Every year in March, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) holds a two week conference in New York. Here global gender equality issues are discussed and the state parties negotiate declarations with great significance for the international struggle for women’s rights. 

The conference, coordinated by UN Women, is the second largest UN meeting after the general assembly. All the world’s states send their own negotiating delegations, and civil society organisations and women’s organisations have a strong presence at the meeting, both in the official programme, as members of the national delegations, and with a separate parallel programme - the CSW NGO Forum.

Every year, the meeting focuses on a priority theme, such as technology, violence or poverty. The aim is to agree on a declaration that comprises an assessment of progress, gaps, challenges as well as concrete recommendations for action on the international, national, regional and local levels. Its implementation is then assessed as a review theme at a subsequent CSW meeting. This makes it possible to monitor progress on the implementation of previous declarations.

As the CSW meeting is the only UN conference that addresses women’s rights and gender equality, this is the most important international conference for FOKUS. Every year, FOKUS heads its own delegation with partner organisations and member organisations, in addition to participating in the Norwegian delegation.

Prior to the meeting, FOKUS coordinates recommendations from Norwegian civil society organisations to the Norwegian negotiation team and cooperates closely with the Norwegian delegation to prepare for the meeting.

Every year, FOKUS provides travel grants to representatives of our partner organisations in the South. Through bringing perspectives from the South to New York, the grant scheme aims to ensure that not only voices from the North are heard on matters of women's rights and gender equality. Norwegian member organisations are also eligible for grants to participate at CSW.