NEWS

ICU Student Attends the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations as Youth Representative of the Government of Japan

Update: March 26, 2024

Riyuka Suzuki, ICU's liberal arts student in her senior year majoring in gender and sexuality studies and minoring in politics, attended the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) as the youth representative of the Government of Japan. CSW68 was held at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City from Monday, March 11, to Friday, March 22, 2024.

CSW68 took place under the priority theme "Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective." The session featured a debate on general issues, ministerial-level round-table discussion, and interactive dialogue, among other events.
Ms. Suzuki delivered a speech at the official meeting of CSW68, successfully fulfilling her role as the Youth Representative of the Government of Japan.

Here is the link to the video on the UN Web TV showing Ms. Suzuki making her speech (1:58:30):
https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k1jahbwjnk

Comment by the student:
I study politics, focusing on representation, intersectionality, affirmative action, and personnel systems. As a university student, I have pursued advocacy work aimed at addressing issues related to menstrual products at the grassroots level, as well as a petition campaign for gender quotas. In addition, I am currently involved in the operational management of seminars in the FIFTYS PROJECT. This project aims to increase the number of women (including transgender women) in their 20s and 30s and non-binary or X-gender people who run for local assemblies. We also connect them with their fellow candidates and collectively support them.

For my speech as the youth representative of the Government of Japan, I prepared a three-minute statement that summarized the discontent I felt with our social structure while engaging in my studies and activism during my university years. Then, at CSW68, I gave the speech from my heart to policy decision makers and activists who represented their countries or regions around the world. I emphasized that, based on this year's CSW priority theme, decision-making processes must include marginalized people, and that it is essential to plan a budget to create an environment that will enable social minorities to serve leadership roles.