A Note from Alice

Alice at UNCSW58 Sat March 15. 

I attended the parallel event “Perspectives on Technology, Safety, and Violence Against Women and Girls”, conducted by the Director of National Network to End Domestic Violence, US.  (NNEDV)    She works closely with the creators of Facebook and is an expert in internet technology.  I learned about Spyware which can be loaded onto anyone’s computer or handheld device without the owner knowing.  For example, if an estranged husband has been ordered to stay away from his children the following can happen:  the mother can have an APP downloaded onto her cell phone whereby she can track her children’s whereabouts.  The husband can download a spying APP onto her phone without her knowing, read all emails and texts, listen in to all conversations, search her device’s calendar, etc, and then leave her a message saying “I know what you are doing today.” .....and you can imagine the rest....

There are no secrets on the internet if someone wants to know.

NNEDV trains police officers, lawyers, judges, politicians when invited to do so.  This programme has affiliates in Australia, United Kingdom and elsewhere.  It has done work in Canada.

For more information see the website www.nnedv.org

Youth Transforming the Unjust Structures of Society for Women and Girls

For two weeks each year around International Women’s Day on March 8th, thousands of delegates from governments and civil society gather at the United Nations in New York City for the annual Commission on the Status of Women. As part of civil society, faith based organizations such as the Anglican Church send delegates to participate in the Commission. This year, the International Anglican Women’s Network in Canada will be represented by Evie Byrne, a member of St Mary’s Kerrisdale, in the Diocese of New Westminster, at the 58^th Commission on the Status of Women. Evie will be one of three teenagers who will join the thirteen person delegation from IAWN Canada.

Canadian youth delegates with Katharine Jefferts Schori and their chaparone.

This represents a significant increase in the number of young people as a part of the Canadian Anglican group at UNCSW. Beth Adamson, the Anglican Consultative Council’s representative on the UN Working Group on Girls, points out why this is particularly crucial this year: “We are reviewing the Millennium Development Goals this year – and one of the underlying purposes is to be positioned more effectively for the Post-2015 (Development) Agenda.  And that is the agenda that girls today will inherit tomorrow.” The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight priorities for international development that were established following the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. The Anglican Consultative Council in 2005 recognized the implications of the Millennium Development Goals for gender equality in the Church when it passed motion 13-31 stating that it “acknowledges the Millennium Development Goal for equal representation of women in decision making at all levels, and so requests … all member churches to work towards the realization of this goal in their own structures of governance.” The priority theme of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, as alluded to above, is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.” In addition to the three young Canadians, this year’s Anglican group will also include eight teenagers from the Episcopal Church in Virginia and one from the Anglican Church in Papua New Guinea.

Youth leading prayer in the Opening Eucharist

While at UNCSW, these young delegates will attend orientation and events put on by the Working Group on Girls as well as other organizations, according to their individual interests. Through the orientation day, the Working Group on Girls hopes to prepare these young delegates for what is always a busy week of events, and empower them to share their own experiences and opinions with the Commission. One of the first events following orientation is the drafting session for the Girls’ Statement to UNCSW 58 – in addition to the encouragement to speak their mind, this process is also helped along by one of the other fundamental values of the Working Group on Girls, which is to work as collaboratively as possible. The youth delegates, a smaller group within UNCSW, are together not just for training and work, but also for several fun community building events throughout the first week of the Commission.

Praying for the women of the world with Ecumenical Women

Community building and collaboration are also priorities amongst the Anglican group. The girls attending this year have connected with one another and with chaperones ahead of time on Facebook. They were also be asked to collaborate on preparing and leading intercessions for the Opening Eucharist of the Anglican Communion delegation. During CSW, the Anglican group works with Ecumenical Women, a coalition of progressive, Christian, faith-based organizations; we also gather every morning in the Chapel of the Church Center at the UN for worship, led each day by one of the member groups. For the members of Ecumenical Women, our activism and passion for gender justice finds its source in our faith. Morning worship allows us time to reconnect with God and one another and provides us with the strength and energy for the important and often difficult work of the Commission. It is also an opportunity for celebration of the achievements we have made together towards the goals of gender justice.

