Liliane Fonds at CSW: Advocating for inclusive gender equality

Liliane Fonds attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, where global leaders, activists, and organisations including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Organisations for People with Disabilities (OPD) gathered to discuss critical issues surrounding gender equality and women’s rights. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the Beijing agenda, still regarded as the most comprehensive and transformative global framework for gender equality.

The road to Beijing +30: challenges and triumphs

While the Beijing+30 agenda remains a leading framework for gender equality, advancing in this area involves navigating significant challenges. For example, the first draft of the CSW’s political declaration, in which states commit to upholding the statutes of the Beijing Agenda, did not reference women with disabilities nor include disaggregated data on the status of disability. In part due to the persistent advocacy of Liliane Fonds, these issues were successfully included in the final declaration. Another victory was the first-ever inclusion of sexual and gender-based violence in the political declaration.

Yet, challenges remain. Despite the significance of the Beijing+30 agenda, women with disabilities are still often excluded from broader discussions surrounding gender equality. Luckily, some member states recognise the importance of including women with disabilities in UN policies. Brazil noted the importance of inclusive worlds for women with disabilities, and the Pacific Island Forum called for greater inclusion of people with disabilities in CSW’s future agendas.

Political dynamics also pose barriers. The restrictive visa policies implemented during the Trump administration prevented many activists, including our Ugandan Youth with Disabilities council member, Phiona Nantaba, from attending the CSW. Additionally, negotiations around the political declaration are becoming more difficult, with the US refusing to accept the term “gender” and Argentina’s reservations regarding references to the Sustainable Development Goals. Increasing right-wing populism in Europe has also created obstacles, with some countries engaging in transphobia and rejecting progressive language.
These barriers highlight the urgent need to advocate for gender equality, women’s rights and greater access to platforms for marginalised voices.

The New Age of Advocacy: Decolonising Disability and Gender

Amidst some setbacks, the CSW also saw a shift toward more hopeful and transformative discussions. Liliane Fonds, AMwA, VSO and Wemos co-organised a panel discussion titled “Decolonising Disabilities and Queerness in the Realisation of the Beijing+30 Agenda”. The panel dove into the impact of colonisation, imperial influences and ideologies, and how they have shaped our languages, experiences of queerness and the creation of inclusion and exclusion within deaf culture.

Nakigudde Hannah Margareth, Make Way youth Panel Member, shared how British colonial laws laid the foundation of the anti-homosexuality bill Uganda, emphasising the need for research on pre-colonial terms of queer people. Dulamsuren Jigid, executive director of the Culture Centre for the Deaf in Mongolia, highlighted how the Soviet-era social control policies created deaf culture, leading to the exclusion of deaf people from their communities. Tizita Hailu Worknesh spoke about the resilience of Ethiopian women in defending their country from colonial forces, and Precious Tricia Abwooli from AMwA reflected on the economic underpinnings of the Beijing+30 agenda. She pronounced the need to base our efforts around gender equality more on economic justice and decolonial perspectives.

These crucial conversations underscore the intersection of colonial history, disability, queerness and gender, and how these stories continue to affect marginalised communities to this day.

A hopeful future for CSW

Attending the event highlighted the importance of CSW as a space to discuss pressing gender equality issues and emphasised the need to include and amplify the voices of women and girls with disabilities. Despite political setbacks and stigmas surrounding these issues, activists, civil society organisations, OPDS, and Liliane Fonds continue to advocate for a more accessible CSW process, creating a space for young women with and without disabilities whilst holding governments accountable to their commitments towards gender equality.