Empower Women Seeking Justice & Peace

Thanks to your generous support, WFM-IGP has been able to strengthen and expand its initiatives promoting gender justice and women’s leadership over the past three months. The following report details how WFM-IGP has succeeded in bringing local activists’ perspectives to international forums on justice, sustainable development and women’s rights.

The Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court

Throughout WFM-IGP’s programs and initiatives, we aim to amplify the voices of local activists by providing a platform for them to engage with representatives of states, sub-regional and regional bodies, the organs of the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. For this project in particular, WFM-IGP ensured that women’s voices were equally and fairly represented on issues of gender justice and conflict prevention at the most recent Assembly of States Parties (ASP) session, held in December 2017.

In addition to facilitating the participation of over 450 activists from around the world, WFM-IGP held a number of side events involving civil society, states representatives and ICC court officials on topics such as: gender equality in the International Criminal Court; accountability for sexual and gender-based violence crimes in the Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq; and, prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, among others. These discussions are significant in directing the policy of the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC and the Court in the upcoming year. It is therefore extremely impactful to include the perspectives of local women and civil society members, as it helps to ensure a sustainable and effective international justice system going forward.

One important achievement at this year’s ASP session came with the culmination of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court’s Campaign for Fair and Merit-Based Elections of ICC Officials (mentioned in the previous report). The campaign was successful in creating a transparent elections process—which included the input of hundreds of civil society members—and maintaining a gender-balance on the ICC judges’ bench.

The Commission on the Status of Women

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. The CSW 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.

During the Commission’s annual two-week session, representatives of UN Member States, civil society organizations and UN entities gather at UN headquarters in New York to discuss progress and gaps in the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the key global policy document on gender equality, as well as emerging issues that affect gender equality and the empowerment of women. Member States agree on further actions to accelerate progress and promote women’s enjoyment of their rights in political, economic and social fields. The outcomes and recommendations of each session are forwarded to ECOSOC for follow-up.

Thanks to the support of partners like you WFM-IGP will be able to ensure the participation of a number of its civil society partners and members from around the world in the events surrounding the CSW session, which will take place from March 12 to 23. In addition to sponsoring women activists during the CSW, WFM-IGP is collaborating with organizations such as UN Women to facilitate side events pertaining to the session’s theme: Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.

Our Sincere Thanks

Your support has helped us see great progress so far in our fight for gender justice and women's leadership and continues to motivate us to work towards our goals. In addition to WFM-IGP’s global advocacy work, we are working to coordinate and sponsor a number of local initiatives related to gender justice, Women, Peace and Security, and women’s leadership around the world in 2018. We hope you will continue to support this cause by sharing our campaign with friends and family.