Anglican Women’s Empowerment

October 19, 2009

Dear Friends,                                                                                       

Episcopal and Anglican women are gearing up for participation in the fifteen anniversary of the major global women’s rights event – the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women which was held in Beijing, China.  Attracting almost 40,000 women from all over the world, the Beijing conference gave the women’s movement a Declaration and a Platform for Action – a call for justice for the women of the world. The Beijing Platform for Action now stands as the human rights blueprint for women and has been celebrated ever since.

Each year the UN Commission on the Status of Women has examined one of the twelve planks of the Platform during their annual March meeting.  March 1 – 12, 2010 will provide the opportunity to evaluate the whole Platform under the banner of Beijing+15.  Women throughout the Anglican Communion have participated in the UNCSW for the past 8 years, sharing their stories and lobbying their governments to increase their political commitments and resources towards meeting the principles of the Beijing Platform.

We are members of Ecumenical Women (EW) http://ecumenicalwomen.org/ and will be participating in gatherings they are sponsoring in order to set the stage to resurrect Beijing. Their website contains information about the Beijing Platform, a sample agenda for a meeting, tips on building coalitions, an advocacy letter for governments and a bible study. There will also be an NGO Forum on Beijing +15 http://www.ngocsw.org/en/main  that will take place the Saturday and Sunday before the opening session. 

Although the Office of Women’s Ministries has been eliminated from the budget of the DFMS, we have the assurance that the Presiding Bishop's Office continues to support the presence of TEC women as delegates to UNCSW.  Therefore, if you are interested in attending this upcoming session, please complete the attached application form and return it either by email mrg713@optonline.net or snail mail (144 Day Court, Mahwah, NJ 07430) by November 1, 2009.

What would be expected of you as a delegate?

• If you have not been to UNCSW before, you would need to arrive in time for the “Training for Advocacy at the UN” given on Saturday Feb 27th.
• If you have been before you need to be here by opening session on Monday, March 1(though you may want to attend the NGO Forum on Sat./Sun referenced above.
• Everyone should commit to attending UN sessions from Monday through Friday.
• There will be an Event on Friday evening, March 5.

At this point, all TEC delegates will need to be self-funded (although asking for assistance from your bishop is not a bad idea).  We cannot reserve hotel rooms but do recommend that you go to hotels.com or Travelocity.  If you cannot attend one week of sessions at the UN, you will not be able to obtain a UN pass but can still attend side events which do not require a pass.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Marge Christie, UN Circle of AWE  mrg713@optonline.net