Anglican Communion News Service

Greetings from  the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC)  Delegates to the 50th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). We would like to acknowledge the great advances and achievements over the last year especially the unanimous approval of ACC Resolution 13-31 by the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham. We congratulate and thank the Primates for sending delegates from virtually every Province enabling us to have this edifying, enriching, supportive and positive experience. We have celebrated our common mission and found ways to empower each other in furthering God's Kingdom.

Together we engaged the themes of the 50th Session of the UNCSW:

• Enhanced participation of women in development: an enabling environment for achieving gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of health, education and work.
• Equal participation of women and men in decision making processes at all levels.

At the United Nations we attended plenary and high level roundtable discussions, and participated in caucuses, regional meetings and parallel events through which we contributed to the work and outcomes of the UNCSW. Many delegates met their official government representatives to the UN.

Our attendance has opened our eyes to new avenues for the empowerment of women and will enhance our participation in the Church and in our communities; and encourage us to implement, in a very effective way, the mission of ACC. Our attendance as women of faith has also brought the transformative power of Jesus Christ to the CSW meeting.

The following themes were identified from our collective work:

• Spiritual, mental and physical health.
• Economic development to defeat poverty.
• Education.
• Countering violence with peace.

Our discussions on these themes will be detailed in the UN Observer's Report to the ACC Standing Committee.

We would like to highlight the importance of the Office of the Anglican Observer to the United Nations as a resource for women's mission.

We respectfully call on the ACC Standing Committee to:

• Ensure a proper reporting mechanism is established for the purposes of accountability of Provinces on the implementation of ACC 13-31.
• Reconsider ACC Resolution to include all Primates in ACC Standing Committee because it contradicts ACC 13-31 for equal representation of women and men at all levels of decision making.
• Recognize and support the International Anglican Women's Network and its new structures, which the delegates to this Session have affirmed.
• Promote equal participation and leadership of women and men through strategies and programs at all levels of the Church.
• Encourage Provinces to affirm the advancements that some governments have made regarding the status of women and to charge all governments to do more.
  We know that the work we have done as the largest NGO at the 50th UNCSW has been important. We look forward to building upon this work with strong representation at the 51st UNCSW.
  Our time together as women has proved that the things that unite us in the Communion are greater and mightier than those that divide us.
  New York, March 7th, 2006