Every year, every cabinet-cycle, civil society has to find out whether cabinet members are on their side, or not, by interacting with them. Pleasant, competent ministers can be friend or foe. That makes the quite intimate (about 50 people can be present) NGO Briefing at the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the UN a golden opportunity to observe, and interact with, the Dutch minister in charge of Emancipation.
As always, I had taken up a seat next to the people in power. Minister + advisors on my right, ambassador with advisors across the table. And then the game starts. The game of listening very carefully whether there is an opening (a hook) in the speech of minister Mariëlle Paul to bring my concerns to the conversation. With 46 years of experience of finding such hooks for the rights of women I did observe a hook. Ms. Paul told the audience that she wanted to hear whether we had experienced something exceptional during the CSW69 so far. To which I could honestly reply, yes, I did.
I was given the floor to recount the extraordinary happening of a full ECOSOC room of some 600 people bursting in loud applause to my question. I portrayed how I have been asking questions in Side Events and UN conferences for years. How I have had most of those questions adequately answered, but never have I been so enthusiastically supported. I reiterated my question about the menopause care that 4.8 million of the 9 million women in the Netherlands need. Then I proceeded to report to Ms. Paul that the ministers of Iceland and Sweden are already fully committed to organizing a Side Event in 2026, together with the Netherlands, at the CSW70 on the subject of Menopause Care. Happily, Ms. Paul answered that she had already had talks with the Nordic Council of Ministers to the effect of holding a side event with them next year, and therefor was certainly open to such a side event on Menopause Care.
Image: l.t.r: Nils Mollema, minister Mariëlle Paul, advisor, Artemis Westenberg in conversation on Menopause Care.
The Briefing continued with lots of useful information on the Political Declaration and how the backlash//push back of conservative forces had been held at bay to an extent with nifty maneuvering. How it was a happy accident that the USA at the moment are not in a position (procedurally speaking) to force a vote on the Political Declaration or to change the rule of ‘consensus’ that is the norm, and rule, in the Commission on the Status of Women on all concluding documents coming out of the CSW.
Know that the advisors to our ambassador, to our minister, are very capable and dedicated people. Dedicated to Emancipation, dedicated to the Netherlands. Believe me, if I tell you they fight for our rights during the long weeks, months, of negotiations on the outcome of each and every CSW and this year was no exception. I would even say, that this year has seen even more effort and dedication to the rights of us all. Although I hesitate to name those civil servants, I feel that is it right give honour their dedication to our rights: Robin de Vogel on the PM and Nils Mollema of the Foreign Office. No doubt there are others that I don’t know that are instrumental as well. Then there is ‘our own’ Quirine Lengkeek, who is part of the negotiating team this year as representative of us, the Civil Society.
Image: Quirine Lengkeek leaning at table on left, in conversation across the table with Robin Vogel (embassy NL to the UN) standing hidden behind Nadia van der Linde (Wo=Men)
We all wish for more progress, we all fight for more progress, and that progress is not coming as speedily as we hope. Still, I can honestly say they held the line not just against the USA, Hungary and other conservative forces. A heartfelt thank you to them and their, to me, unknown colleagues. Without them, women’s rights would be in a much bleaker state right now.
In the evening, the PM of the NL to the UN (embassy) hosted a side event on ‘Breaking barriers in Tech Carreers’ with El Salvador and representatives of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord. The happy message is that there is ample opportunity for women in STEM fields (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) to have long and fulfilling careers there. Ofcourse, women need to find the right education to do so, but that can be sought also when the career phase of life has already started.
The closing remarks of this event where by Prime Minister of Aruba Evelyn Wever-Croes, who is most certainly a friend to the women in society. Today showed me that our allies are inside and outside the Netherlands and Europe proper. We only need to reach out.
