Glancing around the room, it seemed that the Feb. 24 event that NDI’s Gender, Women and Democracy (GWD) team put on had a great turnout. About 60 people from the federal government, academic institutions, multilateral organizations and NGOs were present. Despite the impressive attendance, one startling detail caught my attention as everyone took their seats: nearly everyone was a woman – there was one man on the panel and only two male guests in the audience. This, to me, spoke volumes about the state of the movement for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

The Government of the Kingdom of Tonga announced this evening in a statement that it has agreed to ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) after lengthy and thorough discussions in Cabinet last week, on Wednesday 4 and Friday 6 March 2015. The decision comes as a breakthrough for Tonga’s women’s organisations who have been seeking government’s consent for two decades.

Delivering the Country Statement to the Assembly on Monday (March 9), Minister Falconer stated Jamaica’s commitment to a “transformative Post 2015 Agenda with the sustainable development goals and equal rights for women and girls at its core. We must ensure the creation of a holistic, practical and meaningful framework that builds on the positive foundation and conquers the scourges of poverty, marginalisation, gender-based violence, discrimination and social exclusion which affect so many women and girls.”

“As we open this 59^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), we must remember: we can make faster, greater progress if we empower the millions of women peace builders, activists and citizen entrepreneurs around the world making a difference in their communities day by day.”

Sahanan thought her chance of being elected to the Lampung Provincial Parliament in Indonesia on last year’s parliamentary poll was next to none. 

Tina Chadarsi, jostling for a district parliamentary seat in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, had similar misgivings.  They were running against at least dozens of other candidates from 12 political parties. “As a housewife, I was really pessimistic that could be elected,” Sahanan said.

In many countries around the world, citizens have embraced social media and new technology more rapidly than legislatures—which are, by their nature, often tradition-bound institutions. Helping elected leaders rethink approaches to citizen engagement in the digital age was a central theme of a 10-day parliamentary exchange on “Leadership in the Digital Economy” co-organized by NDI.

The fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 20 March 2015. Representatives of Member States , UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs)  from all regions of the world attend the session.

Themes