Anglican Youth speak about concerns on Gender Issues in Canada

Today, our Canadian Anglican Delegation had a chance to visit the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN and meet with a member of their staff who is on the negotiating team for this year's CSW. As a part of our time together, the youth delegation shared a statement which they had prepared on issues that are of great concern to them as young Anglican Canadians, in particular within Canada. We stayed up until 11:00pm the night before working on it together and that process has been one of the best parts of CSW for me so far.

You will find the statement below. It was very well received and in fact the youth were asked to send a copy so that it could be shared with other members of staff. Needless to say the youth were pleased as punch and I was a very proud youth leader. So here is our statement, these are the issues that matter to us.

As Canadian Anglican Youth Delegates, we have come together to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, to observe, learn, and participate in the project of increasing women’s empowerment around the world and at home.  We would like to use this opportunity to bring attention to the following issues that we as youth still feel need to be addressed.  Based on our discussions with one another and delegates from around the world, our priorities include: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Reproductive Justice, Sexual Health Education, and Gender and Sexual Minorities.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

We want to highlight the need for Canada to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People as promised.  We believe Canada should prioritize listening to indigenous families, voices, women, and scholars and incorporating their needs, insights, and leadership into the action and research done.  As indigenous advisors have suggested, we strongly believe in prioritizing the accountability of law enforcement at the levels of individual officers and policy. 

Changes in government policies that contribute to missing and murdered indigenous women, particularly through criminalizing indigenous women’s lives should be addressed.  Criminalizing women’s lives is instrumental in their marginalization and in forcing them into unsafe conditions where they risk losing their lives.  One key example includes Bill c-36 (The Exploited Persons Act) which criminalizes sex work.  Indigenous women, migrant women, and poor women are overly represented as sex workers.  Bill c-36 is consistently denounced by sex workers as both criminalizing their lives, making their jobs riskier, and providing barriers to the implementation of ways that sex workers keep themselves safe.  Bill c-36 contradicts Canada’s work around missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and demonstrates a failure to listen to indigenous women's own concerns and solutions.

Reproductive Justice

Reproductive health services have been highlighted as a key priority for the Trudeau government.    Currently New Brunswick continues to break federal Canadian law with it's abortion restrictions and has created a two-tiered medical system where wealthy people have access to private services that the largely low income population of New Brunswick does not.  Not only are people forced to pay out of pocket for services that the province is legally contracted to provide and make accessible, when they can't they are forced to travel across borders, or attempt highly dangerous DIY solutions. 

We also want to highlight the need for a national prescription coverage plan in order to make birth control more accessible.  Birth control in Canada is not accessible to many people, including teenagers.  Teenagers have less access to medication for financial reasons and because of physical barriers which make it more difficult for them to get to a doctor or access parent's medical insurances while maintaining confidentiality.

Another part of reproductive justice is ensuring that people can raise their children in safe and supportive environments.  Child and family services across Canada too often spend resources removing children from their families instead of prioritizing supports for families to stay together.  Child removal policies criminalize poverty and most often affect indigenous, racialized, poor and single parent families. We want to encourage the government to respond to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's ruling from January 2016 concerning its provision of services to indigenous children, and increase funding levels until these children and youth have equal access to all other young Canadians.

Sexual Health Education

Other members of our group are also concerned with access to sex positive, knowledge based sex education and are concerned at the clear and unjust disparities between provinces and their approaches, resources, standards for sexual health education.  The lack of accountability of provinces in the provision of sexual health education and the very different realities that young Canadians face across the country are inexcusable and easily fixed with a little political will.  Sex education should be inclusive of the experiences of people of all genders, sexualities and levels of ability.  It should be sex positive and fact based.  It should include discussions of consent and how sex should feel good both physically and emotionally.

Gender and Sexual Minorities

We support Bill C-16 which amends the human rights act to include gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.  This bill provides vital protection for queer and trans communities.  Currently, queer youth are disproportionately represented amongst homeless youth and youth in care.  Intersectionality must be a part of addressing issues faced by gender and sexual minorities since indigenous, racialized, and disabled youth who are queer and trans face increased risk of violence, poverty and discrimination. 

