“Prostitution can never be regarded as a job. Prostitution is exploitation.”
Swedish Minister Asa Regner, United Nations Security Council, applauded during 7898th meeting, 50:00, United Nations Webcast
Pictured: Asa Regner, Swedish Women’s Rights Minister
New York, 13-24 March 2017
CSW61 side and parallel events
CAP Intl organised the first official abolitionist side event co-sponsored by the French and Swedish governments in the UN headquarters, titled “When victims matter: ending demand for prostitution & trafficking for sexual purposes” and a parallel event on “Last Girl First: Ending sexual exploitation of the most discriminated women & girls” as part of the NGO CSW Forum.
However, we had the unfortunate luck of having both events scheduled for Tuesday 14th March, the exact day that the city shut down because of blizzard conditions!
Despite this, the French permanent mission to the UN opened its doors, so and improvised side event took place with the participation of the Swedish and French ministers of women’s rights and the French permanent representative to the UN. CAP members provided short introductions on the situations in their countries and on their work.
Pictured below: side event at the French permanent mission to the UN
Abolitionist convening
The first “abolitionist briefing” of abolitionist NGOs took place on Monday with 65 delegates in attendance. This gave an opportunity to identify key universal challenges and opportunities and identify key moments for abolitionist advocacy throughout CSW61.
Pictured above: Abolitionist briefing of 65 representatives at Bahai Center, NY
CAP Intl also convened a strategic meeting with 10 of its 18 member organisations represented. This provided an opportunity for a thorough tour-de-table of the situations in each members’ country, and to strategise on key domestic and international priorities for the coalition.
Other meetings on the sidelines of CSW61 included with Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom to share advocacy tools and to highlight CAP Intl’s role as international abolitionist diplomacy convenor. Meetings were held also with Swedish trade union representative, and bilaterals with other abolitionist organisations such as Demand Abolition and Women’s Liberation Front.
Pictured below: abolitionist meeting with Margot Wallstrom
Tags: international, UN