CNMUN: 2024-2025

STUDY GUIDE
UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE
FOR THE STATUS OF WOMEN
COMMITTEE’S
OVERVIEW
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global
intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of
gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional
commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was
established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946.

The CSW is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the

reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global
standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
In 1996, ECOSOC in resolution 1996/6 (see p. 20) expanded the
Commission’s mandate and decided that it should take a leading role in
monitoring and reviewing progress and problems in the
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and
in mainstreaming a gender perspective in UN activities.

During the Commission’s annual two-week session, representatives of

UN Member States, civil society organizations and UN entities gather at
UN headquarters in New York. They discuss progress and gaps in the
implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
the key global policy document on gender equality, and the 23rd special
session of the General Assembly held in 2000 (Beijing+5), as well as
emerging issues that affect gender equality and the empowerment of
women. Member States agree on further actions to accelerate progress
and promote women’s enjoyment of their rights in political, economic,
and social fields. The outcomes and recommendations of each session
are forwarded to ECOSOC for follow-up.
 ADDRESSING THE
IMPACT OFTHE ISRAEL-
PALESTINE CONFLICT
ON WOMEN’S
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
 LETTER FROM THE
EXECUTIVE BOARD
With great pride, we welcome you to the CNMUN’s United Nations Council for
Status of Women; it’s been waiting for you. We look forward to interacting with
your bright minds and passionate voices that promise to light up the committee
halls with intense debates and deliberation on all three days.
We encourage you to research thoroughly, drawing information from this guide
and any other credible sources, and putting your best foot forward to produce
highly effective resolutions that tackle the real-world agendas we have at hand.
Diligent preparation concerning the questions to be addressed, breakthrough
ideas, concrete proposals, and active participation are key to becoming a stellar
delegate.
You are expected to be well-prepared with your country’s stances on the conflict
and be ready to dabble into any sub-agenda as and when the committee brings
them up. We await your unique ideas and wish you all the best of luck. May this
conference bring the best in you and help you create memories and friends to
last a lifetime. Should you have any queries, do not hesitate to communicate
with us; we remain always at your disposal at any time during the days leading
up to the conference, and beyond. See you there!
UNCSW CNMUN

Introduction to
Reproductive Health
Reproductive health implies that, apart from the absence of disease or infirmity, people
have the ability to reproduce, to regulate their fertility and to practice and enjoy sexual
relationships. It further implies that reproduction is carried to a successful outcome through
infant and child survival, growth and healthy development. It finally implies that women
can go safely through pregnancy and childbirth, that fertility regulation can be achieved
without health hazards and that people are safe in having sex. (Fathalla, 1988).

Reproductive health is an integrated package (Fathalla, 1996). Women cannot be healthy if

they have one element and miss another. Moreover, the various elements of reproductive
health are strongly inter-related. Improvements of one element can result in potential
improvements in other elements. Similarly, lack of improvement in one element can hinder
progress in other elements.
Pelvic infection, for example, accounts for about one-third of all cases of infertility,
worldwide, and for a much higher percentage in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO, 1987). The
resultant infertility is also the most difficult to treat. The magnitude of the problem of
infertility will not be ameliorated except by a combat of sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs), by safer births that avoid postpartum infection, and by decreasing the need for or
the resort to unsafe abortion practices.

Fertility regulation is a major element in any safe motherhood strategy. It reduces the
number of unwanted pregnancies, with a resultant decrease in the total exposure to the risk
as well as a decrease in the number of unsafe abortions. Proper planning of births can also
decrease the number of high risk pregnancies.
The reproductive health concept is not limited to mothers. Nor is it limited to women in the
childbearing age. It recognizes the special health needs of adolescents related to their
acquisition of the sexual and reproductive capacity before they have completed their social
preparation for adult life. It recognizes that mature women, beyond the childbearing period,
still have important health needs related to the reproductive system which they still carry
and to the cessation of ovarian function. The concept also recognizes that the health of the
adult builds on the health of the child, and that this is probably no more true than in the area
of reproductive health. Finally, the concept of reproductive health is not limited to women.
Men too have reproductive health needs, and responding to these needs of men is also
important for women.
UNCSW CNMUN

FOR WOMEN
Women have been fighting the struggle for reproductive rights for
centuries. Historically, these rights are an especially controversial subject
due to the moral, ethical, and religious considerations. Earlier the right to
abortion was not permitted and it was strongly opposed the society. The
termination of pregnancy was termed to be a murder of the foetus. White
feminist movements in the United States were among the first to publicly
demand their reproductive rights agenda since the 1960s, focusing on the
establishment of mechanisms that would grant each individual legal
access to sterilisation and abortion.

The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in

1994 and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 laid
further ground for such a rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive
health by recognizing reproductive rights as a fundamental human right.
Yet, focusing on white women's bodily experiences of sexual and
reproductive health, this legal-based reproductive rights approach fails to
include Black women's, racialized women's, poor women's, and women of
the Global South's experiences of abortion and sterilization.

