ERA Report on CSW68

CSW is the UN’s only space dedicated to gender equality and its annual meeting is the world’s largest gathering of feminist and other CSO representatives. ERA works with our five Alliance sisters on direct engagement with CSW. Australia has a low level of engagement with the UN-based human rights system. CSOs working on issues of gender equality within Australia tend to have limited engagement with UN processes and do not tend to use human rights terminology to describe their work. This creates a risk that local CSOs will miss out on benefiting from international work on the human rights of women and girls and may result in Australian CSOs inadvertently recreating work already done elsewhere. Each year, ERA leads the National Women's Alliances in a seven-month project to provide training and support to women in Australia to attend CSW or to engage remotely from Australia. We provide opportunities to caucus and to connect with international advocacy with the intention of building stronger connections between domestic CSOs and international processes. In 2024, interest in CSW among Australian NGOs was the highest it has been for at least 12 years. The priority theme for CSW68 was gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective. Download our report on CSW68 for more.

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