New York, March 10, 2025. The 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) kicks off at the UN in New York, scheduled for March 10-21, 2025. The Italian delegation is led by the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, Ambassador Maurizio Massari, and includes a parliamentary delegation, whose members include the Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies Anna Ascani, and representatives of the Office of the Minister for Family, Birth Rate, and Equal Opportunities. As usual, representatives of civil society, with dozens of Italian NGOs in attendance, will participate in the proceedings.
The objective of this year’s Commission will be to review and assess the progress attained in implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) and which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. The review process will include a reflection on the current challenges that hinder the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Italy will be at the forefront with three important events promoted, dedicated respectively to the fight against female genital mutilation (March 13), femicide (March 12) and the agenda “women, peace and security” and “youth, peace and security” (March 12), in collaboration with several partners including UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, the OSCE, the African Union and Burkina Faso. The many events sponsored by Italy include one sponsored by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) dedicated to women’s rights in West Africa with a focus on Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone (March 17), two on the rights of Afghan women and girls, one on gender equality and humanitarian aid in collaboration with Save the Children and ChildFund Alliance among others, one on the rights of Ukrainian women in the context of post-war reconstruction efforts in collaboration with the Ukrainian Government among others.
The Commission on the Status of Women is the world’s largest platform for women’s rights and meets annually in March in New York, attended by the Ministers for Gender Equality and members of Parliament from the 193 UN Member States, as well as thousands of delegates from non-governmental organizations and other branches of civil society. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action represent a comprehensive global agenda for women’s empowerment, providing an essential framework to analyze the condition of women worldwide and assess the efforts of State Parties in promoting gender equality. In particular, the Platform sets out an agenda for governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector, with the aim of protecting women’s human rights and ensuring that gender is included in all policies and programs at the national, regional and international levels.
