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Back GREVIO President at the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)

On the occasion of the 69^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, starting on 10 March 2025, the global community gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to mark the 30^th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).

GREVIO was represented by President Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, who participated in several side events as speaker, addressing the topic of sexual violence and the growing digital dimension of all violence against women. Speaking in front of over 500 in-person participants and a large online audience during the Council of Europe's side event organised on 10 March together with the Luxembourgish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, she sketched the tools offered by the Istanbul Convention to counter the growing digital dimension of violence against women and how it can serve as a catalyst for change. Bringing the same message to the Non-Consensual Intimate Image Summit, co-organised by StopNCII.org and Microsoft on 12 March, she presented GREVIO’s General Recommendation No.1 on the digital dimension of violence against women to an expert audience.

As a member of the End Discrimination and Violence against Women Platform (EDVAW Platform), GREVIO President Kostopoulou also attended its 23^rd meeting on 13 March and contributed to a position paper, which highlights the contribution each of the seven independent mechanisms have made to the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action. Ahead of the 69^th session of the CSW, the Platform transmitted its joint position paper to the CSW Secretariat and served as the basis for discussions between members of the EDVAW Platform and high-level representatives of the United Nations held on its margins.

Bilateral meetings with the heads of delegation of Armenia, Croatia, Czechia and Finland to the CSW rounded off her discussions, together with meetings with members of the Nordic Council, strengthening support for and interest in GREVIO’s monitoring results.