The current U.S. reproductive health agenda is polarized to a choice or

abortion issue without any alignment to other issues that predominantly
impact women of color within the reproductive health framework.

Following are included when it comes to reproductive rights

•the highest attainable standard of sexual health, including access to
sexual and reproductive health care services; •seek, receive and impart
information related to sexuality; •sexuality education; •respect for bodily
integrity; •choose their partner; •decide to be sexually active or not;
•consensual sexual relations; •consensual marriage; •decide whether or
not, and when, to have children; and •pursue a satisfying, safe and
pleasurable sexual life.
 CNMUN
UNCSW

Israel- Palestine conflict

and women
Israel’s longstanding violations of international humanitarian law predate the 7
October. Control and brutality towards the sexual and reproductive rights of
women and girls in Occupied Palestine has always existed as a systematic
concern. Prior to October, 94,000 women and girls already lacked access to sexual
and reproductive health services according to the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA). This figure has now risen to over 1 million in under five months.

The United Nations estimated that 50,000 pregnant women were living in Gaza at
the time of the initial besiege in October, and an estimated 183 women give birth
every day – 15% of which will face some sort of complication. Alongside
starvation, brutal hostility, and the very real threat of death and disease, reports
of women undergoing labour and delivery without any form of medical aid have
been made, including reports of Gazan women forced to undergo C-sections
without anaesthesia.

Menstruating women and girls have no access to sanitary products, with many
forced to use tent scraps and others missing their periods completely due to the
stress. Women have been taking norethisterone tablets, which are typically
recommended for disorders including excessive menstrual bleeding,
endometriosis, and painful periods. Wafa, one of our health care workers at
PFPPA told me, “There is lack of menstrual pads and women are using pieces of
cloth and placing under them plastic bags, to avoid leakages on their clothing. At
times, if they can find baby diapers, they use them after cutting them into a
number of pieces.
 CNMUN
UNCSW

The escalating situation in Gaza exposes the alarming fact of the sexual and
reproductive health emergency that primarily impacts women and girls.
Over a million people now lack access to basic amenities because of Israel’s
ongoing breaches. The startling figures highlight the critical need for
international attention and involvement, as do eyewitness testimonies of
difficult deliveries and a shortage of essentials.

The struggle is made even more horrific by the intentional use of gendered
violence. In these terrible circumstances, our unrelenting advocacy
highlights the crucial importance of an immediate and lasting ceasefire, and
specific help for the neglected women and girls of Gaza.
Within the last few days, concern over hundreds of Palestinian women and
girls detained by Israel was voiced by the U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights. It stated that at least two women had been raped and that
others had been “subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault.”

The same report revealed that Palestinians in Israeli prisons endure daily
violence, and Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians since the start of
the war. Gendered violence towards women, often sexual based, is
deliberately used as a war tactic in an attempt to humiliate women and girls.

For reproductive health services to be woman-friendly, they have to

recognize and respond to the continuum of reproductive health care needs,
they have to see the woman behind the mother, they have to see women as
ends and not means, and they have to tailor their services according to
women's needs and perceptions.
The following are ten propositions to make reproductive health services
more "woman-friendly
 CNMUN
UNCSW

Suggestions from the EB

A health education programme in a woman-friendly service, while focussing
on the immediate needs of maternity and child care, should expand to cover
other aspects of reproductive health care of women, including family
planning, safe sex, and special needs of the mature woman related to the
menopause and early detection of gynecologic malignancies. Breastfeeding
should be promoted while recognizing the demand it puts on the woman to
breastfeed. Women should be supported to breastfeed but should not be
made to feel guilty if they cannot continue breastfeeding.

Services should attend to the health care of all women, married or

unmarried.

Services should be sensitive to and aware of the social conditions in the

community that adversely impact on women's health. These should be
addressed in the health education programme. Violence against women,
including female genital mutilation and rape, should be on the agenda.
Reproductive health care providers have to interact with society. No society
has ever been neutral about sexual and reproductive issues. Social values
impact on women's health. No other health profession has to deal with
emotionally charged health issues such as sexuality and abortion. We
cannot ignore social issues in women's reproductive health even if we want
to. A woman-friendly service does not play the ostrich and bury its head in
the sands of biology and biomedical technology, and turn its back to the
realities of social life.

Talk about MCH, family planning and other reproductive health services
should be placed under one managerial responsibility, to ensure that all
reproductive health needs are met, that all needs receive a relatively
adequate allocation of resources, that services are adequately linked and
coordinated, and where appropriate are integrated.
 WEBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9930478/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/to
pics/social-sciences/reproductive-
rights

Note that use of information from Al Jazeera, Chat GPT and

Wikipedia is strictly prohibited and won’t be tolerated in any
situation.

For any queries, feel free to contact the undersigned:

1) ANVESHA RISHI 2) SEJAL VASHISHTHA
VICE CHAIR- UNCSW RAPPORTEUR- UNCSW