In New York today, GCAP members are focusing on the theme of this year’s CSW, “Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,” calling for increased financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as support for an improved gender equality architecture of the UN.

GCAP’s Feminist Task Force (FTF), which was founded three years ago at these same meetings of the CSW, will present the progress made alongside the findings of International Women’s Tribunals on Poverty, which were held in India and Peru in 2007.

Ana Agostino, GCAP Co-Chair and spokesperson for the Feminist Task Force said: “Poverty cannot be eradicated without equality and justice for women. Current international policies rob women of livelihoods, healthcare and other economic rights, while feeding fundamentalist backlash and militarism that deprive women of personal autonomy and choices. Our demands are fundamental to breaking through this paradigm, they are not cosmetic, they need dedicated funding and integration into all existing policy decisions.”