Immediate past President of the World Blind Union (WBU) and Vision Australia General Manager International and Stakeholder Relations, Maryanne Diamond, recently travelled to New York for the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The 2013 session focused on the following key areas:
- Priority Theme: Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girlsReview Theme: The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS
Ms Diamond represented the International Disability Alliance (IDA) for most of the first week of this event.
"Our purpose was to raise awareness of women and girls with disability and the importance of them being included in the broader women’s agenda," Ms Diamond said.
"We were able to participate in a number of events where presentations were made on programs and activities to eliminate violence against women. Without exception, in each event, I was able to ask questions of presenters about how they had included girls and women with disabilities in their programs," Ms Diamond said.
"We also took opportunities to meet with key leaders in UN Women, various missions and those negotiating the resolutions for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)."
On 8th March, International Women’s Day, UN Women and IDA, with the co-sponsorship of Australia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Jordan, Peru and New Zealand and help from other supporting organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Plan, UNICEF, and Women Enabled, held a side event on violence against women and girls with disabilities.
Ms Diamond moderated the session which began with an introduction from the Permanent Representative of El Salvador. This was followed by a high level panel who explored the intersection of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in order to strengthen the fight to eliminate violence against women with disabilities in all its forms.
UN Women’s Executive Director, Michelle Bachelet expressed UN Women’s strong commitment to addressing vulnerable groups. Among these, she highlighted the multiple discrimination and violence faced especially by women and girls with disabilities. In discussing solutions to these problems, she noted a few of the steps that UN Women is currently taking. She further proposed a joint session between the committees for CEDAW and the CRPD to formally recognize the intersection between disability and gender.
In the morning before this event, Ms Diamond was able to attend a commemorative meeting entitled, "A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women."
Chairing the event was Madame Bachelet who introduced Ms Diamond and allowed her to give the first statement from the floor.
"I used the opportunity to highlight the importance of including women with disabilities in all development programs and emphasized that unless women with disabilities are included in all programs and empowered to participate in their communities, violence will never end," Ms Diamond said.
"At the end of the event, I was also able to meet and shake hands with Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had also spoken on the panel."
"There were many government ministers in New York during this week and we took the opportunity to meet a number of them and their permanent mission staff to discuss issues such as: the next Conference of States Parties (COP) meeting for the CRPD, the High Level meeting on Disability Inclusive Development to be held September 2013, post Millennium Development Goals and of course mainstreaming of women with disabilities."
"I also took the opportunity to meet with the CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind and the WBU President who was transferring through New York to Haiti," Ms Diamond concluded.