Civil Society Watch: Government's' Commitments to Action -- A Civil Society Parallel Event to the UN Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment.

At the session on civil society access facilitated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CSW), participants built on recommendations from the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) campaign in providing a series of recommendations and commitments for action. This included: recommending strengthened mechanisms for partnership between civil society and UN Women that ensure multiple entry points and meaningful and ongoing engagement; ensuring that UN Women builds in ongoing space to listen to civil society voices, especially from conflict-affected societies, as well as supporting alternative spaces such as through People’s General Assemblies. Activists reiterated the need for more effective action to support women human rights defenders, noting: “We should be seen as more than partners for implementing projects, but as leaders.” They also called for increased accountability of donors to uphold women's human rights, and called for action by all stakeholders to ensure the women’s human rights agenda is not watered down by the private sector. Activists called for UN Women to support political activism. They brought attention to the need for new monitoring and accountability systems to ensure realisation of human rights for all, and reiterated the importance of including women’s human rights leaders in key discussions of global governance. They also brought attention to the need to create space for civil society to build consensus around priorities and action for holistic implementation of a women’s human rights agenda.