 Cooper Union, what's happening with human rights around our world on Think Tech live broadcasting from our downtown studio in Honolulu, Hawaii and Moana, Nuiakea. I'm your host, Joshua Cooper. And today's episode is the UN Commission on the Status of Women 66 session, Women's Equality in a Warming World. I'm so fortunate to be joined by three amazing activists who are advocating for climate justice in the world. And we'll be looking at the important issues of what happened recently in New York at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Nolene, what were some of the exciting aspects that happened at the CSW? Can you share some of those results? Sure, I think I'd start by saying that for us, one of the significant things about this year, apart from the fact that it's taken 65 commissions to have a specific focus on gender climate change and disaster risk and response. So that in itself is is a huge precedent setting commission on the status of women. And what we really needed to do is make sure that what is what was in the language is helpful, not yet just for this year, but really carrying forward into the future. So that's the first point. The second was that because it was a hybrid set of work where we had a lot of us who were online and and some that were in New York, but quite a small number when you look at the thousands that it's usually the most well attended, multilateral negotiating negotiating space. So that's really important as well is that people are trying to make sure that those of us particularly in the economic south and in climate frontline communities are really engaged in the work that is happening there in New York at the at the UN at the Commission on the Status of Women. The third point to make is we we were really quite, you know, I would say stressed and angry that many of the decisions around access were happening very, very late. And for us, it's a huge thing to travel from the Pacific. You know, there are long haul flights that are involved, but also we have the issue of public health and COVID-19 to work through. So we decided on a saturation online campaign and really tried to work as four of the larger networks within the Pacific who are working on gender and climate change and sustainable development. So between Diva for equality, the Pacific feminist community of practice, Pekan, which Jeshua will speak to a little later, and shifting the power coalition, we really brought in a whole range of various groups who then were able to mobilize and kind of bring all the messages from the Pacific. And it was really significant to see that there was another campaign similar from Africa called CSW, so Africa Disrupt CSW 66. And I think it's because people understand that the multilateral system right now needs to be really, really strong and clear about what is the international, you know, we talk about international community, but who is it? Does it include those of us who are in climate frontline states? Does it include small island peoples? Does it include indigenous and local groups? And so we would determine no matter what was happening in the real politic in the spaces of New York, in the spaces of, you know, London and and Bonn and everywhere else, that we were doing our own part to make sure our voices are heard. So I think I just start there and then I'll come back. Thank you. Thank you so much for that beginning. You bring up a great point because this year, the conference of parties for the UN Framework Committee on Climate Change will be happening and hosted by Africa. So it's great to bring Oceania and the Pacific together and make sure that the people on the frontline voices are absolutely heard. Carlo, can you share some of your perspectives of what happened and some of the results that were most compelling for you? Thank you Joshua. Yes, for CSW 66 this year kind of really see the engagement of youth, of young women, of young families being annexed because of the priority in itself, seeing a climate in the context of empowering women and girls. So in terms of climate change, the Pacific climate change, it leads to all other issues. It leads to violence against women, it leads to violence against girls and children, it leads to poverty, it leads to violence against LGBTQ members, it leads to most of other issues like, if it is women, our environment, our food chain, our food service, our biodiversities, so for us to engage in a global platform, coming from a grassroots community level, this is important to us because of our voices, most of the time our voices are not being heard, even at community level, even at national level for instance, but for us to even being included in the speaking side event session, the speaking slots, this is where we really prioritize the theme, our issues being brought up into global level because of women don't just woke up one morning and become activists, they become families because we have lived the realities of climate change, of the climate crisis, the urgency of these issues, so it's so urgent because we want to get the climate excellent really fast because of constant change of weather patterns because of the frontline of our communities, we're facing flood every now and then, we have our villages being displaced, being moved from one place to another, our children being affected because of, we just recently came out from the pandemic, there's education system on hold, employment on hold, so we can imagine the poverty increase, imagine the highest increase of violence and coming from small island states where the rate of violence is highest, second highest, so it is portraying a bit of this urgent work to do, so this is where CSW, for us as sandfarms, this is women, for us to be included in this is making levels because if something is development in a community, we should be included in this making level, not only women, also young people, because we are fighting not only for our future here, the future of our children coming for us and for this beautiful planet, but also the beautiful species that we engage with every day. Thank you, Joshua. No, thank you so much and you really brought up the human rights-based approach to make sure that the rights of people, but also our mother earth is respected and you really made the interconnectedness of all the issues, how one leads to the other. In too many times with the sustainable development goals, people focus on one goal or two goals, but all the goals build on one another and your foundation was so strong, making sure that directly impacted people's are speaking for themselves at these global arenas to make sure that people understand what's really happening. Joshua, anything you want to share about the CSW or any result that stood out to you, it's great to have my brother from another mother there, we got the same name, and my mom's name is Hope, so we're just like connected. In future, I would call you Yava, given that we share almost the first name and practically the same