Sincerely,

The Anglican Youth Delegation

Clare Urquhart
Karen Urquhart
Willow Martin Seedhouse
Aili Peterson McIntyre
Marnie Peterson
Alicia Armstrong
Ceilidh Gibson
Sierra Robertson-Roper
Sarah Lloyd
Caitlin Reilley Beck
Jessi Taylor

Snow day at CSW61

We are five days into this year's CSW experience and I am woefully behind on blogging. It turns out that coordinating a group of 11 teens and young adults and their chaperones at this event can really take it out of you...well me. Perhaps that is why, despite my ongoing distaste for wintry weather, I was actually relieved that we found ourselves expecting a storm on Monday night and Tuesday leading the UN to close and all parallel events to be cancelled for the day. Instead of another early 8:00am start with worship, I got to sleep in and stay in my pyjamas for most of the day. It was wonderful.

But yesterday wasn't a total break for our group as we decided to reschedule the dinner we had planned with the other big group of teens from the Episcopal Church which had been cancelled on Monday. So it fell to me to find a reasonably priced, local restaurant that would accommodate a reservation for 22 people made the same day. After a lot of googling, I found a place that would work for everyone and booked a table at Pershing Square for 6:30pm.

When the groups arrived, we put the teens and younger adults at one table and everyone else at the other in the hopes that this would get people interacting outside their group more quickly. I was also pleased that we were joined by one of my former youth from when I was in Ottawa who is attending CSW with a club he is part of at McGill. It turned out to be a lively dinner with lots of people getting to know one another and just chatting. I was pleased to take some time to talk to the Rev. Carey Chirico who has led the group from Virginia for the past 5 years about the curriculum she has developed to prepare the youth for CSW. I am hoping to get my hands on the program and find a way to run it next year for those in the Diocese of New Westminster.

The day overall seemed to be enjoyable to others in the group who took advantage of the break to visit museums, do laundry and catch up on sleep. This makes the think that maybe snow isn't always terrible...(maybe).

Finishing Up CSW58 with Judy

Thursday chapel was the Salvation Army with the band and a wonderful liturgical dancer. I think that there are pictures on the facebook page United Nations Women Adventures. We were all dancing in the aisles and definitely energized for the day.

The morning briefing was done by Jackie Shapiro, the former chair of NGOCSW (nongovernment organization of the Commission on the Status of Women) and Ambassador Gonsalves of El Salvador and Vice Chair of the Commission.
There are 4 resolutions being debated as well as the Agreed Conclusions:
One on Palestine, one on Malawi, one on natural diasters and one on HIV/AIDS. At 10 am tomorrow the Commission will adopt the resolutions and then between 4 and 7 the plan to announce the Agreed Conclusions.
El Salvador has a program and budget to ensure inclusiveness in a public services ie: they use radios to reach out to rural women and have set up sites for "one stop shopping" for services including up to 32 services in one site.
The Ambassador explained that UN Women had held regional meetings prior to the Commission for discussion of the issues in order to make discussions less contentious in New York. He stated that some countries had gone back on the agreements that were made at these regional meetings and were no longer agreeing to previously agreed language and were slowing down negotiations.
The next speaker was the head of Civil society for UN Women. the negotiations on Wednesday went from 11 am to 12:45 am with brief meal breaks. 10 paragraphs were discussed and 60 are left. The Executive Director of UN Women attended as did the Ministers of South Africa and Egypt which helped to speed things up a bit. She described the vice chair as "heroic" in her strong desire to move ahead. However "the crucial issue now is time".
Immediately after the briefing we held a North America/Europe caucus meeting. We discussed the upcoming meetings on women's issues. One member brought up the legalities of some member states not following treaties which they have signed and a discussion ensued on whether the caucus could do anything about this. Finally it was decided to work on the Agreed Conclusions by working with our missions and negotiators and supporting them in any way we can. At the end of the meeting I was honoured to be asked to consider becoming a co-coordinator of the caucus. I asked for time to consider this.
At 4:00pm the core group of the SI (Soroptimist International) met in a hotel room to have an opportunity to visit socially and to discuss the latest reports from the negotiations. I met some pretty awesome women in that group and I really enjoyed working with them.
At 6 pm we had an Ecumenical Women debrief at the Episcopal Church centre. We watched the webinar of Christine Mangale delivering an verbal "intervention" to the Commission as well as a young woman from the Working Group on Girls speaking. We discussed the lastest release from the Commission. The day ended with packing because I am going home tomorrow so that I can go to my daughter's surprise birthday party.
Blessings Judy

