The UNCSW provides a unique opportunity for coalition-building with other trade unions and progressive organizations, and for influencing global policies on gender equality. In 2017, the main theme of the UNCSW will be “Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work”. This is an important opportunity for the trade union movement to make our demands visible, to influence this global body and to strengthen and consolidate our alliances with major civil society organizations (CSO’s). We need to coordinate actions at the national, regional and global levels, and ensure our key priorities are included in the outcome document of UNCSW61 (commonly referred to as the ‘Agreed Conclusions’).

Further information will soon be available on: http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw61-2017.

PSI is an accredited organisation for this Commission. We encourage the participation of sisters (and brothers) from our affiliated unions. Although a large part of our activities will take place during the first week, we are seeking to ensure representation throughout the entire UNCSW61, with delegates attending the entire event and others attending only part of it.

Please note that practically all the official side meetings and parallel meetings during the UNCSW are in English without interpretation provided, while only the official sessions provide interpretation in all UN languages but allow for very limited interaction. We therefore encourage delegates with at least basic knowledge of English to register.

The United Nations limits the number of delegates to 20 people per organisation. PSI will register representatives in order to ensure adequate regional representation.

The registration process for UNCSW61 will follow the same procedure as last year to ensure a better preparation and coordination with other union and partner organizations. PSI will prepare its list of participants by 26^th November 2016. We expect delegates to take an active part in the preparative events at national and international level.

We therefore request you to send us the name(s) and contact details of your representatives by 21 November 2016 at the latest. Please fill in the participation form and send it back by email to Clarisse.heronneaud@world-psi.org.

There is no registration fee. However, all costs pertaining to participation in the UNCSW61 are to be covered by your organisation.

For those of you who have the possibility, another option for participation is to approach your government, requesting that a trade union representative be part of the government delegation. Please inform us if a trade union representative will be part of your government delegation and provide us with the person contact details using the email address mentioned in the above paragraph.

Trade union delegates will receive further updates on the UNCSW61 preparations in due course.

More information:

• Follow the trade union delegation's activities on our Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

• See the Joint GUF Statement to UNCSW61: A Woman’s Place is in Her Union! Unions are Central to Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work

• See the UNCSW61 website for more information on the session.

• Women work mobility development & economic justice - event 16 March 2017

• See PSI's Gender Equality pages