last name, but thank you, I think Nolan and Vika have summed it up so perfectly, I don't know how to possibly follow that, but there is one thing that that Nolan said that I think I'll just add on to and that's the barriers to access. It's one thing to be able to participate online, virtually it's something completely different to be physically present in those spaces to be there with negotiators, with decision makers, and you look at the outcomes document and you look at the text and they talk about things like meaningful participation, but this is what we mean by meaningful participation. Meaningful participation has to be about looking at what are those barriers to access, looking at how we as activists and people in civil society spaces can positively influence the spaces and influence the texts and the decisions that are coming out of it. So I think for us it's not just about the language that we see in the text, but also about taking that language and making it practice. I think that's that's all that I have to add. Oh no, it's exactly true and it's really the work by the NGOs in that coalition, it's great to have Diva there, Feminist Policy Agenda, Pacific Island Climate Action Network and to highlight how we really are large ocean nations that have to be included at the table and more importantly have the ancestral wisdom that the world will be able to survive when listening as opposed to ignoring as they have done in the past and the pursuit of profit ignoring people in the planet. Nolene can you share with us because you really did a lot of the organizing before it. We didn't just wake up as Kahlo said and get to speak at a side event. What was done to be able to make sure that the both of Oceania was present and then what were some of the major side events and really the highlights because it is true part of the work is focusing on paragraphs and in small periods and all the little parts of those outcome document but there's so many other aspects. Can you give people a taste on a flavor of New York City and the CSW as you said is one of the biggest multi diplomatic events that ever happened at the UN? Thank you, yes we started way back last year so I'm really around September, October we were already planning toward it. Really as soon as we heard the you know what the theme was going to be we moved into into action and started preparing and organizing. So we've worked with Pacific Island governments, we've worked with the Pacific Forum Secretariat, we've worked with SPC and many other institutions and governments through the Pacific and we did that deliberately because we wanted to be part of a combined set of analysis and positions that came through and so we had a one-on-one climate, gender and climate training that was organized with the support of the Forum with the civil society in the Pacific actually worked with and shared our knowledge and our experience with the gender machinery they call it which sounds a bit kind of you know I don't know I don't like that language but it's really the women's ministries, anyone who's working on gender within governments we tried to bring together and make sure that they were they were prepared and that we were prepared to be working with them because often we have our sets of work in social movements and they're incredibly important and sometimes they align very easily with government and sometimes it's very difficult to be in the same room or even online working together productively and we have to be there we have to be working with each other knowing what each other's positions are so that all started very early last year then I also myself and Nalini Singh and Mariani from Dawn were part of the CSW 66 expert working group so being on that we were able to influence the report that then is taken to the UN secretary general and make sure that our positions were going through from there as well so I think it's incredibly important to have both the kind of mainstream sets of work that we're doing and then also make sure that we're working on the ground with the groups who who themselves often don't have access to these multilateral spaces so there is some deliberate coordination that occurs it's a really big load on organizations that already have very limited resources so that's part of what we do we taught we work we worked on mitigation we worked on adaptation we worked on loss and damage positions we tried to make sure that they were clear for ourselves and came from the communities in which we work the constituencies and on the outcomes I just say Joshua that you know commission on the status of women I've been through many many now and there are blend always of positives and missed opportunities and sometimes there are outright negatives because of the political play that happens within negotiation rooms and we would be naive if we didn't talk about that so for instance we're absolutely furious I have to say that environmental human rights defenders were left out of the text they were in the text early and then there was negotiation and they came out you know to have a removal from from reality is is really upsetting for us because there's women and gender non-binary people and others men as well who are giving their lives their family their safety and other priorities for this work around the world and we and these numbers are rising every year every year more die and are affected and the vast majority of those activists are indigenous peoples protecting the 20% of the earth that holds the 80% of biodiversity so that does make us very angry and for them to be so casually dismissed but we're really happy for instance for the first time ever in the agreed conclusions to see a mention you'll like this Joshua as well in your work to see mention of journalists and media workers that's a very first time ever in commission on the status of women we've been fighting for that a struggle for that for a long time so we were quite surprised that it went through with no struggle and sometimes it is like that that you can work for years for a text change and then all of a sudden in the middle of some context it becomes clear that that it's time for that that text to be in there also we're not entirely happy with the loss and damage in the agreed outcomes there's barely a mention there's actually just a couple in fact and and we had a loss at the very last minute in the preambular section but we're very pleased that there's two paragraphs in the operating section because for anyone who's not familiar with those out agreed outcomes it is that that's where the decisions that come out are operationalized so through the rest of the year governments will work out how are we going to put that into practice we push on those how do we make those real as as both Kado and Vika and Jeshua said so we it's shocking actually that there's no mention of intimate partner violence so we were really pushing for that it didn't get through there's only one mention of sexual and reproductive