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["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 03/03/2009 10:14:32

STRONG ECUMENICAL WOMEN'S PRESENCE AT UN EVENT

Roughly one in ten women attending the 53rd session of the UN
Commission on the Status of Women is part of Ecumenical Women, an
international coalition of churches and ecumenical organizations.
More than two thousand women delegates come to New York from
around the world to participate in the annual meeting which is
taking place 2-13 March at the United Nations headquarters. 

Established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC), the Commission on the Status of Women is the principal
global policy-making body with regard to the promotion of gender
equality and the advancement of women. Its 2009 session will
focus on the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and
men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Dr Fulata Moyo, World Council of Churches (WCC) programme
executive for Women in Church and Society, is convinced that
churches and faith based organizations have a particular
responsibility to promote equal rights for women, because "most
of the patriarchal hegemony is rooted in a biased interpretation
of certain religious teachings."

The WCC has been sending delegates to the Commission's sessions
for more than 60 years and is a member of the Ecumenical Women
alliance, an international coalition of church denominations and
ecumenical organizations that are accredited with ECOSOC.

>Ecumenical Women's Guide to Advocacy

In preparation for the 2009 session, the coalition has released
the advocacy guide Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church. 

It provides gender-equality action strategies for congregations,
theological reflections on gender equality written by women and
men from around the world, as well as an overview on how to
advocate for women’s rights at the UN. 

More information on the 53rd session of the Commission on the
Status of Women:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/53sess.htm

>Ecumenical Women at the United Nations:
>http://ecumenicalwomen.org

WCC programme for Women in Church and Society:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3098

Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church: Ecumenical Women's Guide
to Advocacy (pdf, 1.3 MB):
http://oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/documents/p1/women/advocacyguide.pdf

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.