Latest News from the NGO CSW Committee

Bette Levy, who is on the NGO CSW Committee sent this message with some important news about logistics for the upcoming CSW. Bette is the Representative to the United Nations (New York) for Soroptimist International.

Here's the latest news from today's planning meeting. I have taken the liberty to highlight certain key points.

UN Women:
Eleanor Solo (UN Women) reported that today January 27th was the final day to pre-register NO exceptions this year; if you need to make substitutions the final date to replace names submitted is February 14th.

As of today 5600 individuals have been pre-registered and 820 organizations, they are expecting those numbers to change today since it is the deadline and they are anticipating about 3000 to 4000 individuals to attend this year.

The deadline for submitting Oral Statements is February 19th; she also mentioned that individual organizations will more than likely not be selected and encouraged we develop coalitions & collaborations (they don't have to be large groups but more than one organization regardless of size).

They are expecting many more challenges this year primarily due to the renovations to the GA building and there being no GA lobby for registration. Unlike in past years if someone shows up without their paperwork they will be turned away, they will not have the ability to print or find names in a computer. She stressed that head offices need to make sure each individual you have registered has their own letter. Security will have a very big presence at the gates, entrances and the conference rooms. It is still not clear where the meeting point will be to register or to obtain tickets to side events.

She is asking that we alert our head offices to manage expectations of the people coming to CSW 58... the reality is there is not going to be enough space and not everyone will actually get into conference room 2 for the meetings. Things are not yet solidified but once they are UN Women will reach out to all head offices to give some direct communication. This year they are also, thinking of trying to reach out to individuals as well but it is still each individual's responsibility to have their proper credentials, Identification and to be where they have to be to get registered. She suggests that head offices inform their delegations (individually) to frequently check the UN Women web-site (I also, suggest that you check the NGO CSW/NY web-site).

(http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw58-2014 and http://www.ngocsw.org/about-ngocswny)

What is confirmed is that the actual CSW58 meeting will take place in the new conference building in Conference room 2, most of the side events will take place in that building as well in the lettered rooms but there will be some events in the North Lawn Building. There will be some sort of tickets for everything but there will not be much space at the actual meetings. They are trying to arrange for overflow rooms but not a guarantee this will happen... she highly suggests using the web-casts to follow the meetings.

Interactive panels not very realistic to think NGOs will get to speak during the priority themes.

Here is the link for the official documents for CSW 58, including reports from the Secretary General: http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw58-2014/official-documents available in 6 languages, hoping to get the expert group report translated into french & spanish .
Here is some good news... they believe that there will not be secondary passes this year (NOT CONFIRMED) needed to get between buildings, to the conference rooms and the cafe.. but there will be tickets for side events and everything else.. just not sure if they will be daily or weekly.. Recommends that head offices make sure that their delegations sign up for side events immediately once they are posted, as everything will be FIRST COME FIRST SERVE! Also, they are asking head offices to share with their delegations that once they get into an event they do not need to stay in the room all day, they will have access between buildings. There will be security posted at the door of each event.. Eleanor & Johannes were going to meet with security again this afternoon. Once the details are confirmed they will contact head offices. They asked that head offices register their permanent reps not just their visiting delegations.

NGO CSW/NY:
Deadline for ads has been extended until January 31st, response has been good but I highly recommend buying an ad to support the work of NGO CSW... the ads will be shown on the screen during consultation day during registration and lunch, they will also be shown on the NGO CSW/NY web-site for 6 months, the organization will be listed in the handbook as a sponsor and on the web-site., but on the web-site when you click on the name of the organization the whole ad will open up. You can make changes to ads after the deadline (perhaps a speaker has changed) for an additional fee of $20.00.

Deadlines for Consultation Day & the Reception are also, January 31st... however, they are actually capacity based and once we reach the capacity registration will close... so don't wait until the deadline. We suggest that head offices let their delegations know this. We have a really terrific schedule filled with interesting speakers (of course I'm bias, as I am co-chair of program).. we'll be reviewing historic events for women, kicking off Beijing + 20 and even a panel on sustainable cities & human settlements. You're not going to want to miss this day.

While this listserv is for the EU/NA caucus we have many members from other parts of the world who have asked to join us for the information so the following is for individuals from Europe and North America here are some dates to keep in mind:

Monday, March 10th at 6:30 pm in Conference room 2, Latvia will sponsor the European/North American Regional Side Event. This is an opportunity for NGOs to speak directly with governments about issues that are important to our region... similar regional events will be happening in the other regions as well.
Thursday, March 13th, Friday, March 14th, Monday, March 17th &  (possibly)Tuesday, March 18th there will be EU/NA Caucus meetings at 6:15pm in the church center. I will be co-facilitating the caucus again this year with Pierrette Pape of European Women's Lobby.