The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from March 11 to 22, 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world are expected to attend the session.

The Priority Theme is “Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.”

At this sixty-third CSW the NGOs that make up the Vincentian Family are collaborating to raise the issue of street homelessness in this international forum.  The AIC (Mary Ann Dantuono) authored a collaborative written statement to be entered into the commission’s proceedings that highlights the multifaceted problem of housing exclusion and street homelessness of women and girls.  This statement is calling upon Member States to provide adequate shelter to all persons regardless of gender, age, disability, legal, institutional, or socio-economic status that is safe, secure, and accessible; and to measure and monitor the extent of homelessness, particularly unsheltered homelessness among women; and urging regional and global stakeholders to promote efforts to assess progress toward ending homelessness in a way that is meaningful and consistent across all countries, including support of practices of enumerating the homeless population, particularly the unsheltered population, with gender disaggregated data to provide a benchmark from which Member States can mark progress toward the progressive right to housing.

The Daughters of Charity (presented by Sr. Catherine Prendergast, DC) will have an opportunity to make an oral statement to the commission, urging the Member States to explore the challenges street homelessness poses to women and to meet the objectives of the 2030 Agenda’s call for ending poverty and for gender equality and empowerment for women and girls. A joint report on behalf of the Vincentian family (written by AIC’s Mary Ann Dantuono), it will highlight some examples of grassroots projects being implemented by all branches of the Vincentian Family and the statement will call for a clear, global measurement of street homelessness; a shared goal to reduce and ultimately end street homelessness; and support for a global movement to spread effective strategies across member states.

We are very pleased to have this opportunity to work together during this important Commission and are hopeful that more relationships will develop among the non-governmental organizations and Member States as this discussion around street homelessness gains momentum.

Natalie Boone is the AIC NGO Representative to UN-NY