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The blog post below was written by Cristina Velez, a graduate intern at the UU-UNO. 

Today, March 8th, marks International Women’s Day! Marches like these are happening all over the world. Learn more about the history and celebration for International Women’s Day here.

International Women’s Day is not only symbolic; it also coincides with an important yearly forum called the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Global non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activists prepare over much of the year to present and discuss on the many pressing issues facing women all over the globe. CSW takes place this year from February 26th to March 9th and the priority theme for this 56^th Commission is “the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.”

This year’s NGO CSW Consultation Day – a kick-off of sorts – took place on Sunday, February 26^th. As a woman and a student of women’s activism, I spent a great deal of this day simply soaking in my surroundings. From the moment I approached the building steps, made my way through the lobby and into the auditorium, the buzz and excitement of the day’s energy was palpable.

Advocates and officials spoke throughout the day about the year’s achievements, as well as needs and goals for the future. Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michele Bachelet, took the podium to set the tone for the upcoming two weeks of CSW and emphasized the need for greater fundraising on women’s peacekeeping initiatives. The keynote address was given by NGO/CSW/NY Woman of Distinction Awardee, Mirna Cunningham Kain, an indigenous woman from a community on the Nicaragua-Honduras border, who is also a physician and activist. Ms. Cunningham-Kain gave a face to the rural indigenous woman and spoke of challenges and needs that her community still faces, as a result of issues like climate change, lack of access to credit, personal AND institutional violence against women, along with increased land seizure.

The two panels of the day provided depth and scope on regional trends related to rural women’s issues.  Panelists included a mix of global women’s rights activists, rural women’s rights activists, UN Women representatives, and one ambassador to the UN from El Salvador.  Discussions on challenges for rural women regarding issues like forced child marriage, teenage pregnancy, climate change, nuclear radiation threats, as well as violence against women were among the many topics of the panel.  In addition, tension arose on various occasions when panelists challenged UN Women and government officials to the UN to become more involved with civil society groups.  Ms. Lakshmi Puri, a UN Women representative, stated that the formation of regional UN Women advisory groups is anticipated to be fulfilled by mid-2012 and the expectation is that this will increase access and collaboration between NGOs and UN Women.

By far, the most energizing part of the day was the afternoon address from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, from Liberia.  Some of this very compelling address can be found here.  Gbowee charged that empowerment efforts should be firmly rooted in enhancing rural women’s power to engage in societal change on all levels, as well as in widely supporting and enhancing the existing women’s efforts toward development and conflict resolution.  Finally, three training breakout sessions concluded the day’s events.

All in all, it seems that the undergirding theme this CSW for NGOs and rural women alike is to see the formation of tangible goals toward gender equality for rural women, specifically in the areas of climate change, gender-based violence, and women’s involvement in security and peacebuilding.  To this end, most women’s advocates firmly believe that the path to formulating these goals includes efforts at greater accountability and enforcement of CEDAW, as well as Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820. Additionally, many believe that the work done at CSW 56 regarding women and climate change serves as a crucial foundation for making rural women central to the discussions at Rio+20, the sustainable development and climate change conference in Rio de Janeiro this June 2012.  If you would like to take a look at this year’s CSW webcasts, announcements and other resources, you can do so here.

Undocumented youth in New York stood up for their equal opportunity to higher education for undocumented people in a press conference on the stair steps in front of the City Hall on December 9^th,  2011. Undocumented youth arrived to New York as children and wish to give back to their communities and state, yet they face many obstacles due to their immigration status (quoted from the website of Youth Leadership Council). The NYS Assembly Higher Education and Governmental Operations Committees held a hearing on the NYS DREAM Legislation later that day at the City Hall.

Publicizing an official endorsement for NYS DREAM Act the night before the press conference, NYU president, John Sexton, openly supports this legislation that will provide real relief to undocumented youth. The public endorsement is available at: http://nyudreamteam.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/ny-dream-act-statment-december-2011.pdf

As a faith-based organization dedicated to advance a peaceful, just, sustainable and pluralistic world community, the UU-UNO encourages fellow UU congregants in the United States to support both the federal and state DREAM Act. We also look forward to inviting members from New York State Youth Leadership Council to speak at the 2012 Spring Seminar – “Beyond Borders: Breaking Barriers of Race and Immigration”.

In November 2009, the Religions for Peace Global Youth Network launched the Arms Down! Campaign for Shared Security. The campaign aims to advance shared security by working to reduce nuclear and conventional weapons and to reallocate military spending to support urgently needed development, as set forth in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Global military expenditure reached the unprecedented level of $1.464 trillion in 2008. Only 10% (ten percent) of the total global military budget would be sufficient to enable the full achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Arms Down! has a target number of 50,000,000 (fifty million) signatures. Signed petitions will be delivered to the United Nations Secretary General, the permanent members of the Security Council, as well as to Heads of State and Members of Parliament.

Learn more about the Arms Down! campaign:

The upcoming North American regional campaign will consist of two key elements: a Day of Awareness on August 9, 2010 and Day(s) of Advocacy on September 20-22, 2010.

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We have all watched in horror the images and stories of death and destruction in the wake of Haiti’s January 12 earthquake. And many of us have responded with generosity, giving what we can to the relief efforts: my own UU congregation collected $15,000 in the days after the quake for the UUSC relief efforts. In addition to responding with compassion with relief aid, our Unitarian Universalist faith also demands that we seek justice for the Haitian people in the wake of this tragedy – justice which has been a too small a supply for Haiti for far too long.

A first step toward a just recovery for Haiti is for the international community to cancel Haiti’s debt.

This isn’t just a natural disaster, but a disaster caused by global economics and politics that have resulted in of Haiti’s poverty and environmental damage for years and years. In this small Caribbean country, eighty percent of the population lives in abject poverty. One out of nine children dies before reaching her fifth birthday.

For decades the country was forced to pay out tens of millions of dollars in debt payments, instead of investing the money in building hospitals, schools, or other infrastructure – resources that could have helped in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The debts dated back to 1825, shortly after Haiti won independence from France and abolished slavery. France threatened to reinvade and re-establish slavery unless Haiti paid “reparations” for the loss of the “property”, including slaves, forcing Haiti to pay the equivalent of $21 billion today. This cycle of unjust indebtedness continued through Haiti’s history and included the brutal dictatorships of the Duvaliers. On top of that, harmful economic conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) exacerbated the country’s poverty and path to development.

The Unitarian Universalist Association is member of the Jubilee USA Network, a coalition which worked for years to secure debt cancellation for Haiti. We celebrated last June, when Haiti finally received cancellation of $1.2 billion of its debts owed to the IMF, World Bank, and the US and other governments – a sum equal to about 60% of its total debt.

In the wake of this unimaginable tragedy, one obvious and simple step toward a just recovery is for the international community to cancel Haiti’s $1 billion in remaining debt. And it should go without saying that all of the assistance that Haiti receives should be in the form of grants and not loans. However, yesterday the International Monetary Fund approved an additional $102 million loan to Haiti. While the IMF Managing Director has stated his intention to work for Haiti’s debt to be cancelled, we clearly must keep up the pressure.

Please add your voice to the growing chorus today: Drop Haiti’s Debt Now and No New Debt for Disaster.

In addition, congressional leaders are circulating a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner with this message. Click here to send a message to your Representative encouraging him/her to sign the letter.

Melinda St. Louis
Deputy Director, Jubilee USA
Congregant All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, DC