Welcome to RRI’s CSW69 agenda!  The 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) aims to promote women’s rights by documenting the reality of their lives throughout the world and shaping global standards on gender equality and empowerment. This year, CSW69 will review the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly as well as the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995.

RRI is co-hosting a side event at CSW69 called Grassroots Women’s Efforts in Influencing Gender-sensitive Policy Reforms, along with Organización Nacional de Mujeres Indigenas Andinas y Amazonicas del Peru (ONAMIAP) and the Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA). At the event, RRI will present findings from a new study, Resilience and Resistance: Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Local Community Women’s Statutory Rights to Community Forests, and grassroots women leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America will comment on the analyses of the legal status of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women’s rights in community-based land and resources tenure systems. Interpretations for the event will be available in English, Spanish, and French.

Topics:

A new RRI study, Resilience and Resistance: Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Local Community Women’s Statutory Rights to Community Forests, provides groundbreaking comprehensive legal data on 35 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the compliance of governments to pass gender-sensitive reforms protecting Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women’s rights to community lands and resources. This review covers 2016 to 2024.

While a presentation of the report will provide evidence of countries’ lack of compliance with and inadequate protection of women’s tenure rights in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the panelists at this event will discuss the implications of the results on the ground and how women are developing strategies and establishing alliances to influence gender-sensitive policy reforms that secure their tenure rights.

How to attend:

To sign up for this event, go to this page and register. The event is free and open to whoever registers for it.

After registering, search for the event by name (Grassroots Women’s Efforts in Influencing Gender-sensitive Policy Reforms) and add it to your schedule.

Schedule:

1. Framework presentation of the report’s results
   1. Presenter: Isabel Davila-Pereira, RRI
2. Panel discussion
   1. Panelists: Ketty Marcelo, ONAMIAP/WiGSA, Peru Loretta Althea Pope Kai, FCI/WiGSA, Liberia Sushmita Lama, AIPP/WiGSA, Thailand
3. Discussion with the audience
4. Final Remarks
   1. Omaira Bolanos

About the co-hosts:

Rights and Resources Initiative is a global coalition dedicated to advancing the forestlands and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities, especially the women within these groups. To learn more about RRI’s gender justice work, visit this page.

Organización Nacional de Mujeres Indigenas Andinas y Amazonas del Peru, ONAMIAP, is a national organization of Indigenous women who advocate for the collective and individual rights of Indigenous women in Peru and are members of WiGSA.

The Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA) is an informal solidarity network of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women from Africa, Asia, and Latin America that advocates on an international level for direct financial support for women in the Global South.