health and rights and we all know that in crises women's bodies are under a lot of attack even more than usual but also that the access to emergency contraception and all those issues that are about transformation of the state and transformation of society so that everyone has their rights respected is really important so there's a lot of work to do now but but really we also got many good sets of language in to have loss and damage and there is a very big struggle to have so many references to young women and girls was really important as Kado said and they were just leaders in the process Australia I have to say Joshua is such a laggard on climate policy and when I actually challenged in the campaign in New York some positions on loss and damage I said that CSW agreed outcomes wouldn't be useful unless loss and damage was included apparently there was some anger from them and they made it known to some but really for me I was too busy trying to work out how we keep our voices loud and clear we know what our positions are we won't be influenced by others who are trying to tell us whether or not we are able to put certain we've always pushed that we're always trying as civil society and as social movements to be authentic and clear and honest in our positioning thank you I appreciate that and it takes me back to sitting in the Vienna cafe or on the couches outside the negotiating room and just waiting for it and that's really why this is so important for you to share because the CSW it's the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated promotion of gender equality in the power of women and you giving that behind the scenes aspect also encourages more people to be like how could you leave out environmental human rights defenders I was teaching a class in Geneva and the rising number is alarming and it it's you raising that lets us all know we have to put more effort to make sure that it's not excluded into the future and Carlo can you share with us a bit of some of the highlights or the side event that really mattered most to you during the CSW Thank you Josso yes I could share with side events the session that I spoke in it's kind of which highlights the Pacific frontline side events because of the Pacific gang that's going to be speaking so for me personally speaking first time to be engaged in CSW and even though it's from a virtual side session so even though I'm not there physically but I could it's a very challenging because of coming like I said coming from a grass root based community based feminist work and also to speaking at a higher level forum like that kind of pushes the work that we do here in the ground because we know that that the work that we do in it's you know you just to link to regional and also to global because of the continuous work it's not always about it's about the community it's about the the women that we work with because we we're at the frontline of these urges of this crisis because of even though we're at the frontline also our bodies have been violated we face public data to the members of our LGBT community also especially sex workers are also being violated women and girls they face the SRSR sexual the Northern rights are not being recognized as a woman in the community so this work is important to us because even for me speaking yet at that side events it kind of has speaking most about the community for the community because it has to be highlighted in the global level it's not only here around here because this is this is so important because it has to lead up to the global level and also down again because the community that we work with it is it has to show that this work is not only here it is it is a link to regional to regional and global so it is so important because it determines our future also we cannot get to the work even if our bodies are violated or the environment around us is being destroyed is being affected so how can we do this a very important work is beautiful work even environment around us is breaking down is being damaged is being you know our homes being relocated so for me speaking at that side of it also highlighted the work that we do here in Diva it connects with women from the maritime from the remote informal sermons women from the communities LGBT women also LGBT community as a whole so you know it's a very totally new experience and maybe when there's travel restriction is lifted maybe could feel the experience physically but for me from talking from home virtually it is also very challenging but it's a good experience and we have other women like the families like Nolina Bulgo and other families in the room other Pacific families the young a Pacific families also the young the youth that is telling I will ask all these and bring the campaign from at home it kind of challenging and keep pushing because of the urgency of the issue because we we are looking after our planet and also specific calendars this is also very important to us because of the beautiful environment that we have here in the Pacific the beautiful beaches the feast the beautiful covenanted trees you know Joshua so yes that's why it's important to us it's true it's in a way even though the theme was achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs we're really I think and what you did in is sharing that familiar relationship with the Aina with the earth with the water and explaining it so that people gain a great understanding of what is necessary going forward to protect the planet and the people who are taking care of this mother earth Joshua can you share since that was the theme why was important important for the Pacific Island Coalition and the network to come together and what were the highlights for Pekin thank you so much Joshua yeah like Vika this is also my first time actually participating in CSW 66 and so it was a bit of a surreal experience and I'm sure that some of my colleagues it was also the first time for us from Pekin side our work towards this began a couple of months before primarily with the support of diva for equality and Nolian and Vika who have been partners with Pekin but we're on this new project supported by the EU and part of that project was really outlining what of some of the key priorities for for Pekin and one of the first ones out of the field for us was definitely gender and climate change and I think that was really because we're beginning to recognize and I think that's true for the rest of the climate justice space in the Pacific and really around the world that climate change is not just a bubble of its own and gender justice is not just a bubble of its own that more often than not the two of them are really issues that have a lot of intersections between them and so it was so important for us that we begin to understand that to address issues of climate change and to address climate justice we cannot do that without first addressing gender justice and so focusing on the intersectionalities between them was really