Who Run ‘The United Nations’?
Students spend break at the Commission on the Status of Women
Spring Break. One of the most anticipated times in a college students life, filled with beaches, dancing, and some regrettable decisions. But while some students were sunbathing, other students were walking up First Avenue and into the most respected meeting place the united nations.
Students taking “Gender and Human Rights: an Introduction to Transnational Feminist Activism”, a class offered through Pace University’s Women and Gender Studies Department, spent ten days at The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women(CSW). The CSW is the gathering of delegates and non-governmental organizations (NGO) to discuss women’s rights. This year’s theme was Women’s Empowerment and it’s link to Sustainable Development.
“The Commission on the Status of Women was created on a global stance to figure out how we can support women and how to make sure they are not in danger [or] oppressed in their countries,” says Larissa Szilagyi. Szilagyi is a double major in Women and Gender Studies and Political Science, and is a founder of the Grassroots Campaign #PACEUENDRAPE. “Every country has their own issues and has their own cultural ways of how they believe people should interact. So, although genital mutilation is an issue in the United States, it’s not as a big of an issue as it would be in other countries.”
April Keane, a double major in Women and Gender Studies and Communication Studies at Pace University, is also a student in the class. “Not only were there events going on inside The UN itself, but there were also parallel events.” Parallel events were typically panels, hosted by NGO’s, and reflected their missions in relation to the CSW. Cycles of Poverty: Menstrual Hygiene Management, hosted by Days for Girls, was a panel April enjoyed. “Some girls don’t have the money or the resources to buy pads, and they don’t have a way to dispose of them…it was something that opened my eyes, because I’m lucky enough to afford them, but other girls can’t.”
Leading up to the event, students spent time in the classroom with Professor Emily Bent learning vocabulary and going through mock trials.
“We did a model UN. I had no idea what the UN was like beforehand, really, so that showed me what it would be like. It was kind of scary because we were just thrown in, but it did prepare me,” Keane said.
Szilagyi and Keane both went on to explain that through the trials and tribulations, there was inspiration at the end of it all.
“It made me want to go home and do something…There were times where [I was] frustrated, but I wouldn’t have traded those two weeks for the world…these experiences are once in a life time,” Szilagyi explains. “To be not even 20 yet, and working at the UN is incredible. Take [the class].”
For more information on the Women and Gender Studies program and classes like this one, visit their website at http://www.pace.edu/dyson/departments/womens-gender-studies.
