News

MP members’ statement for CSW62 accepted

20.02.2018

A joint written statement by Mountain Partnership members the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and The Mountain Institute, together with the Utah China Friendship Improvement Sharing Hands and Development and Commerce, has been accepted by the UN Secretariat for presentation during the upcoming 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62). Their statement is the only one out of nearly 200 statements submitted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for CSW62 that focuses on the lack of attention from the international community to the several challenges faced by mountain women and on the crucial role of the Mountain Partnership in achieving the three mountain targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An initiative to advocate for improving the lives of mountain women at the United Nations and to underline interactions between SDG 5 on gender equality and the three mountain targets, the statement also highlights the student engaged learning model developed by Utah Valley University, a Mountain Partnership member since 2006. The statement itself is a result of this model, whereby students gain professional skills and experience by addressing real-world problems with a faculty member supporting them as a mentor. Through the Utah International Mountain Forum, a coalition of student clubs at Utah Valley University, students established a partnership with the three NGOs that sponsored the statement and also hosted the NGOs for a round table in Utah on 2 October 2017, to brainstorm how to advocate for mountain women.

As a next step in their advocacy campaign, a 26-member delegation from Utah Valley University, including nine members of the Utah International Mountain Forum, will attend and participate at the CSW62 on 19-22 March 2018. The delegation will host a side event, titled “Advocating for rural and mountain women globally through student engaged learning”, sponsored by Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 19 March 19 at 11.30, as well as a parallel event, titled "Education for Sustainable Development to Empower Rural and Mountain Women", sponsored by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, on 20 March at 08.30 in the Church Center.

Read the statement (available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish)