Youth Inclusion in CSW

Policy Brief:

Policy briefs are the way in which we provide recommendations to member states through calls to action based on our Policy Documents. This year, we developed a brief in which we emphasize certain aspects of the climate crisis: deterioration of access to SRHR services, rising rates of violence against women and girls, the need for gendersensitive disaster risk management and reduction, the vulnerability of women’s health and meaningful youth engagement. You can read the IFMSA Policy Brief for CSW66 here.

At CSW66, the IFMSA delegation was given the opportunity to submit a pre-recorded oral statement. We decided to speak on Harmful Traditional Practices drawing heavily from IFMSA’s existing policy document on the subject. We had to work on a preliminary draft and revisit it multiple times such that it meets the given time limit and addresses our concerns and calls to action in a concise way.

The statement emphasized the positive correlation between climate change and harmful traditional practices (including female genital mutilation), violence against women, and child marriage. Furthermore, it urged the commission and member states to address these practices in policies at all levels, empower and rehabilitate survivors of these practices, as well as increase social awareness of these issues. As the youth organization representing medical students, we also addressed our role as youth in facilitating change at the community level.

After reviewing the oral statement, it was then pre-recorded and submitted to the commission. It was played on the last day of the plenary, along with the other Non-State Actors’ (NSA) recordings (only a few NSAs based in New York attended the CSW in person, the rest all attended online and hence were asked to send pre-recorded oral statements). Drafting and delivering the statement was a wholesome experience for the

Oral statements: