UN Commission on the Status of Women – Overview

 

• Overview
• About the
  Commission
• History of the Commission
• Mandates

• Membership
  and composition
• Annual
  sessions
• The
  Bureau
• Output of
  the Commission
• Role
  of the Secretariat
• Follow-up to
  Beijing
• The
  Beijing Process and Beyond
• Multi-year
  programme of work
• Methods
  of work
• Gender
  Mainstreaming
• Sessions
• Next –
  51st (2007)
• Most
  recent – 50th (2006)
• 49th
  (2005)
• 48th
  (2004)
• 47th
  (2003)
• 46th
  (2002)
• 45th
  (2001)
• 44th
  (2000)
• 43rd
  (1999)
• 42nd
  (1998)
• 41st
  (1997)
• 40th
  (1996)
• 39th
  (1995)
• 38th
  (1994)
• 37th (1993) (report)
• 36th (1992) (report)

Overview

About the
Commission

The Commission on the Status of Women (hereafter referred to as “CSW” or “the Commission”) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide. The Commission was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946 with the aim to prepare recommendations and reports to the Council on promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. The Commission also makes recommendations to the Council on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women’s rights.  Click here to learn more about the Commission’s history. The next session of the Commission (fifty-first session) will take place from 26 February to 9 March 2007. The fiftieth session took place from 27 February to 10 March 2006.

Next CSW session Fifty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women (26 February – 9 March 2007) » NGO representatives pre-registration » NGO participation guidelines Recent CSW session Fiftieth Session (27 February – 10 March 2006)

Mandate

The Commission’s mandate was expanded
in 1987 by ECOSOC resolution 1987/22 to include the functions of promoting
the objectives of equality, development and peace, monitoring the
implementation of measures for the advancement of women, and reviewing and
appraising progress made at the national, subregional, regional  and
global levels. Following the 1995 Fourth World
Conference on Women, the General Assembly mandated the Commission to
integrate into its programme a follow-up process to the Conference,
regularly reviewing the critical areas of concern in the Beijing
Platform for Action and to develop its catalytic role in mainstreaming a gender perspective in United Nations
activities. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) again modified the
Commission’s terms of reference in 1996, in its resolution 1996/6, to
include, inter alia, identifying emerging issues, trends and new
approaches to issues affecting equality between women and men.

Membership and
composition

Forty-five Member States of the United
Nations serve as members of the Commission at any one time. The Commission
consists of one representative from each of the 45 Member States elected
by the Council on the basis of equitable geographical distribution:
thirteen members from Africa; eleven from Asia; nine from Latin America
and Caribbean; eight from Western Europe and other States and four from
Eastern Europe. Members are elected for a period of four years.

Click here to download the list of current members of
the Commission.

Annual sessions

The Commission meets annually for a
period of 10 working days (late February-early March). The fifty-first session
of the Commission will take place from 26 February to 9 March 2007.

The Bureau

The Bureau of the Commission plays a
crucial role in facilitating the preparation for, and in ensuring the
successful outcome of the annual sessions of the Commission. Bureau
members serve for two years. In 2002, in order to improve its work and
ensure continuity, the Commission decided to hold the first meeting of its
subsequent session, immediately following the closure of the regular
session, for the sole purpose of electing the new Chairperson and other
members of the Bureau (Council resolution 46/101).

The current Bureau comprises the
following members:

• H.E. Ms. Carmen María Gallardo
  (El Salvador), Chairperson
• Mrs. Adekunbi Abibat Sonaike
  (Nigeria), Vice Chairperson
• Ms. Szilvia Szabo (Hungary), Vice
  Chairperson
• Mr. Tom Woodroffe (United
  Kingdom), Vice Chairperson
• Mr. Dicky Komar (Indonesia), Vice
  Chairperson

Output of the
Commission

The principal output of the Commission
on the Status of Women is the so-called Agreed
conclusions on priority themes set for each year. Agreed
conclusions, contain an analysis of the priority theme of concern and a
set of concrete recommendations for Governments, intergovernmental bodies
and other institutions, civil society actors and other relevant
stakeholders, to be implemented at the international, national, regional
and local level.

In addition to the Agreed Conclusions,
the Commission also adopts a number of resolutions on a range of issues,
including the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women; and women,
the girl child and HIV/AIDS.

The final report of the
Commission is submitted to the Economic and Social Council for
adoption.

Role of the Secretariat

The Division for the Advancement of
Women is responsible for substantive servicing of the Commission,
including through supporting the work of the CSW Bureau.  The
Division is also responsible for facilitating the participation of civil
society representatives in the Commission’s annual session, as well as for
the coordination of parallel events held at the United Nations during the
Commission’s sessions.