Registration at CSW - 19 February 2011
Passing through security, we enter the UN. Unbelievable! There is no line-up for the first time since I have attended CSW Meetings! We breeze through the process and the attendants are only too happy tospend time answering questions:
- There are 3400 NGO (non-governmental organization) registrants for this year's session.
- The process for obtaining, secondary passes to events held in the UN Buildings is still more involved than had been requested but the attempt to give more organizations access is improved.
- Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, has been travelling the world seeking input from civil society including organizations such as CFUW, for immediate and strategic longer-term direction for the new Gender Entity.
A woman in an elegant sari approaches from the registration area and I extend my hand in greeting. What a serendipidous meeting!
Meera Khanna from New Delhi represents the Widows Guild of Service and is the drafter of the resolution to the UN to have widows recognized as a marginalized group that needs recognition in the same way as rural or older women are recognized as having unique needs.
Widowhood, especially in Southeast Asia and Africa, often places women in dire circumstances and at great disadvantage. "In India alone there are 42.4 widows," Meera informs me. She readily grants my request to put her in touch with the IFUW presenters of a panel on widowhood at the July 2011 Women's World's Conference in Ottawa and for whom I am their CFUW liaison.
Meera introduces Srijana Lhani, a young woman from Nepal who is the Senior Program Manager for Women for Human Right that also addresses widow's issues. More exchanges of business cards. We ask the security guard if he will take photos.
Jane Tatchell and Christine Nendick, BPW representatives from areas of Great Britain, come over - discussing berets! When they learn that I am from CFUW they ask about the IFUW Helvi Sipila Seminar, declaring that it was the best presentation they attended last year and one that they wish to attend again this year.
As we are deep in discussion, along comes Noema Chaplin, a Russian-American who works at the UN. She helped us find the location of an evening off-site event the first year I attended and has kept in touch ever since. Over to the Chagall stained glass panel where we take our annual photos. A group of young Korean women wander by and have three cameras thrust at them with requests for snaps. They do not understand English but clearly understand cameras!
The current art display in the lobby, just past the huge banner for UN Women, focusses this year on the effects of climate change at the North and South Poles. More photos with icebergs and penguins! After a quick trip downstairs to look at the wares of the various countries in the UN Gift Shop and the stamps at the UN Post Office (closed until Tuesday) we head out for a late lunch and a long walk.
The air is bracing with a stiff wind, but there is bright sunshine and no snow. Saks Fifth Avenue beckons for a look at purses, impossibly high-heeled shoes and beautiful dresses - none of which has our name on it. Across the way, skaters glide past the golden statue of Atlas holding up the world in front of the flag-lined Rockefeller Centre. Radio City Music Hall on the Avenue of the Americas has a few tickets left for the evening concert, before the Hall will "go dark" until March 5th. This time, our names are on the tickets!
Back at the hotel (over 11,000 steps later according to Mary's pedometer and we still have a return trip this evening!) we greet those checking in and then settledown to more CSW preparation work with a warming cup of tea.
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