerment programming in the COVID-19 context.

Languages: English, French and Spanish.

Additional Information: https://www.idlo.int/news/highlights/csw65-idlo-commission-status-women 

COVID -19 has had serious disruptions in women’s economic empowerment. Many women have lost their jobs with no prospect of reinstatement. Lockdowns have compelled women entrepreneurs close their small businesses. A large faction of women from informal sector are worst victims, with additional burdens of unpaid work. Studies reveal, the pandemic-induced poverty surge will also widen the gender poverty gap – meaning, more women will be pushed into extreme poverty than men. 

Overall, the economic and social fallouts of COVID 19 for women has been far more devastating than men. Many countries, while developing COVID-19 recovery plan, have taken this reality into consideration and included targeted measures to help women and women led organizations to recover better. In some countries, special stimulus packages have been announced to help small and medium enterprises which are owned largely by women. Some countries have provided direct cash support to women suffering from job losses. Private sector and other non-government stakeholders have also joined hands. 

The side event will showcase some case studies from across the regions where COVID 19 response plans have resulted in better recovery, especially in the women empowerment sector. 

Co-organizers: Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Netherlands, Copenhagen 2021, Outright Action International, LGBT+ Danmark

This side event will bring together women parliamentarians and civil society leaders in a lively conversation to share best practices, successes and challenges to further scale up concrete initiatives and legislative actions to address deeply rooted, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and achieve equality and inclusion of LGBTI people. It will serve as a precursor to the global LGBTI Interparliamentary Plenary Assembly that will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on August 20, 2021.

Additional Information:

https://www.ipu.org/event/we-have-your-back-breaking-cycle-online-harassment-threats-violence-against-women-and-girl-leaders (English) 

https://www.ipu.org/fr/event/nous-vous-couvrons-briser-le-cycle-de-la-violence-en-ligne-du-harcelement-aux-menaces-lencontre-des-femmes-et-filles-leaders (French)

• Create a forum to show case and discuss good practices in developing national strategies for the advancement of women and addressing their particular needs.
• Discuss the pros and cons for separate strategies vs. comprehensive national strategies (look into areas of financing, duplication etc.).

A joint learning event from the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and Gender at Work (G@W), this intergenerational panel discussion will offer a space for learning and exchange around implementing feminist practices and principles, lessons learned through feminist leadership in the context of COVID-19, and identifying priority areas and recommendations to steer a course, through feminist leadership, towards gender equality in and through education.
Feminist and education activists representing UNGEI's Transform Education Network, Education International, ActionAid, and more will be invited to speak about their experiences of feminist leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunities for feminist leadership to catalyse transformative change in this moment, and the implications for education.

This side event will be live streamed on Facebook, Twitter and YOUTUBE account of the ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia:

https://www.youtube.com/user/LatvianMFA

https://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/

https://www.facebook.com/LatvianMFA

Women’s effective and full participation in public life and decision making is a priority theme of the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Equal participation of women in decision making applies also to the military sector, aiming to strengthen a sustainable and peaceful world. Women in leadership positions in the military serve as role models for younger women and girls. Though the number of women in senior leadership position in the military has increased in the last years, equality is still a shared challenge to be addressed.

In this framework, we present the publication "Violence against women in politics: Roadmap to prevent, monitor, sanction and eradicate it", which systematizes the various strategies implemented in the region to eradicate violence against women in politics as a contribution that seeks to deepen national and regional actions to guarantee a public and political life free of violence for women.

Event Scenario: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hi6fTwA_BQ4EhpOk-DWkazgCs_tmmO5M/view