New York City 4 CEDAW Act

Civil Society Perspectives

A RESOURCE GUIDE FOR ACTIVISTS, RESEARCHERS, AND LEADERS

[download report here]

The purpose of this report is to share progress, challenges, opportunities, and resources in NYC and NYS as it relates to UN Women’s Beijing+25 commemoration and proposes recommendations to support progress in the Generation Equality campaign and Feminist and Women’s Movement Action Plans.

Our goal is to demonstrate the results of civil society and advocates working together with the government in New York, and to share resources for expanding rights and protecting freedoms through advocacy, legal, programmatic, and cultural change. Ultimately, we hope this report will contribute to the Generation Equality campaign and Action Coalitions with recommendations to make gender equality a reality by protecting and expanding women’s human rights and the rights of gender diverse persons.

Within New York, we believe the core articles of CEDAW provide a replicable yet consistent template of indicators through which city agencies can activate the proposed action plans, and analyze and report on racial and gender equity with ease, using a human rights framework. CEDAW recognizes that gender barriers are further affected by other overlapping forms of discrimination including on the basis of race, socioeconomic status, level of ability, etc. Nationally, the Cities for CEDAW campaign has called on this extraordinary legacy of labor in cities to achieve an unprecedented goal: the local passage of bills in every city across the country which adheres to and uphold the legal obligations outlined in, the United Nations CEDAW.

Framing these narratives within chronicles and journeys of many peoples of the world, the exhibit is a denunciation of imperialist efforts to stifle the movement of humans seeking safe, nourishing spaces in the aftermath of dispossession, colonization, and oppression. Through this exhibit, we call upon people of conscious to pay attention to what the current administration is doing and push back against the indignities being waged on our sisters around the world who are subject to the borders drawn across their communities, homes, and bodies.