But the work of the delegates is not limited to the two weeks of the Commission. There is a great deal of preparation before anyone even arrives in New York. They must prepare reports on what contributions they hope to make to the Commission and how the priority theme connects to their own life and experience. In her letter to IAWN Canada, Evie spoke about how gender inequality in her school has affected her: “I play rugby as a school sport and with a community team in the summer…men and women play with the same rules and regulations.  Rugby empowers women as it proves men and women can achieve the same goals and participate in the same activities…The Vancouver School Board does not yet promote or support rugby as a sport for girls.  It is taught in gym class for boys,…but it is not taught in gym class for girls.  Even at a community sport level, women’s rugby teams who play internationally have to pay their expenses, with little support from the Rugby Union of Canada, or sponsors…” Evie cited this as one of several examples of how the school environment treats people unfairly according to their gender identity or expression.

In addition to these reports, prior to their trip, delegates from Canada, must find ways to cover the cost of their trip to UNCSW which for someone traveling from Vancouver can reach $2500 for just one week in New York. This can be especially challenging since in Canada, there is no national source of funding to support delegates participating in UNCSW and in most Dioceses there is no money earmarked for this purpose and so funding is dependent on what is available in discretionary funds. Since being able to find one’s own funding is actually a condition of being chosen as a delegate, this places participation in UNCSW outside of the financial reach of many people, for example youth and young adults.

Evie and other youth set up for her fundraising lunch.

The situation is not without hope, however, as parishes and individuals have stepped up to provide funding for delegates. This year, St Mary’s Kerrisdale has been the base of operations for fundraising to cover the costs of Evie’s trip. With the help of the combined youth group from St Philip’s Dunbar and St Mary’s, Evie hosted a fundraising lunch on Sunday, February 2^nd at St Mary’s. She also made and sold cookies after Church on Sundays, which then inspired more generous bakers from the parish to make and donate baked goods for her to sell each week. These different kinds of support offered to Evie by many generous people are all ways in which we are living out the Marks of Mission. Through these efforts, we are seeking to transform the unjust structures of society which have prevented the voices of many women and girls from being heard and valued.

Evie, along with Caitlin Reilley Beck, Youth and Family Worker at St Philip’s, Dunbar in Vancouver, and this year’s official Primate’s delegate to UNCSW, will share their experiences from New York at an event supported by their Diocesan chapter of the International Anglican Women’s Network, presently coordinated by the Ven. Ellen Clark-King sometime later in the spring.

More updates from Judy's week

Day Five

I apologize for not posting last night but this cold is slowing me down some.
Yesterday (Tues) began with Chapel done by the young people and it was awesome. There was singing, clapping, dancing etc. as well as thought provoking scripture. The centre of all our worship services is a door, just a door and frame, sitting in the altar space, sometimes open and sometimes shut.