important and and part of us doing that and the support that we really landed towards that in the leader of the CSW 66 campaign was really in terms of mobilizing and helping with gaining support online and so we had this really brilliant CSW 66 campaign we had a whole Twitter account that was created CSW 66 specific and part of the reasoning behind that is I think that we wanted to ensure that we're able to push out some key messages from our organizations but we also really wanted to connect with the people that we represent with grassroots people everyday people in Fijian around the Pacific and so we went around asking people for their thoughts their reflections around the theme of CSW 66 and they gave us so many brilliant quotes and that's featured in our Twitter pages but that was something that I thought was really powerful about this campaign was that it was a really autumn approach and we got to speak to so many different people activists, climate justice activists gender justice activists and really bring them into this process of CSW 66 and ensure that there was a bridge that was connecting and that wasn't just happening at that global multilateral space No that was great and it is true we have to be able to translate the text from there at home and maybe in our final five minutes we have maybe you can share with us how, Nolene, you're looking at bringing the CSW to the community as well as Kahlo and Joshua what we can do with that Thank you Joshua we've got many sets of regional initiatives including the Pacific leaders gender equality declaration I was part of the revision committee that's been looking at it over the last year or so and part of that is making sure that climate change is not thought about often in the text we think about it as a quote unquote emerging issue there's no way it is we've been part of this struggle leading the struggle as Pacific peoples for decades and I would say even back longer than that is the preservation and the defense of our common so we're just making sure that as we go into COP 27 that we're all clear on our roles and that that includes gender and human rights as a very very strong perspective we're part of a group that now is moving towards the work on COP 27 in Egypt that will be at the end of the year and I'd really like people to join if they can and Bulla, hello from to everyone in Hawaii who's listening in and please be part of the hashtag is sorry, COP 27 Pacific so we've already started a Twitter group and I really would love if people can get more and more involved so one is about more of that two is about please let us make sure to the globe that everyone is clear that what we're talking about is the 1.5 trajectory that we have to make sure that we keep our planet safe for ourselves for other species but also for the ecosphere the living planet that that keeps us here and keeps us alive so I'll I'll end there so the others have time thanks so much for this opportunity Joshua yeah Mahalo Mahalo final thoughts and bringing it home yes um thank you Joshua um for us um yes during the the CSW when we have the campaign we when we go to the communities and we and we tell them about having this company is leading to CSW 66 for them because we are grassroots what is it is that CSW 66 so this is how the information transferred to their grassroots level so yes for them to to give out their thoughts and also for us when we're doing the work we also have our photos taken and you know when us when setting the campaign a message we also send the photos this is the work that we are doing on the ground this is um for us um here in Diva and also around the the Pacific you know we're already doing biodiversity projects you know to conserve our natural resource we already are doing setting up SRHR kids to villages in the Merta and because of the the the the their service has been damaged or they've been attacked by by the young men or by the youth and also we've been helping the urgent resources urgent action to the community so you know that that has been said by knowing the road to cope 27% so we are not just speaking and I know standing in front I know speaking up but we also doing our background work here at home because of you know speaking also comes with actions so you know for our fairer of Pacific and as we're listening and also yeah in Hawaii you know for us to also stand up and also you know do the work on the ground also protect our Pacific because you know when speaking up out to to the to the global level you know you also have our work done here at home so this also their time to do their work and also to invest in us because of this climate crisis thank you Joshua thank you Joshua sharing again about the Pacific Island Climate Action Network what are some of the small plans and the significant first steps to bring this text home thank you so much Josh so one of the first few things that we're doing at the policy level is that we're making sure that because sometimes when you read these outcomes documents in this text they're very they've got fancy hyperfluous language that can sometimes be lost especially if we're trying to take it back to the community so one of the first things that we're doing is we're trying to develop a lot of policy groups but we're making sure that we're using simple plain language that's easy to understand that communities can understand so that they have an avenue upon which they're able to understand what's happening at that big UN multilateral space that it's coming down directly back to them and then of course the other thing that we're doing is that we're really beginning to make use of social media as Nolene and Vika had pointed out this campaign that we ran and it only started in the month of March we had thousands of interactions of impressions huge follower counts people that were really engaging with it and that really is the power of social media the power of Twitter is that it's this space where we can bring this high level political messages back to communities as well as transferring it back up to the people that we want to influence so I think that those are really the two avenues that we're beginning to use is that policy space that we're holding on to as well as the social media space and using the power of social media to connect with our communities Thank you all three you really are amazing to share the Oceania gender and climate justice advocacy with insights of what's going on at the global but focusing on achieving equality in the face of the climate crisis here at home in Moana, New York thank you so much for joining and we look forward to partnering for COP 27 and the Pacific focus and making sure that we work on all these issues together Mahalo for all the work you did at the CSW and we know it's important seeds that will produce amazing new that will provide shade for future generations Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii If you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com Mahalo