St Patrick's Day at UNCSW58 According to Judy

St Patrick's Day is a big deal in New York City. A huge, and I mean huge, parade, everyone in green, green beer etc etc.  I managed to stay clear of the celebrations as getting about was apparently difficult.
It has turned cold again here, warmer than Fenelon but below zero degrees celsius in the morning. I was late to chapel this morning because I could not stop coughing for a bit; got there about 15 minutes late. The Anglican Consultative Council did worship today and the preacher from Africa I think, did a wonderful job talking about maternal child health and MDG (Millennium Development Goal) number 3. My roomie, Caitlin did the prayers of the people and I discovered that she has a wonderful singing voice.
The briefing from the UN this morning was attended again by the Chair of the Commission who spoke at length about procedure. There were no negotiations today, instead the Commission received oral statements from NGOs and negotiated behind closed doors. Another member of the Commission also spoke briefly. This is new to me - usually the briefings are done by UN Women and/or the NGO/CSW NY. This Commission is trying very hard to be more open.
Following the briefing I met with some Soroptimists for a while and then went back to my room for a tea before I headed out to once again make the trek to meet the Canadian negotiators in the UN building - about a 1/2 hour walk for slow, old me. Suzanne was the government rep today and her news was some good and some bad. The good is that a new compilation text is due out today. The bad is that there are some "coalitions:" in the negotiations who are trying to hold a hard line against previously accepted language. The Commission operates on consensus rather than majority and so even one dissenting vote can stop the conclusions.The contentious wording falls in the areas of  "family", "gender", "sexual and reproductive rights and education",
"sovereignty" mostly. Some of this language was accepted back in 1949 and some just last year, but there are strong feelings around these subjects.
At about 3pm the new text came out - only 28 pages this time with 2 paragraphs already accepted (only).
 
Frantically, groups called meetings to review the text because tomorrow is the beginning of the final round of negotiations and it is harder to influence the negotiations from outside the rooms and almost none of us get to go inside. Soroptimists met upstairs in my hotel and other groups too.
At 6:15 there was a North America/Europe caucus meeting that went on for 2 hours. 
More tomorrow
Blessings Judy

What is it like at CSW?

A lasting impression of attending the Commission on the Status of Women (SW) meetings for the first time is of tears...... lots of tears...  pouring freely down my cheeks... 

Tears of gratitude to be able to participate in something I had dreamed of for years. Tears of sadness at the stories and statistics of women's plight around the world one heard in every meeting and conversation Tears of wonder at the thousands of people from all parts of the globe that cared, that came, that advocated, that dared to believe it could be different, that knew that while some progress had been made there was still a long way to go and were committed to go the distance. 

Anglican delegates to UNCSW58 from around the world.

 Other highlights include: 

* sitting in a small group discussion with a dear woman from Pakistan (who she knew "Mother Alice"); a woman from the south of Italy and a woman from Madagascar and discovering that, while there were many differences to our lives and work we shared a desire to learn from each other and take something tangible back to the women we represented.
* singing with Phumzile and hearing her share her heart
* worship times with women of so many nationalities and denominations
* attending the Europe and North America caucus meeting at the UN
* learning how intentionally the YWCA develops young women leaders

And perhaps, most powerfully, watching the democratic practice at its best as woman after woman used her voice to advocate for the  girls and women she came to represent in the NA/Europe caucus meeting. Everyone was invited to speak into the document that would help craft the  CSW58 Agreed Conclusions. As person after person came to the microphone and respectfully yet with conviction shared their suggestions I was struck by how amazing it was that thousands and thousands of words, about hundreds and hundreds of concerns, representing millions and millions of real people's lives were being systematically gathered in what must be one of the most beautiful manifestations of the heart of God for the oppressed being lived out in human form, on a global scale, from people of all backgrounds,  that I have ever seen.

-Ellen Duffield

Delegate from the Diocese of Algoma 

Girls' Statement to the 58th Commission on the Status of Women

As mentioned in previous posts, this year we have three teenaged delegates from the Anglican Church of Canada who join other youth from around the world in the Working Group of Girls. 

During CSW 58, girl delegates drafted their statement to the Commission on the Status of Women on how the Millennium Development Goals impact girls’ lives around the globe. The statement will be read on the floor of the UN during Week 2 of CSW 58.

Here is the full-text copy of the Girls Statement:

The Millennium Development Goals attempted to achieve gender equality, however, they failed to include a comprehensive goal towards the empowerment of girls and are all too far from being achieved. Therefore, post-2015 the UN must re-evaluate methods for undertaking gender equality. 

We, the girls of the 58^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, demand that in the next development agenda the UN incorporate girls into every aspect of the agenda – politically, socially and economically. A stand-alone goal for girls requires sufficient consideration as well as a dedicated effort that includes realistic and achievable targets and indicators to ensure success. Three key areas that must be put into action are education, poverty and violence. We believe that these issues along with the consistent inclusion of girls will lead to girls’ empowerment and an ultimate worldwide respect for the girl child.

The focus of the second Millennium Development Goal was to improve access to primary education, but this target is not sufficient, nor comprehensive. A quality education is not solely based on what is learned in a primary school; it is in secondary and tertiary education where the focus must be now. This does not just mean learning within the classroom but also creating additional enrichment opportunities that allow for global learning communities. How are girls expected to succeed with only basic literacy and math skills? Globally, 1 in 5 girls don’t make it to secondary school. All across the world girls are falling into the learning gaps due to minimal resources and gender-biased learning environments. Schools should not just teach a basic curriculum but also real life lessons and issues such as respect, tolerance, human rights and health. A supportive and stimulating education taught by passionate teachers should build the confidence of girls as well as offering sports, theater, and other extra curricula – where girls can discover their voices and passions. Girls should be encouraged to pursue any subject of interest in order to eliminate stereotypes and achieve equality.

But it cannot stop here. Far too many girls today live in poverty and are hungry across the world. The causes of poverty and hunger include lack of resources, climate change and an imbalance of gender in the workforce. Achieving gender equality can assist in ending hunger and poverty.  Education is only half of the equation – after receiving an education females need to have the same opportunities as males to enter the workplace and put their skills to use. When we have equality in the workplace, every girl and thus, every woman has the opportunity to provide for themselves and for their family, putting the world one step closer to eradicating poverty and hunger.

Globally, girls are united by the same fear – the fear of gender-based violence in one form or another. The so-called “superiority” of males is seen in all parts of society and it hinders girls’ empowerment on a global scale. There has not been enough effort to address gender-based violence in the MDGs. Whether it is domestic violence, sexual violence, FGM, honor killings, human trafficking, verbal and emotional abuse, or partner abuse — girls should not have to be afraid.  From a young age, girls are told to alter their appearance, so that they are not exploited. But it is not our fault – victim shaming happens all too often. Many people are not educated on the meaning of violence and need to be educated about what this really means – especially the boys and men of today. We, as girls, believe that our bodies should never be violated and there needs to be more advocacy about gender-based violence because once a girl is abused her life is changed forever. No one can understand this feeling of violation until they have been through it – and that is why it is so important that we as girls speak out against violence. By speaking out, we help protect ourselves, and the global girls of the future. We want to live in a world where girls are united, not by fear – but by a sense of safety, pride and peace.

We believe that in the next Development Agenda being a girl should be not an impediment but an empowerment.

More from Updates Judy

Day Seven

Friday....where has the time gone?
 
This cold has interfered with what I had planned to do here in New York but I am still doing some exciting things.
 
