Youth delegates from Cambodia, Timor-Leste and Fiji attend Commission on the Status of Women 2014

Sokha Eng and Sinet Seap are the first youth delegates supported by UN Women Cambodia to attend the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held between 10 and 21 March 2014 in New York. 

Together with other UN Women supported delegates from Timor-Leste and Fiji they are representing young South East Asian women at the UN´s foremost annual international-level dialogue and policy development event devoted exclusively to gender equality. “It is an important opportunity to voice the issue of young Cambodian women,“ says Sokha Eng.

Sokha Eng, 25, currently working for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, participating in the CSW 2014 in New York.
 Photo credit: Ms Sinet Seap

Besides being an opportunity to represent an increasingly important and dynamic group of young Cambodian women, equally important for the youth delegation is the participation at the Commission as an unprecendented learning opportunity. 

The attendance at the CSW will accelerate the capacity of Sokha and her fellow delegates to participate in democratic processes on a local, national and global level. Most importantly, while maintaining a strong relationship with UN Women and applying their newly-acquired skills and knowledge, the delegates will play a broader and longer role in UN Women´s effort to promote gender equality and women´s empowerment.

The CSW gathers together representatives of UN Member States, intergovernmental agencies and civil society organisations to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide.

The attendance of Sokha and the other young women this year is particularly significant in light of the CSW´s annual  theme “challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls”.  As such Sokha´s active involvement in this global event will be an opportunity for her to exercise her voice on issues directly affecting women and girls in Cambodia. 

The meaningful participation of young women in democratic processes has been recognised as critical to the achievement of gender equality. As such, the role of Sokha and the youth delegation will extend beyond attendance at the CSW as the young women are expected to play an important role in further promoting gender equality in their home countries. “Through attending the CSW I can not only learn about the issues of women in different continents around the world but also be informed about the perspectives of the Post 2015 agenda to improve the situation of women and girls,“ says Sokha.