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IDRC Photo: R. Sohal

IDRC hosted two panels at the fifty-first session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York March 1–2 2007. This year the CSW’s central theme was the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.

Organized by three of IDRC’s programs — Women’s Rights and Citizenship (WRC), Peace, Conflict and Development, and Governance, Equity, and Health — the panels facilitated exchange, dialogue, and networking between researchers, policymakers, and activists.

The first IDRC panel, “The Missing Girl Child: the Impact of Gender Discrimination on Demographic Change,” addressed some of the critical and complex issues surrounding declining sex ratios in North India and China.

Panellists Mary John, Ravinder Kaur, and Prabhat Jha highlighted some of the latest trends in the sex ratio in India and examined China’s population policy and the ways in which birth planning policies shape the country’s reported sex ratio.

The panel also looked at the specific formal and informal social, cultural, economic, and political forces that have an impact on gender relations and influence the issue of the adverse female sex ratio in both countries. 

At the second IDRC panellists Hana Saab, Neil Andersson, and Dyan Mazurana addressed the impact of violent conflict on the girl child.

Unlike wars of previous centuries, conflicts are now fought in the communities, streets, homes, and workplaces of ordinary citizens. Although the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security identifies the need to recognize the unique experiences of women and girls in conflict, females are often overlooked within conflict contexts and in post-conflict reconstruction policy and programming.

At the Session, WRC also launched the IDRC co-publication, Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development.

IDRC Senior Program Officer Navsharan Singh presented the book, which she co-edited with Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay. It brings together multidisciplinary perspectives from leading feminist scholars of sociology, political science, and legal studies, among others, and provides new insights for both advocacy and research.

Building on the CSW session, IDRC organized a one-day event in celebration of International Women’s Day at its headquarters in Ottawa on March 5th. The event, which featured many of the same panellists as in New York, provided a forum for IDRC-supported partners to present their research findings and recommendations on key issues linked to the CSW theme.

2007-03

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