Today started, as always,with chapel. There was no briefing today because the second floor space has been turned into a market. Woman from many countries have brought hand made items from their homeland to sell. There is everything from area rugs to earrings. This year I managed not to but anything. Pakistan has its usual wonderful dresses, pashminas and clergy stoles. There were hand sewn dolls and books for children table runners, lots of varieties of jewelery etc.
At 9:30 I returned to my room to arrange it for a meeting and we held an advocacy meeting here working on our view of the outcome document and any changes that we would like to see. One person was nodding off during the meeting showing how exhausted people are after the first week. My roommate actually returned during the meeting and went soundly to sleep on her bed for the rest  of the meeting. We did not get to the end of the document but we did make progress.
Lunch and a nap. Later I held some discussions about the document and at 4:15 I walked up to a pub to meet the SIA President  Cheri Fleming.
At 6:30 the North America /Europe Caucus met and that was kind of exciting.We were reviewing the document and a ":discussion" broke out I think on the inclusion of  "prostitution" vs sex trade. I stood up and said that if we are unable to reach consensus at our level then how do we expect the Commission to reach consensus. There was a lot of emotion in the room as several of the attendees are survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse. Canada was slammed regarding the disappearing aboriginal women especially in BC.
 
During the caucus I also spoke about the mission visit with Canada and with the US mission.
The meeting went well beyond the allotted time but some agreement was reached and we are circulating our recommendations.
 
At the meeting we also heard that the Muslim countries and some of the African countries have issued and ultimatum of sorts which would remove previously agreed upon language but we urged our negotiators to continue on with our support to work towards a progressive document.
The meeting ended after 8 so Alice and I returned to our room and ate our left overs.
So endeth the first week.
Blessings Judy

Day Eight

Wonderful....none of us needed to set an alarm, I forgot to mention that Caitlin moved into our room yesterday so now we are 3. She is the youngster at 29 while Alice and I are the old fogies.
 
However I went to bed at 11:15 Fri night so I was awake at 8 anyway. Today is take it easy day and my only "job" is to try to put our suggestions into the document. Well, I discovered that I am not as good at computers as I thought because I could not figure out how to do track changes. After two hours of trying and then a bite to eat I gave up around noon and went to sleep

After a blessed 2 hour sleep I showered etc because our honourary Canadian (from Long Island ) is coming and we are all going out for dinner when Ross, her husband, arrived. Joan had a 15 minute nap and we visited. Ross had been running and arrived about 6pm and we headed to the "Mint" and wonderful Indian food restaurant where we ate Lamb, Chicken, nan bread. rice, some kind of vegetables and yogurt with Tiramisu and cheese cake for dessert. Great food and great company makes for a wonderful evening. By the time we got back it was after 10pm, so we were not long getting ready for bed. A relatively quiet day in New York City.

Blessings Judy  

Day Nine
 
The three of us had breakfast together this morning and then the other two headed out to church and I returned to the room to work on the response to the outcome document with which I have been having great difficulty. I worked until nearly 1:00 and then went to bed for a quick nap. Alice called at 2 and we agreed to meet at the Cathedral of St John the Divine at 3 pm,  The cathedral is one of the largest buildings in the city meaning that it has a vast amount of open space in the church itself. Early in March they opened an exhibit of 2 sculptures called the phoenix. The work was designed and implemented by a Xu Bing in China as a work to join 2 new large buildings there. He made the sculptures from materials discarded when the buildings were being built. They are 2 gigantic birds which are suspended above the nave of the Cathedral. I got some good pictures but I am not sure how to attach them.

We taxied back and I prepared for the meeting of the "core group" of Soroptimist International. In the meeting we discussed process going forth into the second week as well as started the groundwork for planning CSW59 next march. It was a productive meeting with lots of good ideas flowing.

Alice went to the deli and got us some food and we sat and ate together. I have gotten to know her a lot better this year. She is a wonderful role model.

I tried to work on the outcome document some more but only made a small amount of progress.
 
Tomorrow the Anglicans are doing chapel so I'd better be on time. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our second week. It will be somewhat less frantic but with more pressure on lobbying and negotiating.
Wish us luck... not really luck but think of us.

Blessings Judy