Advocacy
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ICUUW champions gender equality and the health and rights of women and girls. We connect people, ideas, and resources to drive solutions for girls and women.
Through advocacy and campaigning, ICUUW promotes the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal #5 (SDG5): “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
As an organization in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), ICUUW participates in the yearly sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the UN’s principal body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
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On 26 July 2019, following a two-year complex and rigorous application process coordinated by former ICUUW business manager Karen LaFrance, the International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women (ICUUW) was granted special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The special status bestowed upon ICUUW confirms that the activities of the ICUUW are relevant to the work of the UN and invites the organization to actively engage with ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, as well as with the UN Secretariat, programs, funds, and agencies.
As an international women’s organization in special consultative status with ECOSOC, ICUUW contributes to the accomplishment of the goals and mission of the United Nations, advancing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal #5 (SDG5): "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls."
At the same time, the special consultative status carries responsibilities and obligations: ICUUW commits itself to complying with the UN Charter and its principles, actively participating in UN meetings and events, and submitting a report on its activities in support of the work of ECOSOC and the UN once every four years.
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At the onset of the war, as a member of the Women's Funding Network, the largest network of women’s funds and gender justice funders in the world, ICUUW condemned President Putin’s violent, premeditated, and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Please read the joint statement here.
In times of crisis, we come together in solidarity. The International Convocation of UU Women has answered the appeal for humanitarian aid for refugees and the internally displaced issued by Gondviselés (in English: Providence) Charity Organization of the Hungarian Unitarian Church.
A week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, ICUUW launched a large-scale fundraising effort to supply immediate assistance to families fleeing the war in Ukraine, in partnership with Gondviselés.
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The Global Gag Rule (also called the Mexico City Policy), first enacted by President Ronald Regan in 1984, prohibits foreign non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) from receiving any U.S. funding if they “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.” This includes counseling, referrals, or advocacy; U.S. aid would be withheld from organizations receiving U.S. family planning assistance even if a given NGO used their own (non-U.S.) funds or funds donated by another country. This policy is effectively a "gag," blocking access to health care, stifling local advocacy efforts and public debate on abortion-related issues, and undermining reproductive rights worldwide.
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The International Convocation of UU Women has voiced solidarity with vulnerable genders in Afghanistan and is increasingly alarmed by reports of eroding human rights in the country. On July 20, 2022, the UN published the following information from their Assistance Mission in Afghanistan:
[The UN Mission] “confirms the erosion of basic human rights across the country since the Taliban takeover in August last year, pointing out they bear responsibility for extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and violations of fundamental freedoms.”
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The International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women unequivocally asserts that reproductive rights are human rights. Abortion is healthcare. It is a moral imperative that any gender with the ability to become pregnant has access to safe and legal care that respects their dignity, privacy, and freedom.
Women in the U.S. have now lost that freedom. On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the Constitution does not confer the right to abortion, thus overturning Roe v. Wade, a 1973 court case that recognized the right to abortion in the U.S. The U.S. joins Poland, El Salvador, and Nicaragua as the only countries to roll back legal access to abortion in the past three decades. (In the same time period, nearly 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws, according to the global advocacy group Center for Reproductive Rights.)
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The International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women works in partnership with grassroots women's groups, regardless of race or ethnicity, which share our Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist values.
“Wherever we see racism, we must condemn it without reservation, without hesitation, without qualification.” ANTÓNIO GUTERRES, United Nations Secretary-General, 2021
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is March 21. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on the day the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid "pass laws" in 1960.
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The global lockdowns, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, created environments that increased the incidence and severity of violence against women and girls (VAW/G).
Confinement and restriction of movement fostered tension, distress, and worries for everyone, but they trapped women with abusive partners. Too often, women were unable to access resources and support systems because many of the organizations dedicated to helping victims of violence were unable to operate. The economic fallout and the additional demand for services forced shelters for victims of domestic violence to find ways to stay open even as many operated near capacity.
The global upsurge of VAW/G prompted Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Executive Director of UN Women to declare it a “shadow pandemic” that must be urgently addressed. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for all governments “to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19.” Facing this shadow pandemic, each of us, from individuals to communities to governments, from the private sector to civil society to police and justice services, has a responsibility to act.