Rose Watson: UMW Social Action: UN COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN

United Methodist Women works with the UN on the Status of Women! Wonderful work that we do, with amazing resources and an amazing outreach! Two-column, back-to-back handout.

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59th Annual United Nations Commission

on the Status of Women—CSW-59

March 9-20, 2015

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. United Methodist Women is an active participant in this annual global gathering, and this year will offer four free workshops.

Maternal Health. Maternal mortality still remains nothing short of an epidemic worldwide. Each year, nearly a quarter of a million women die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth. United Methodist Women and the World YWCA, as faith-based and women’s organizations, recognize this issue as a critical area of concern and priority, and offer a peer-learning workshop focusing on YWCA delegates and United Methodist Women delegates. The goal of the workshop is to provide a collaborative space for health advocates worldwide to share best practices and develop concrete task plans for implementation upon return to their communities.

Participatory Development: Learning From Grassroots Women Leaders.
In this session we look ahead to how grassroots women can work with partners to be key stakeholders, decision-makers and implementers in global development processes in the coming years.

Panelists will present challenges in their communities and relevant innovative local solutions related to 12 critical areas of concern, including poverty and power and decision making. These grassroots women will reveal how they and their partners could be meaningfully involved in the next stages of women’s empowerment agenda.

Women’s Migration, Flawed Development Strategies and the Way Forward

Over the past 20 years, the number of women in migration around the world has increased dramatically. Women have been forced to migrate to meet job demands in developed countries and send remittance to poor countries. Restrictive and repressive migration and border-management policies have particularly impacted the health, safety and welfare of women migrants. In the workshop we will explore how movements are coming together to affirm social protections and economic and social human rights, climate justice and new concepts of “development” for people and the planet, women’s human rights, migrant rights and the struggles of frontline communities globally for a new development framework that would make migration a choice, not a necessity.

**Walking the UNSC1325 Talk: Women Cross Most Militarized Border in the World

UNSCR1325 is the UN Security Council Resolution that addresses not only the inordinate impact of war on women, but also the pivotal role women should and do play in conflict management, conflict resolution and sustainable peace.

We are convinced that peace is attainable and inextricably linked with the advancement of women, who are a fundamental force for leadership, conflict resolution and the promotion of lasting peace at all levels.

On the 15th anniversary of UNSCR1325, leading global women peacemakers will attempt to cross the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea—the most militarized border in the world—to unite women from North and South Korea in calling for peace and the reunification of Korea. Known as the Forgotten War, the Korean War (1950-1953) claimed 4 million lives and ended only with a temporary armistice agreement. The absence of a peace treaty has left Korea in a state of war, which has led to the massive militarization and repression of democracy and human rights on both sides of the DMZ. Both North and South Korea have failed to honor its commitment to UNSC 1325, which requires all parties to involve the voices of women calling for peace.

Pray for these workshops and leaders. Learn More: