Center For Women's Global Leadership - CWGL at The United Nations

CWGL At The United Nations

At the United Nations, CWGL plays a major role at various UN meetings addressing the implementation of commitments from world conferences including the Vienna Conference (1993), Cairo Hearing on Reproductive Health and Human Rights, Copenhagen Hearing on Economic Justice and Women's Human Rights, and Beijing Conference, in particular at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the UN Human Rights Council, and at the reviews of these UN World Conferences.

There are several critical meetings at the United Nations that serve as important opportunities for women's human rights advocates to assess successes and failures in implementing commitments to women. As an ECOSOC accredited NGO, the CWGL participates directly in roundtables organized by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in preparation for each session of the Commission on the Status of Women. In this capacity, the CWGL plays a multifaceted role, by:

• Facilitating planning sessions in which women’s human rights defenders and advocates can both monitor and contribute to meetings effectively
• Convening a women’s human rights caucus and other gatherings
• Organizing monitoring and other advocacy trainings
• Sending out alerts and reports both before and after such meetings

In March 2007, the Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), together with the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) convened a meeting of 50 women activists from around the world, to develop a comprehensive and multi-faceted strategy for global, regional and national action to gain the UN General Assembly’s approval of a stronger and single, fully resourced women’s entity at the UN. As a result of that meeting and the continued need for women’s collaborative advocacy on this issue, WEDO and the CWGL, along with hundreds of activists spanning all regions, launched the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign in February 2008, to mobilize women’s groups and allies to push for the adoption of the new UN entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment. On June 30, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly resolution was agreed to and subsequently formally adopted by the General Assembly on Friday, 2 July to establish “UN Women”, the new gender equality entity at the UN.