There was a briefing by the Commission to NGOs at 8:45 and something unheard of until now happened. The Chair of the Commission actually attended the briefing and presented "us" with a hard copy of compilation draft #2. Usually we are scrambling to get a copy of the compilation text and he just handed it to us. I already had an electronic copy about 10 pm Mon evening but what he did changes the tone of the event into a very cooperative atmosphere - it is not "them" in the closed chamber and "us" outside the building trying to figure out what is going on.
After the briefing I journeyed to second Ave. to the Episcopal Church Centre to hear Leymah Gbowee speak. She is one of the two Liberian women who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year and she is an amazing speaker. I thought that I had recorded her speech on my phone but I cannot find it so maybe it did not work. Two quotes from her talk are "Let us do what we profess" and "Good work is bright light and it attracts lots of shadows".
After a quick lunch I headed off to "meet the Canadians" which means meeting the Canadian negotiating team in the UN building itself. They are very good about meeting whoever shows up every day at 1 pm.
However it is a big hike and I guess all the exercise I worked on during the winter is no where near enough. They have moved the entrance to the UN buildings from 45th street to 47th street. So I set out at 12:30 to head over from 44th to 47th, through the entrance and security, through the building to the outside and back to the other building and then all the way across that building, near 42nd.  The meeting was good and we heard about the current negotiations as well as a couple of seminars which the Canadians were pushing. I was fortunate enough to negotiate an exit onto 42nd street so that I only had to walk back to 44th street to go to my room and have a nap.
As chair of the advocacy committee, I chaired the "debrief" Tues. At the debrief as many as can, meet and talk about our day and what is happening tomorrow. We meet at 6 pm at the Episcopal Center.  I think that it went well.
After the debrief, the Canadian Anglicans had dinner together at "Patsy's" an Italian restaurant. We are not often together all in one place so this was fun. Ellen's husband Tim and daughter joined us as did honorary Canadians Joan and Ross Fraser and Lynnaia Main. Good food and a fun time; delicious calamari.

At dinner I asked everyone to write down the one thing that he or she felt that a Canadian Anglican should say to the Canadian Ambassador. An interestingly diverse set of answers.
We did not get back until about 10 pm so I did my email and played a few games and crashed.
 
Productive day. Wish I was not so tired.
Blessings Judy

Day Six

As usual Chapel starts at 8 am. We had breakfast in our room this morning from oatmeal I brought .
 
There is a room on the end of our floor where you can get a complementary breakfast but it is not especially nutritious - cold cereal, pastries, yogurt, and some fruit. Sometimes I go and have yogurt and fruit.They have bread or bagels but their peanut butter is old and dried up.

The hotel is extremely dry and today I scored a humidifier. This is great because the design of the shower does not put steam in the room. By the way - have you ever seen a square toilet? We have square toilets throughout the renovated part of the hotel. Our room looks south I think and our view is the Chrysler building and the Empire State Building.

After Chapel and briefing, the advocacy committee met to start looking at the compilation draft. We met for an hour and then agreed to work on a section each and report back to me.

I returned to my room to have lunch and worked on a draft statement for our meeting at the Canadian Mission tomorrow. I fell asleep around 2 and woke up at 4:30. So much for seminars today. Finished draft one and headed out for a planned "Advocacy" dinner. About 80 people having dinner at the Church Centre, pasta, salad, chicken and grilled vegetables. A nice meal and an opportunity to catch up with some Canadians and some old friends also.
Now I am back in my room and the draft is circulating. For the first time since I got here the TV is on and I will quit working now.

I hear that it may snow here tomorrow. I hope not. It was 55 yesterday and about 45 today.

Blessings Judy  

Day Seven
 
I cannot believe that I have been here 7 days. The time goes by so quickly. We are so busy that you do not realize the time.

Today was blessed. Started with Chapel as usual. Then I went up to the briefing. The tone continues to be very positive and open which is wonderful, and the room was full. Next week there will be less people as many cannot stay for the 2 weeks.

This morning I returned to the Episcopal Centre to hear Lakshmi Puri speak. She is part of UN Women and spoke for nearly an hour. She talked about the Millennium Development Goals and the future beyond 2015 when new goals possibly called Sustainable Development Goals will come into being.

Back to my room to put the finishing touches on our visit to the Canadian Mission this afternoon. I arranged this visit and all of the Canadian Anglicans got a private audience with the Ambassador for 1 hour. He spent some time explaining how things work at the Mission and who works there. We had a prepared statement which he had read before we arrived. I had asked the youth to prepare a 4 or 5 minute presentation as part of our time and they did an awesome job. They talked about access to post secondary education, missing Indigenous women, difficulties for the LGBT community and the problems of stress and other mental health issues in young people.

