Episcopal News Service March 5, 2007
Listening: Anglican girls ask Communion to raise every community's awareness of their concerns
UNCSW girl delegates issue statement to the Anglican Consultative Council
By K. Jeanne Person
[ENS] A group of Anglican girl delegates to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 2007 (UNCSW) issued a statement March 3 asking the Anglican Communion to "raise every community's awareness" about women's and girls' issues and to "continue to touch the lives of the unfortunate ones in the world."
The Anglican girls, aged 13 to 18, are part of an Anglican delegation to the annual gathering of UNCSW, from February 26 to March 9, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The gathering has brought member nations and thousands of women and girls from around the world to create policies for "ending all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child."
In a formal statement to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the Anglican girl delegates urged the Anglican Communion to work "at the village level" to improve the lives of girls. The statement asked specific action on the part of the Communion, namely, "(i) providing mentoring and networking to girls, (ii) advocating and promoting the 13/31 resolution, (iii) educating girls as well as boys on equal gender rights, and (iv) continuing to work with deprived women and children."
The ACC 13/31 resolution, passed at the 13th meeting of the ACC in 2005, calls upon the ACC's Standing Committee to identify ways to achieve an equal number of men and women - lay and ordained - at all levels of decision-making within the Anglican Communion. The resolution also includes a request for the establishment of gender desks in every province.
The Anglican girl delegates, who come from the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, India, and Kenya, are representing the global Anglican Communion in the effort at UNCSW to improve the lives of girls. They are joining many other girl delegates from around the world in addressing girls' issues.
In their statement, the Anglican girls note that, at UNCSW, they have learned about child trafficking and its connection to sexual exploitation, prostitution and pornography; gender inequality in education and job opportunity; the higher percentage of girls than boys ages 15 to 25 who live with HIV/AIDS; the violence girls suffer in regions of armed conflict; and the gender bias in media that undermines girls' and women's empowerment.
"Apart from making new friends from different countries, the participation has very much widened our perspectives," the girls write in their statement.
Full story and photo: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83100_ENG_HTM.htm
-- The Rev. K. Jeanne Person is associate rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City.
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