The IPU held several events during the first week of the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which took place in New York from 13 to 24 March.
IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and the UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka held a joint press conference on 15 March to launch the 2017 edition of the IPU-UN Women Map on Women in Politics.
The IPU held its annual Parliamentary Meeting on 17 March, also co-organized with UN Women, focused on Empowering parliaments to empower women: Making the economy work for women. The event was attended by 139 members of parliament from 47 countries. Participants stressed that the elimination of gender discrimination in the law and ensuring women’s access to political decision-making were essential to creating a favourable environment for women’s economic empowerment. They also identified measures to ensure equality at work such as enacting and enforcing legislation in areas such equal pay and sexual harassment; and adopting social policies that facilitate work-life balance and equal share of unpaid care work. Finally, women need to be entitled to own property and obtain affordable credit if they are to be economically empowered. Building women’s capacity to access available opportunities was also identified as an area to be promoted by parliaments.
The parliamentary event’s conclusions will feed into the upcoming IPU 136th Assembly, when Member Parliaments will debate on a draft resolution on Promoting enhanced international cooperation on the SDGs, in particular on the financial inclusion of women as a driver of development and on Redressing inequalities: delivering on dignity and well-being for all.
Watch the webcast of the Parliamentary Meeting.
Read more on the IPU’s six side events. To get a feel of the events of the week, see the Storify piece.
