Permanent Mission of Cyprus to the United Nations Competitors

The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) works to promote social justice through human rights. In a world where poverty and inequality deprive entire communities of dignity, justice and sometimes life, we seek to uphold the universal human rights of every human being to education, health, food, water, housing, work, and other economic, social and cultural rights essential to human dignity.Extreme poverty and rising inequality should not simply be considered an inevitable tragedy. Rather, they are often the result of conscious policy choices by governments and other powerful actors (such as corporations or international financial institutions) that undermine people's access to the full range of human rights. CESR therefore seeks to hold governments and other actors accountable to their obligations to respect, protect and fulfill economic and social rights, as well as civil and political rights.

The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, a project of Tides Center, is a coalition of 18 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda at the United Nations and around the world.We believe that sustainable peace can only be achieved if women’s human rights are promoted and respected and that women have meaningful participation across all conflict prevention and resolution efforts, as well as in post-conflict rebuilding activities.Our members work in over 50 countries that have been affected by conflict and partner with over 200 NGOs and 75 networks of civil society actors and activists. We are the only civil society of its kind working on the women, peace and security agenda in New York. Through targeted advocacy, monitoring and gender analysis, we hold the Security Council, UN leadership and Member States accountable for their obligations under Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions which form the women, peace and security agenda.Since 2000 we have been working to bring the voices of women’s rights defenders and local peacebuilders into the New York peace and security discussions. We serve as a bridge between women’s human rights defenders and peacebuilders working in conflict-affected situations and senior policy-makers at UN Headquarters.On behalf of women, peace and security civil society we are formally and regularly invited to provide the UN Security Council with the civil society perspective on the women, peace and security agenda. We are publicly credited as increasing the Security Council’s engagement with civil society by advocating for entry to Council spaces.