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GI-ESCR’s Takeaways from CSW68
GI-ESCR participated in the 68th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) that was held from 11 to 22 March 2024 at the UN Headquarters in New York City.
The session concluded with the adoption of the Agreed Conclusions—the outcomes document reflecting the international consensus on the thematic priority theme— by States. The Agreed Conclusions build upon the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and contribute to set standards on the advancement of women ‘s rights and gender equality.
Among the most relevant conclusions for our agenda, the Commission underscored it is imperative for stakeholders to incorporate a gender perspective into climate policies across all levels, from local to international. Furthermore, the CSW highlighted the necessity of integrating gender perspectives into fiscal policies, particularly by ensuring the progressivity of taxes. Another significant conclusion drawn by the CSW is the urgent need to recognise, reduce, and redistribute the disproportionate burden of unpaid care and domestic work borne by women. Furthermore, the CSW emphasised the critical importance of investing in equitable, accessible, and inclusive public services to advance the rights of all women and girls, especially those living in poverty.
However, the conclusions also show notable gaps, by omitting key aspects for advancing gender equality. There was a lack of acknowledgement of the pressing nature of the climate emergency and the imperative to equitably transition away from fossil fuels towards clean, renewable energy sources, to advance the rights of women and girls. The conclusions failed to propose new standards to link finance, tax policies, and climate justice effectively to advance substantive gender equality. There was no recognition of how the climate crisis exacerbates existing gender disparities in care work, further burdening women and girls. The conclusions also overlooked the detrimental impact of the commercialisation and privatisation of public services on women's and girls' ability to overcome poverty and inequality.
The 68th session also ended with the selection of Saudi Arabia as the chair for next year’s CSW. This selection for next year’s chair raises serious concerns about the upcoming work of the Commission. Saudi Arabia's track record on women's rights is notoriously poor, starting with a legal framework that severely undermines gender equality. Appointing Saudi Arabia to lead next year’s discussions on the advancement of women’s rights sends a contradictory and damaging message. It undermines the credibility and effectiveness of the CSW, as it appears to prioritise geopolitics over genuine commitment to gender equality.
We further analyse the Agreed Conclusions presenting a review of the most relevant standards adopted and the gaps that remain to be closed in relation to climate change and the gender-just transition towards sustainable societies, gender-based tax policies, as well as care and gender transformative public services for the realisation of human rights.
Gender-responsive climate policies – just transition
The conclusions drawn by the CSW underscored the importance of integrating gender perspectives into climate policies and empowering women to play an active role in climate action and resilience-building efforts. Recognising the gendered nature of climate impacts, the agreed conclusions emphasised the importance of strengthening the participation, representation, and leadership of women in decision-making processes related to climate and environmental action. In particular, the Commission called on stakeholders to integrate a gender perspective into policies at all levels, from local to international, and promote the involvement of women in science, technology, research, and development. It also called on the implementation of policies to improve climate resilience and expand access to education, livelihood opportunities, healthcare, and infrastructure for women and girls, especially in disaster and humanitarian situations. Moreover, the CSW indicated that the provision of quality public goods and services that benefit women and girls experiencing poverty is essential to address the intersecting challenges of gender inequality, climate change, and poverty.
Notwithstanding these positive standards, most importantly, the agreed conclusions failed to stress the urgency of the climate crisis. Moreover, the conclusions failed to present an analysis of different aspects of the link between the climate emergency, poverty and gender equality. In that sense, there is no recognition of how the climate emergency will continue to widen the gap in care work. Given the climate crisis will heighten the current lack of access and imbalances concerning care, stakeholders need to establish care and gender-responsive climate policies that consider the effects of climate change on care.
The conclusions also lacked a broader vision of the need to equitably phase out fossil fuels and ensure a just transition to clean, renewable energy as a fundamental measure to achieve gender equality and combat the climate emergency. In that sense, the Commission failed to address the need for a just transition that incorporates human rights and gender equality principles in climate policies. Furthermore, the Commission failed to call on developed States to urgently provide new, additional, and debt-free climate finance, especially for States most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and to recognise the role that progressive and green tax policy can play in delivering a just transition to sustainable societies.
Tax policies for gender equality
One of the key dimensions analysed by the Commission was the issue of tax policies to address poverty eradication, gender equality, and women’s empowerment. Through its agreed conclusions, the CSW underscored the importance of integrating gender perspectives into fiscal policies to foster more equitable and inclusive economic development. Most notably, the Commission urged stakeholders to increase the capacity of ministries of finance in assessing the different impacts of fiscal policies on women to ensure that government expenditures and investments adequately address the challenges faced by women and girls living in poverty.
Furthermore, the CSW called for inclusive international tax cooperation to combat tax evasion, tax avoidance and illicit financial flows to eradicate poverty, with a particular focus on women and girls. As a mean to avoid reinforcing gender biases, the Commission emphasised the need to ensure the progressivity of tax policies, especially targeting those with higher income levels through specific tax measures, including wealth and corporate taxes, while preventing regressive taxation that disproportionately affects women with lower incomes. This is a historic win that contributes to the advancement of standards that help shape a new international fiscal architecture. One that can deliver on the realisation of all fundamental rights and the achievement of gender equality.
Nevertheless, despite the call from several NGOs, one of the main failures of the conclusions was that they did not develop new standards linking finance, tax and climate justice for the advancement of substantive gender equality.
Care policies
In its conclusions, the CSW also addressed care and emphasised the need to address gender disparities in unpaid care work and promote the participation and leadership of young women and girls in decision-making processes. The CSW highlighted that the unequal distribution of unpaid care work is a barrier to the achievement of equality that contributes to higher poverty rates among women and adolescent girls and hinders sustainable growth and employment opportunities. The CSW also emphasised the importance of recognising, reducing, and redistributing women's disproportionate burden of unpaid care and domestic work. This involves sustained investments in the care economy, promoting work-life balance, and measuring the value of unpaid care work to understand its contribution to the national economy. In this line, the Commission recommended measures to promote the equal sharing of caregiving responsibilities between women and men, both within households and in society at large. Among those measures, the CSW included implementing legislation and policies such as paid maternity and paternity leave, flexible working arrangements, and accessible social services like childcare facilities.
The new standards developed on care are amongst the most important wins achieved in the CSW68 for the realisation of women’s rights.
Gender transformative public services
The conclusions drawn by the CSW also underscored the importance of investing in equitable, accessible, and inclusive public services to promote the rights of all women and girls, particularly those living in poverty. The Commission stressed that access to healthcare and education is a means to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Furthermore, the CSW underlined social protection systems, public services, and sustainable infrastructure as tools to ensure an adequate standard of living for women and girls. The Commission also required stakeholders to put in place concrete measures to realise the right to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health for women and girls, such as investing in public health systems.
However, the conclusions failed to recognise that the commercialisation and privatisation of public services raise fundamental human rights concerns that impair women’s and girls’ possibilities to overcome poverty and inequality. The failure to recognise the impacts of the commercialisation of essential public services, such as education, health, water and sanitation was one of the key losses in the CSW68 agreed conclusions.
We encourage you to read the full text of the Agreed Conclusions for a more comprehensive understanding of all the issues addressed by the CSW68!
