A group of Fanshawe College students presented to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) Friday as part of the Commission’s annual event to examine progress and gaps in women’s rights.
While the main event is held in New York, non-profit organizations around the world are invited to participate in parallel virtual presentations. UN members can join through Zoom.
Professor Amanda Zavitz runs the Gender Equality Coalition of Ontario. It’s been five years since her organization started doing a parallel event for UNCSW.
This year, the event coincided with her Women’s Studies class, which led to the student’s involvement. The agenda is on “ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls.”
“My mother, female family members and friends, these are my closest people. I just don’t want to see injustice on them, so it’s always been a near and dear issue to me,” said one of the presenters, Leah Amarol.
The presentation by Amarol and her peers examined cases from London, such as the Hockey Canada trials, to argue that institutions sometimes fail to protect survivors when they prioritize reputation.
An uncomfortable topic arose during Amarol’s research: Canadian exceptionalism. The term describes how those who see Canada as progressive can sometimes downplay or ignore systemic discrimination.
“That can be very difficult to sit with and surprising,” said Amarol.
Students planned the project for around three weeks. What was learned during that time will continue to translate into their careers, said Isabelle Tate.
“Everyone has completely different issues. But together, everyone has them,” said Tate.
Others found it interesting to connect individual experiences to broader systems, particularly in the case study of a 2021 sexual assault investigation at Western University.
“It made me realize that there are some broader gender dynamics that are still present to this day,” said Julia Kuzin. “Taking [this course] has been really beneficial. Its really opened up a lot of ideas and thoughts that I never knew I even had.”
The UNSCW started on March 9 and will run for 10 days. Results help shape policy in member states on women’s rights.