Our paper talked about poverty and hunger, access to resources and services, access to education, employment and decision making positions and the need to look at violence in a non-gender way ie: violence against a person instead of violence toward women and the need to involve men and boys as well as women and girls in the solution. We had examples from our own experiences to illustrate our points.

We left the Mission quickly because Ecumenical Women were scheduled to have a private audience with the American Mission at 4:30 and we barely had time to get there. This was an excellent meeting and I thanked the mission personnel for their openness and willingness to come to us for this meeting.The meeting lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours.

Immediately after the briefing we held the Ecumenical women debrief which I also chaired. This one was a bit faster because there have been no new drafts of the concluding document and everyone seemed very tired. Alice and I got take out from the Olympia and came back to our room and had a leisurely dinner in our pyjamas and just chatted. Most enjoyable. (I had a craving for meat loaf).

It was cold in New York today and windy, I had to dig out my toque. It will be sunny and warmer tomorrow.

Some of our group left yesterday - I hear they had to stay in Toronto before returning to Muskoka today. More will leave tomorrow. We will miss you all. Caitlin, who has been bunking with her mother til now, will move into our room tomorrow for the next week. Two old fogies and 1 young one.

More tomorrow, Stay warm and safe

Blessings Judy  

Judy's Notes on Phumzile's Opening Remarks for CSW58

In her opening speech, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted the following:

 

·       In this CSW we also we kick-off a year-long mobilization for the 20th anniversary and review of the landmark Beijing Platform for Action. From May 2014 and over a 12-month period into 2015, we will review each of the 12 focus areas that are part of the Beijing Platform, together with Member States, UN agencies and civil society groups. This will lead to national and regional reports culminating in a single global report on the progress made. The report will be ready by the General Assembly of 2015 for Heads of State. (NOTE: SI to look into contributing to national reports via UN Women National Committees)

 

·      The challenge of gender equality and women’s empowerment is not just a women’s issue. This is an issue for humanity, which cannot leave out men and boys who are half of humanity. That is why building up to Beijing+20, UN Women has launched the He for She campaign so that men and boys can raise their voices, take a stand and be on the right side of history. We urge men and boys to come out and embrace the campaign as well as take action in their own spaces. (NOTE: SI to learn about possible partnerships in the He for She campaign)

 

·      She emphasised UN Women’s three key areas for the Post-2015 Agenda:

o   The first is freedom from violence for women and girls

o   The second is equality in capabilities – Access to opportunities and resources. This means recognizing, reducing and redistributing the burden of unpaid care work; ensuring equal access to assets and resources such as education, land and finance; equal pay and working conditions; and guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

o   The third area is equality in agency, voice, participation and leadership across the full range of decision-making arenas in public and private institutions.

Blessings Judy

Judy's Early Days in NYC

Day One in New York

Well we are safely here in Manhattan at the Millenium UN Plaza Hotel across from the UN and the Church  Centre. This afternoon we went to the UN and got our passes (thanks to the Soroptimists). We unpacked some and then we had dinner with the Primate's delegates from around the world. There are 20 of them, one Canadian, one American, several from Africa, South America, The Phillippines, Samoa, Australia and Scotland. For some it is their first time to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Although the actual Commission does not start until Monday, tomorrow the Ecumenical Women are hosting an orientation day. We, the steering committee, must be there at 8 am and registration begins at 8:45.
There are about 150 people registered. The highlight of the day will be a presentation by the Executive Director of UN Women. There is a panel and workshops etc with Chapel in the morning and at the at 4 pm. We end with a reception with wine and snacks around 6. It should be a fun packed day.

The best news is the all my luggage arrived safely, unlike last year AND my daughter is curling in the Ontario Intermediate competition and her team is 4 wins and 1 loss. Great curling ladies.

Well I need to do some more preparation for tomorrow so I need to sign off now.

