by Beth O’Connell, EUU and UUFP member, and vice-president of IWC

The annual meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will take place March 6-17, and as always the International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women (IWC) will be there in person and online. And all of you at EUU can join the virtual meetings.

CSW brings together representatives from UN member states, UN entities, and ECOSOC-affiliated non-govermental organizations (like IWC) to attend discussions on the status of women worldwide and to contribute to the session.

This year’s priority theme is: Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

As in past years, IWC will contribute by hosting the following two parallel events focusing on the theme. They will be virtual panel discussions at the NGO CSW Forum. (Details below on how to sign up to attend).

Young Adult Perspectives on Women’s Digital Leadership

Saturday, 11 March, 9am EST/3 pm CET

This event is the culmination of exchanges of experiences and learning from IWC’s virtual young adult network program, created to spark engagement for social change in the participants’ communities and the world. The group from 11 countries has been meeting online to explore a spectrum of issues impacting women and broaden their perspective, guided by mentors. Additionally, the interactive program offered a space for the young women to share ideas and visions, learn from one another, nurture hopes and dreams, and build leadership and project management skills. Sessions also addressed women’s digital leadership and opportunities in the fast-growing digital sphere.

Co-moderator: Emily Jarrett, EUU and Brussels fellowship member, IWC young adult co-leader

Women with Disabilities Crossing the Digital Divide

Wednesday, 15 March 11 am EDT/4 pm CET

As digital connection becomes more important, we see the barriers women encounter and recognize the larger obstacles faced by those with motor, neurological and sensory limitations of all ages. At this panel discussion, we will cover the way that an outreach program in Romania – giving young women from disadvantaged backgrounds access to digital devices —  has opened digital doorways from women with motor disabilities and hear directly from participants. We will also hear from experts and advocates for the rights of the disabled such as Women Enabled International to explore ways of improving accessibility and providing assistive technology for women and girls.  Bring your questions and your experiences to share during the Q&A of this session.  Closed captioning will be available.

Moderator: Beth O’Connell, EUU and Paris fellowship member, IWC vice president

To attend online IWC events simply register at the IWC website:

 

IWC at CSW67 (intlwomensconvo.org

Below is information on how to sign up to attend other CSW events at the UN:

NGO CSW FORUM:  Hybrid and open to all. You can sign up to attend IWC’s events plus scores of others hosted by NGOs from around the world by first registering with the platform for the NGO CSW Forum at this link:

https://whova.com/portal/registration/ngocs1_202303/?mc_cid=58de45b521&mc_eid=fcde9b0ead

Once on the platform you can check the agenda of parallel events and register for them.

CSW67 at UN:

Online: If you wish to attend online the events held at the United Nations you can simply log on to UN Web TV https://media.un.org/en/webtv and also follow any updates at the CSW website: https://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw67-2023