Statement: Commission on the Status of Women cannot be revitalized without conservative group participation

By | March 6, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. (C-Fam) A group of pro-life and pro-family civil society organizations delivered a joint statement calling attention to recent attempts to constrain conservative participation in UN processes, particularly the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

“We are civil society organizations accredited by [the UN Economic and Social Council], and the positions we hold are not outside the mainstream,” said the statement.  “They are shared by many member States, including the forty-countries that signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration.”

The Geneva Consensus Declaration, which the U.S. recently reaffirmed under President Donald Trump, states that there is no international right to abortion and calls on nations to defend life and promote women’s health, the family, and national sovereignty.

The statement was delivered at a listening session hosted by the CSW organizers ahead of the commission in March.  Its purpose was to share ways of revitalizing the commission and ensure that it remains impactful and relevant.  In particular, the process seeks to ensure that the CSW continues to ensure the effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, a women’s rights agenda which was agreed to in 1995.

The true meaning of the Beijing agenda has become hotly contested at the UN, with feminist groups, progressive countries, and the UN bureaucracy pushing a controversial set of policies that were never agreed to in the landmark consensus document, nor at its internationally negotiated review conferences.

Meanwhile, conservative groups have observed that their presence at the UN and their messages have been increasingly denigrated as “anti-rights,” including by UN officials, and it has become more difficult to get spaces to host parallel events during the CSW from its official civil society apparatus.

“Last year, it became necessary for pro-family organizations to host a parallel conference to ensure our participation at CSW,” said the joint statement.  It was delivered by C-Fam on behalf of itself and Campaign Life Coalition, the International Organization for the Family, Family Watch International, and United Families International, all of which are part of a broader coalition of hundreds of organizations worldwide.

Other civil society participants in the forum also delivered joint statements on behalf of feminist groups. The LGBTQ group OutRight Action International called for the CSW to “urgently work on the safety and security of women human rights defenders including by ensuring no tolerance for hate speech or harassment on UN grounds.”

Hate speech and harassment, as defined by feminist and LGBTQ groups at the UN, could include simply criticizing gender ideology in the context of an event hosted by conservative organizations.

Group statements from feminist coalitions called for increased power for nongovernmental organizations, as well as greater involvement in the initial drafting of documents and in forcing governments to be accountable after negotiations are concluded.  A speaker from the feminist Women’s Major Group demanded that agreed language should be considered irreversible in future negotiations, including language agreed outside of the CSW.  This would effectively prevent a movement in a more conservative direction as global opinions shift.

The conservative group statement called on the forum to remember that other perspectives exist and must be heard. “The scope of the CSW is the status of women, which is much broader than those who identify themselves as feminist.  Majorities of women in many countries, and sizable minorities in others, hold pro-life and pro-family values,” it said. “These are mainstream positions. They are not ‘anti-rights.’”

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