The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. It is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The sixty-seventh session of the CSW takes place from 6 to 17 March 2023 in New York and will consider the priority theme of "Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls". The session will also review the agreed conclusions of the sixty-second session, "Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls". This is the first CSW in its history to have such a specific focus on gender equality and digital technologies.
APC will be participating since it will be a session that has direct links with our thematic priorities around online gender-based violence, freedom of speech, gender digital divide, disinformation and cybersecurity.
Beyond focusing the conversation on technology and gender around "empowerment" and "innovation", we extend an invitation to place at the centre the full realisation of human rights, participation, security and well-being, through producing, sharing and making visible global feminist perspectives and analysis about the priority theme. This includes the importance of inclusion and meaningful participation of all women and girls, in all their diversity, in the digital space and decision making at all levels of use, design, management and governance of digital technologies, to strengthen human rights and advance gender equality.
SOCIAL MEDIA KIT
Here's a social media kit around our priorities on #CSW67.
EVENTS APC IS ORGANISING AND CO-ORGANISING
Tuesday March 7th
CSW67 Side Event: “Ending online gender-based violence: How feminist approaches can create inclusive online spaces for all women and girls”
Co-organised by: The Kingdom of the Netherlands, Count Me In! Consortium and Our Voices, Our Futures
Time: 8:30 - 10:00 EST / Venue: Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN, 666 3rd Avenue, 18th floor
This formal side event will focus on sharing success stories and lessons learned of feminist online organising by structurally excluded communities. The larger framework of the side event will be identifying how governments and the UN can protect and support movements better in the digital era.
Register here for the in-person meeting, and here to join the event online.
Wednesday March 8th
Parallel Event: "AWID Portal - interconnecting sexual and reproductive rights. Digital Hotspots, plugging into sexual rights online"
Co-organised by: AWID and APC
Time: 11:00 EST/ Venue: 15 W 38th St NY, NY10018 (Monroe Room, Ground Floor)
Follow it on AWID's Youtube channel.
Thursday March 9th
NGO Forum Session: “Including Diverse Voices: Research priority setting for technology facilitated violence against women and girls”
Co-organised by: SVRI, UN Women, APC and Global Partnership
Time: 9:00 EST / Virtual
Join the SVRI along with UN Women, APC and the Global Partnership on this discussion about current research priority setting process to create a fair, effective and relevant research agenda on tech-facilitated gender-based violence!
Register here.
Friday March 10th
NGO Forum Session: “Claiming online space to secure freedom, take action, create change”
Co-organised by: Our Voices Our Futures (OVOF) and APC
Time: 9:00 EST / Virtual
This online session will focus on how structurally silenced communities in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda are innovating to keep the online space safe, free and open to express, defend and secure their rights.
Register here.
CSW67 Side Event: "Catalysing collective action to end technology-facilitated gender-based violence"
Co-organised by: The Governments of Denmark and the United States, the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, APC, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Womenare.
Time: 1:00 EST / Venue: Labouisse Hall, UNICEF House, 3 United Nations Plaza + Online (link will be sent upon registration)
This High-Level Panel aims to build on leading global partnerships, networks and movements to locate synergies for shared action against technology-facilitated gender-based violence. The session will serve as a space to identify resourcing, knowledge and practice gaps to inform strategic coordination and recognition of complementary strengths related to the different facets of work, including those related to policy, advocacy, movement-building, funding, research and data.
NGO Forum Session: “Protest+Power: Feminist movement organising in technology”
Co-organised by: Numun Fund, APC and Whose Knowledge?
Time: 14:30 EST / Venue: CCUN 11th Floor
Digital technology is often the invisible infrastructure central to how feminist movements organise, protest and engage in activism for structural and systemic transformation. Often viewed as catalysts for equality, technologies can also uphold, reproduce or worsen inequalities and forms of violence that affect women and LGBTQI+ communities. If unchallenged, technology risks replicating racism, colonialism, patriarchy and other systems of oppression. A feminist perspective on technology questions power relations and economies, centers movement building and works for autonomy and freedom. Feminist tech makes space for truly transformative changes in person and on ground. Want to see what is possible? Join feminists tech activists from Africa, Asia and Latin America sharing disruptive actions in research, activism and policy-making to make a Feminist Internet possible.
Register here.
Monday March 13th
NGO Forum Session: “Feminist Principles of the Internet: Shaping spaces free of online gender-based violence”
Organised by: APC
Time: 14:30 EST / Venue: Salvation Army Auditorium
The Feminist Principles of the Internet (FPI) are a collaboratively developed, open, living and evolving set of political commitments that express the kind of internet women, girls and people of diverse genders and sexualities want to experience, make and shape. The session brings together global FPI advocates to share their experiences of applying the principles in response to online gender-based violence (OGBV) through an interactive, hands-on session that uses the Feminist Tech eXchange (FTX):Safety Reboot curriculum to build skills and awareness to end online GBV and to use the internet safely, creatively and strategically.
Register here.
Friday March 17th
NGO Forum Session: “Feminists say “Enough!”: Countering anti-gender forces and fostering collective resilience”
Organised by: Our Voices Our Futures (OVOF) and APC
Time: 18:15 EST / Venue: CCUN 8th Floor
Join us to create a space of affirmation and hope! Women’s rights, feminist and LGBTIQ organizations are coming together to reiterate our commitment to key feminist principles and stand united against anti-gender and anti-democracy attacks. This parallel event will be followed by a space for solidarity and joy.
Register here.
EVENTS APC IS PARTICIPATING IN
Tuesday March 7th
Parallel Event: "Feminist digital alternatives in the here and now- Bangalore led connected with NY"
Organised by: AWID (APC moderating)
Time: 9:00 EST / Venue: 15 W 38th St NY, NY10018 (Monroe Room, Ground Floor)
This session will demand a shift away from digitally fuelled neoliberalism to uplift feminist visions and alternatives leveraging and appropriating digital technologies to achieve economic justice, including alternative modes of ownership, design, and use of digital technologies by feminist communities, activists, and grassroots organisations. Examples of such alternatives include worker-owned platform cooperatives, and community networks increasing digital access for women.
Register here.
NGO Forum: "Uprooting patriarchal masculinities from the digital spheres for gender justice"
Organised by: Men Engage (APC speaking)
Time: 9:00 EST / Virtual
This session will unpack promising practices, challenges and opportunities from participants from around the world in gender transformative work with men and boys to initiatives addressing feminist systems change in the digital sphere.
Register here.
NGO Forum: Protection of human rights of sex workers on digital platforms
Organised by: Sex Worker Inclusive Feminist Alliance (SWIFA) (APC speaking)
Time: 16:30 EST / Venue: CCUN 2nd Floor
Register here.
Thursday March 9th
High Level Side Event: "Digital skills for life: Building the talent pipeline of girls and women to benefit the digital economy"
Co-organised by: EQUALS, ITU, GSMA, Canada (APC speaking)
Time: 8:30 EST / Venue: Conference room B
This panel session will examine the root causes of the digital skills gap and will also propose concrete actions, drawing on the above-mentioned efforts, that a range of stakeholders can undertake to make sure girls and women are equipped with the necessary digital skills for life and becoming both ICT users and creators in the digital world and STEM fields.
Register here.