Blessings Judy  

Day Two

Well today is over and I think that we did well in our presentations. In the morning the New Executive Director for UN Women spoke for about 1/2 an hour to a packed chapel. She is very inspirational and very faith based. She arrived in traditional African garb with several in her entourage and ended her presentation by urging us to sing again with enthusiasm.
As chair of the Advocacy Committee for Ecumenical Women my committee and I were responsible for much of the content of our orientation day. Morning and afternoon worship were very rousing and we ended the day marching in the Chapel to " We are marching in the light of God".
After the ED of UN Women spoke we all returned upstairs to hear a panel put together by Christine Mangale of the Lutheran delegation. There were 4 speakers on various aspects related to beyond 2015 and the accomplishments and roadblocks that have been encountered. The chief of the civil society section of UN Women, Lopa Banerjee, was on the panel and gave a great talk on the challenges of post 2015.

Then I spoke for about 1/2 hour on several procedural items and our "talking points" and how to use them. The Talking Points are on a postcard sized piece of card stock and are an abbreviated form of our original statement to the Commission. We will use the talking points when meeting with other groups in negotiating around the concluding document.
In the afternoon we split into 3 workshops.
1. Mission Visits which was a 1 hour presentation on how to arrange and prepare for a meeting with a mission. Here they do not have embassies, but rather missions by a country to the UN.
2. How does your Story fit into the Millenium Development Goals.
3. Looking at the Zero Draft of the agreed conclusions in light of our submission to the Commission in the fall and looking for gaps or overlaps in the document. Again I chaired this section and Alice and Lynnaia helped facilitate small group discussions. People did not seem to want to stop talking so I presume that the discussion was successful.
OK the clocks change tonight and I have a sore throat so it is time to quit
Until tomorrow.

Day Three

For a person who hates early mornings, this junket is a pain. Up at 7 am again and in a cab by shortly after 8 to head to East 7th street for the UN NGO Consultation Day. It is an introduction to our 2 weeks here with speakers, panels, and music. about 900 people were registered. The morning began with Umuada Igbo Massachusettes who are traditional African dancers who got our blood flowing and energized us.

We were welcomed by Soon-Young Yoon, Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York. Then the new Executive Director of UN Women and Under-Secretary-General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka   gave a wonderful address.

The panel was on Cities for Sustainable Development and Women's Human Rights - How can cities ensure women's human rights in sustainable development?  The speakers were excellent (but I have a bad habit of dozing in large rooms full of people when I am not the teacher....so I missed a little bit.) As I had another activity for the afternoon I left the hall at noon. I missed a panel on the "Legacy of the 1990's UN conferences" and "What do we want from Beijing Plus 20"

I returned to my hotel to attend a training for Soroptimist International on Advocacy. It was fun and educational and it was impossible to fall asleep in as they kept us very engaged. I must lend SI our Advocacy Handbook because they could use one too. We all cleared out of the suite at 6:30 and returned at 7:30 for a reception. Lasagna, sweet and sour Chicken, salads and breads followed by fruit and cookies and accompanied by wine or water (I took the water).

The other significant event today was that I got the hotel to stand by their original quote for my room. When I arrived they were charging much more than the quote. I realized that the room had been upgraded and wireless was now free and there is a complimentary breakfast but I could not see over $400 for some of the nights when my quote ranged from $150 to $271. Thank you "Michael" the manager today.

Finally I want to congratulate my youngest daughter Jennifer who has been curling in the Provincial Intermediates since Wed. She and her team skipped by Sue came second overall with a record of 5 wins and 2 losses. Job well done ladies and CONGRATULATIONS.

I'll be back tomorrow

Blessings Judy  

Day Four

Well we are now officially under way, us officially we started long ago.
Chapel at 8 am was wonderful and a great way to start the day. There is no briefing today and since I am feeling a bit under the weather I returned to my room to do some emailing etc and stay quiet. At 12:30  I went to the North America/Europe (NA/EU) caucus. This is a meeting of all the NGOs (non governmental organizations) in the North America/European region. There are other caucuses from other regions. I have never attended a caucus with so many people present, it was awesome. Betty Levy chaired and the mentioned the document which was circulated about 10 days ago as a statement. I helped with the Canadian portion of the paper. Pierette from Geneva has already done a 2 page commentary on the draft agreed conclusions which she presented and the the floor was open to comments. There were comments about poverty, food, immigrants and migrant workers, faith based organizations, sexual/reproductive rights, employment, and more. I commented on the immigrants in the Lindsay jail and about the fact that transportation is not mentioned in the document.

