Finland to attend session of UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York

The Commission on the Status of Women, which operates under the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), monitors and supports the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in different thematic areas. The Commission is the UN's second largest annual meeting after the General Assembly.

The priority theme of the CSW session will be ‘Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’. Finland has a lot to contribute to the priority theme, for example, through the work conducted within the international Generation Equality campaign. Finland has a lead role in the campaign’s Action Coalition which focuses on technology and innovation for gender equality.

The Commission on the Status of Women is an important international forum for Finland to promote a human rights-based approach and the realisation of the rights of women and girls, including sexual and reproductive health and rights. During the negotiations and side events and in its other advocacy work, Finland will promote a comprehensive approach to the participation of women and girls.

Finland will participate actively not only in the negotiations on the conclusions but also in official dialogues and side events to be organised during the session. Minister Blomqvist will deliver Finland’s address to the session and participate in high-level roundtable discussions. Finland co-sponsors over ten side events to be held during the session. On the International Women’s Day, 8 March, Finland will organise a side event of its own to discuss the importance of data in achieving gender equality.

Finland to negotiate, as part of the EU, conclusions on promoting gender equality on a wide scale

The conclusions to be negotiated at the session will be its priority outcome. Finland will participate in the negotiations as part of the EU, and this year, Finland will take part for the first time in the EU negotiating team together with Sweden, the Netherlands and Hungary.

Finland’s objective is that the conclusions of the session are based on human rights and they promote gender equality on a wide scale. Finland considers it important that the root causes preventing the realisation of equality are tackled and the conclusions are based on intersectional approaches that renew gender structures and recognise the diversity of women and girls. These approaches were also included in the EU’s common position on the conclusions, and the EU advocates for them to be considerably reinforced in the conclusions.

As for this year’s priority theme, Finland calls for developing technologies that promote human rights and gender equality, making use of the potential of technologies and innovations and bridging digital divides and emphasising particularly the role of education, legislation and policies in their implementation. Supranational measures are needed, among other things, to create common definitions regarding gender-based online violence.

Finland also wants to promote responsibility and respect for human rights in all business activities and to support the opportunities of the private sector and civil society to influence and participate actively in the various stages of the session and, more widely, in finding solutions.

For more information about the session, please visit the website of UN Women.

Inquiries

• Laura Ollila, Special Adviser to the Minister, tel. +358 295 150 186, firstname.lastname@gov.fi
• Jemina Järvilehto, Desk Officer, Unit for Human Rights Policy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 50 473 3259, firstname.lastname@gov.fi
• Hanna Onwen-Huma, Senior Specialist, Gender Equality Unit, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 295 163 233, firstname.lastname@gov.fi
• Päivi Karvinen, Senior Specialist, International Affairs Unit, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 295 163 196, firstname.lastname@gov.fi