For the past two weeks, thanks to the generosity of NIWEP, I was a delegate to the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Because of the pandemic, this year the conference was held online for the first time. 

The Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform, or NIWEP, a little-known NGO outside of the women’s sector, has had enormous influence in our local peace process in the past, through the work of members like Emeritus Professor Pauline Murphy, who started women-only peace funds in the form of the Training for Women Network; or Bronagh Hinds, who many say really was the founder of the Women’s Coalition. 

The current board is an eclectic bunch under chair Louise Kennedy, all committed to keeping their focus on the role of women. With the space for gender-specific dialogue narrowing due to many factors, including lack of core funding for specific women’s programmes and centres, it’s important to remain enthused and inspired by what women – and men – are doing around the world to ensure that 50% of the population get the chances that the other 50% might take for granted.

With the amazing Jonna Monaghan keeping everyone on track, we have had an inspirational couple of weeks looking at all forms of gender issues. From addressing faith-based inequalities, to how art is used to bridge the gender gap in post-apartheid South Africa, to how there is inevitably a  “shadow pandemic” globally, with women suffering more from the impact of school closures, job losses and intimate partner violence. Because of this, planning for a gender-proofed Covid budget recovery plan has become hugely important, but I’ve not heard any mention of it for Northern Ireland. 

In the formal part of the UN Commission’s work, each country has to report back on the status of women in their country and that data is compiled into a Gender Inequality Index, which highlights gaps that need closing.  To give you an example, in the 2020 index, Afghanistan, currently having peace talks on which we were given an update, was ranked 169th out of 189 countries.  Ireland on the other hand was number 2, with Norway at the top and the UK number 13.

The data offers a transparent picture of gender inequalities and provide information with which to lobby governments, as well as hard facts to underpin notions that things might be amiss in the world.  

This year, for instance, I found out that New Zealand has just announced free sanitary products for all school children to deal with period poverty.  To decrease its gender pay gap, France requires all its businesses to publish details online of how they are moving towards pay equality. If there is no change in three years, the company is fined.

The wonderful team at NIWEP hosted a discussion in the NGO parallel forum, chaired by Louise Kennedy, with speakers including Agnieszka Fal-Dutra Santos from the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, and Funeka Manzi from the South Africa-based Foundation for Human Rights.

You can watch the discussion here

Caitlín Higgins Ní Chinnéide, from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, said that despite it being more than 20 years since the passage of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, between 1992 and 2019 only 6% of peace mediators, 6% of signatories, and only 13% of negotiators of peace processes have been women. 

She spoke of Rasha Jarhum from Yemen and Bronagh Hinds from DemocraShe recently pulling the UN up about this, stating at the very least they should ensure that UN peace talks include a higher percentage of women participants. 

Many people are not aware that this Security Council Resolution on Women’s Peace and Security was put in place because of the Women’s Coalition’s role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, in which Bronagh Hinds was a very active participant.

It was the young women in the second half of the event that really spoke strongly to me. Saorla Boyle from Derry spoke of her time as a youth worker and discovering that attitudes she hoped would have shifted in 15 years had not changed. Younger women participants found the older generations were not talking about their experiences and as a result the young women were, as Saorla said, “carrying the burden of their history without fully being able to understand it.”

Yara Alagha, a young Muslim woman and parliamentary researcher for a civil engagement group at Seanad Éireann, spoke of  growing up in Ireland and being treated differently as Arab/Irish with two parents of the Palestine diaspora, coming up against what she called “compounded intersectional injustices”.  

Tara Grace Connolly from Belfast also spoke, as one of two UN youth delegates for Ireland representing the 1.3 million young adults in the country. It is the first time one of these young people has been from the North. They work alongside the Department of Foreign Affairs, National Youth Council of Ireland and the permanent mission in New York to inform the youth agenda at the UN and offer a perspective of young people in Ireland. 

She spoke eloquently about loss in her family, being the first generation at Queen’s University, graduating with Law and Politics then completing an MA in International Relations. She is acutely aware of how important having peace has been to her opportunities. She said that women’s issues have been largely forgotten under green and orange issues, but I suspect she will be doing a lot more about this in her future.

Aroha Philipson, a twice UN youth delegate and Young Women’s Alliance chair, spoke last about being the majority in society and moving from “not now, love” to being spoken over, to shifting to people listening to young women. She’s also one to watch.

Alejandra Borg, a young Northern Ireland participant at the Commission’s parallel Forum, said of the experience:

“Being a first-time attendee provided me with an excellent opportunity to better understanding some of the prevalent issues’ women are forced to face when navigating social, familial and work environments. 

“Throughout the Forum, women coming from all walks of life were provided with a neutral and accessible platform to connect with each other and share their experiences and ideas into making the world more female-friendly. For several of these women, including myself, this forum provided the first opportunity to be at the discussion table, to have our voices be heard and to feel that we too can implement changes at the local and national level. 

“During one of the first sessions, a participant said that longer life expectancy for women does not necessarily mean that women have a better quality of life. Women are indiscriminately affected by insufficient access to education, lack of available resources pertaining to reproductive health and rights, period poverty, gender-based violence, religion-induced oppression, child marriage. This struck a chord with me. 

“Women across the globe live out entirely different realities and most of us still face discrimination on the basis of biological sex and gender identity. Throughout the course of history, women/young girls have fought courageously and tirelessly to assert themselves as individuals, something most men have the luxury of taking for granted. 

 “I think the greatest lesson that I will take with me from these two weeks of discussion and conversation, is that I too have a responsibility to ensure that women feel empowered, valued and accepted within our communities.”

Northern Ireland’s infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon spoke at a side event about women participating in public life. It was interesting to hear her speak about the media sometimes being more focused on what she was wearing than what she was saying; particularly when she met the Queen in her role as Lord Mayor of Belfast, or on another occasion going to a meeting in Dublin where they thought she must have been the Minister’s secretary. 

Gender disparity remains, and the work to counter it continues. Millennials expect equality, but as someone from Generation X, I can tell you that I did too; it was only as I got older that I realised the breadth of gender inequalities we face every day.  

The UN Commission on the Status of Women helps us keep those inequalities – and our determination to resolve them – in the consciousness of governments and activists around the globe. 

To build on the momentum and add excitement to the opportunity, next week there is a free Generation Equality forum where priority is given to young people around the world interested in gender equality. Based in Mexico and moving onto Paris it aims to give the world a global push in the right direction. Now what’s not to like? You can sign up here .