Several informal meetings ensued and I returned to the hotel to have lunch about 2:30.

More emails trying to arrange meetings for tomorrow and a half hour nap and it was time to get ready to go to the reception at the Canadian Mission (the equivalent to an embassy but the UN is not a country). A good reception, wine beer and soda and several trays of excellent food. The Minister for the Status of women from Canada spoke, Kellie Leitch I think) and introduced several other members of the delegation. There are 3 provincial ministers, another MP, and 6 young women sponsored by YWCA. Or YMCA . There is increasing emphasis on young people which is great. We have 3 under 18 and 2 more in their 20s in our group. The world YWCA is quite prominent and I met the Canadian head at the reception. The World Wide Girl Guides are also well represented.

One of the staff recognized me immediately and we chatted and I talked with several other NGO reps.

Back at our room and more work to do and emails to answer. I want to get to bed early to avoid getting overtired and making this throat worse.

Till tomorrow then

Blessings Judy 

 

Judy Dickson's UN Blog

When one is given the responsibility of moderating a group's blog for a particular event such as UNCSW, the greatest challenge is finding the time to get content. Whether you choose to write it yourself, or if you chase down other members of the group to share their experiences and thoughts. 

Last year, one of the most dependable contributors to our IAWN in Canada blog was Judy Dickson. This year, I like to believe inspired by the great success of this blog, Judy has decided to host her own blog. But don't worry, this doesn't mean I am going to stop posting Judy's adventures on our group blog. (I really don't want to give up such a reliable source of interesting content...so I am just going to repost things here).

If you would like to follow her adventures directly, then you should check out her blog. Of course, you can catch all the highlights from Judy's time at UNCSW58 right here on the IAWN in Canada blog. 

  

Let's play catch up!

It is day one of UNCSW58 and I am just now getting around to writing this year's inaugural post for IAWN Canada. I will be blaming this on the jetlag that I am suffering.

Though this is my third time attending UNCSW, it was my first chance to participate in both the Ecumenical Women Orientation Day and NGO-CSW Consultation Day. 

Orientation Day was wonderful, and I believe it would have been really helpful in my first year when I found the whole process of participating in the events of UNCSW fairly confusing. I hope it helps some of this year's first timers to get their feet under them before they begin the week. 

Listening Intently at Ecumenical Women Orientation Day

Since I am on Ecumenical Women's communications team this year, I have been given the job of taking pictures at events - with someone's fancy DSLR camera. It is pretty much the most fun ever. If you'd like to see some of my pictures so far, then you should really go on facebook and like Ecumenical Women. You can then look through all our pictures there (although I will include a few pictures with posts as well). 

Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka address NGO representatives

Yesterday was the Consultation Day for non-governmental organizations, I must confess that by yesterday, with the time change and the loss of another hour of sleep, my jet lag got the better of me and I decided to skip the afternoon in order to sleep before the first day of CSW today. Nonetheless, I was glad to be able to hear Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the new Executive Director of UN Women address the group in the morning. She had spoken at the Ecumenical Women Orientation Day on Saturday as well and I have already become quite a fan of hers. We have posted a video of that first address to Ecumenical Women on our website and on our facebook page as well. 

Praying for the women of the world on International Women's Day

In conclusion, you should really go check out all the wonderful things that have already begun to be posted through ecumenical women, but continue to watch this space for more from the Canadian Anglican delegates to UNCSW. 

-Caitlin Reilley Beck

(moderator of IAWN Canada blog)