UN Member States to Adopt Rotation for Venue of the Annual UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW)

The African CSOs, cognizant of and appreciates:

• The tradition that the UN Conferences on Women have been held across the world from Mexico (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985) and then Beijing (1995), as well as Generation Equality Forums which have been convened in Mexico and France in 2021.
• Other periodic UN conferences such as the UN Climate Change Conferences (COP), International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), among others, were held in various venues across the continents of the world.
• The aspiration of building a gender equal world with equality of opportunities, and with ethos of Leave No One Behind is engrained in the fundamental values of the United Nations - inclusivity, meaningful participation and representation.
• The United Nations has well established and equipped headquarters with conference facilities in various regions of the world with requisite capacities and agreements with host governments to support the UN to undertake its mandates outside New York.
• Member states would ordinarily have representational capacity in the various UN headquarters.

Concerned, however that holding the annual meeting of CSW sessions in New York:

• Perpetuates global inequalities and hegemony of one country and region as the UN Headquarters.
• Limits equality of opportunities for effective and meaningful participation of women and girls from various backgrounds and economic disposition, as well as other gender advocates including for governments because of the exorbitant cost of travel and stay in New York, for a meeting that will make decisions about their lives and wellbeing.
• Limits socio-economic opportunities to other countries that accrue from the hosting of such a global meeting for a two-week period, ranging from transport, accommodation, technology and other services.
• Perpetuates exclusion and inequalities that lie at the core of the work on women and girls’ empowerment and rights which is non-discrimination and unequal treatment.

We therefore request the UN Commission on the Status of Women Bureau and the Member States, the General Assembly and the UN Secretary General to: