As an organization in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, IWC has been involved with the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) since 2017. CSW meets for two weeks in March, with a vibrant schedule of sessions, pre-COVID times in person, now in virtual space. This year we have been exploring ways to expand our interest in UN meetings at other times of the year. Carmen Capriles – an active UN civil society advocate from Bolivia and part of IWC’s Advocacy Team – is encouraging us to do this, first through sessions at the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in July and then through UN General Assembly in September 2022.
As a New York City (NYC) resident, I have long been aware of UN General Assembly because of the traffic jams that it creates. World leaders and their delegations from almost all nations descend on the city, creating gridlock even worse than that of high season for holiday shopping. Gridlock was back this year, but many of the sessions were still in virtual format. The annual Global People’s Assembly, which usually features exciting motivational gatherings for education and protest, was all virtual. The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) offered four sessions this year, two in person at the Church Center near the UN and two online.
The good news was that people who did not travel to NYC could still take part in these events. IWC Advocacy Team member Ellen Barfield and I attended a great session with African climate feminists on Zoom, and Ellen also looked in on a 30th anniversary celebration of the UN Declaration on Minority Rights, marred by anti-Pakistani language from an Indian delegate. Some of us were in NYC together. IWC President Karen Kortsch, Ellen Barfield, Carmen Capriles, UN advocate Leslie Wright and I had a long, friendly, informative dinner near the UN headquarters, joined by Bruce Knotts and Ana Llacer, a documentary filmmaker and friend of Carmen. Bruce, former director of the UU Office at the UN, has just retired from work with the UUA, but not from UN advocacy. He will be actively consulting with IWC in the future.
Our ICUUW Advocacy Team continues to grow in numbers and depth of understanding of the intricate workings of the UN, and indeed, of world and climate politics. We meet monthly on Zoom, usually on the first Friday of the month – morning times in the U.S., late afternoon in Europe, evening in Asia.
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