MUN

IISU MUN

UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (UNCSW)

Activity: MUN (UNCSW)

Venue:  AV Hall

Date: 5 March, 2020

Organized by: Department of Political Science and Centre for Women Studies, Women’s Cell

Introduction:

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.

To commemorate the Women’s Day, the students of IIS University enacted the working of the CSW as part of the Model United Nations activity conducted by Department of Political Science and Centre for Women Studies, Women’s Cell. The Agenda was ‘Social Protection System, Access to Public Services and Sustainable Infrastructure for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls’.The purpose behind conducting this acivity was to acquaint the students as to how to do extensive research, public speaking, and teamwork on the issues related to women on the world level.

Up to this day, no country, developing or developed, has achieved complete gender equality. To advance efforts at an international level, the General Assembly established the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) in July 2010 with the universal directive “to achieve gender equality, women’s empowerment, and upholding women’s rights.”The work of UN-Women is guided by the principles laid down in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on “Women, Peace and Security,” the Millennium Declaration, Millennium Development Goals, and other norms related to women’s rights and gender equality. CEDAW and the BPfA are the cornerstones of the activity of UN-Women and provide the overall guiding principles for its work. Over the past 15 years, UN Member States have also gained greater awareness and understanding regarding the role women play in peace and security due in part to the adoption Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, and subsequent resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), and 2122 (2013). These resolutions “represent a critical framework for improving the situation of women in conflict-affected countries,” and ground efforts at the international, regional, national and local levels to protect and promote women’s rights in conflict-affected situations. Supporting efforts to mainstream implementation of these global norms, as well as the principle of gender equality at the international, regional and national level is central to UNWomen’s mandate and at the heart of the organization’s mission. Achieving this mission is not a goal in itself but an important contribution to sustainable development as a whole.

The UNCSW committee of IISUMUN began with a brief introduction of the procedures and a short explanation to the Model United Nations. The Executive Board comprised of 

Asma Khan (Co-Chairperson) 

Shelly Panwar (Co-Chairperson)

Kritinaya Makwana (Vice-Chairperson and Rapporteur)

The MUN session commenced with a Roll Call. After the roll call, the Executive Board decided to begin with the General Speaker’s List which usually takes place at the start of each committee session. A motion is passed by a delegate of any country, and then the delegates who wish to speak, raise their placards. A GSL is a description of their country’s stance on the issues that are to be discussed in the committee. Preparing a GSL was mandatory for all delegates.

68 students were allotted with the countries in the committee, out of which 34 were present.

Active countries in the committee were:

Germany- Kushi Rathore, ll

Brazil- Shikha Shekhawat, ll

Venezuela- Devika, lV

Spain- Chandni Phophalia, ll

India- Neha Gwala, Vl

Bahrain- Divya Panwar

Bahamas- Anushka Agnihotri, VI

During the GSL varied controversial statements were made by the delegates. Some of the statements were-

India- “Women are provided with less opportunities in India”

Ukraine- “45% of women population suffers from sexual violence in Ukraine”

Oman- “Sharia law is followed to the protect the Islamic women”

Moderated caucus is a debate format that allows delegates to make comments on a specific sub-issue. Typically, the Chairs will call on delegates who raise their placards to speak one at a time. Allmotionswerepassedwithapropervotingsession.Thetopicsforthemotionraisedinthemoderatedcaucuswere-

1. Raised by Germany- Social protection of women and prevailing health issues in economically weaker countries.

2. Raised by Venezuela- Crimes against women with special emphasis to female vaginal mutilation.

There was 1 un-moderated caucus held in the committee, in which delegates were allowed to leave their seats to mingle and speak freely. The un-moderated caucus was used to sort countries into blocs, to form alliances, and to write working papers and draft resolutions. There were 3 resolutions which were floored in the committee by the delegates .The resolution was passed by 14 votes in the committee, after all discussions, debates and corrections.

Dr Archana Gupta, Dr Pragya Sharma, Dr Ruchi Goswami from Centre for Women’s Studies,Women’s Cell were present during the activity.