"Male Honour" vs. Girls' and Women's Right to Life and Protection was the aptly titled panel discussion organised by APWLD as a side event at this year's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The Commission was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946 with the aim to prepare recommendations and reports to the Council on promoting women's rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. The Commission also makes recommendations to the Council on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women's rights.

CSW is dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.

This year, through the financial support from the APWLD Women's Participation in Political Processes (WPPP) Programme and under the guidance of the Violence against Women Programme, APWLD supported the participation of its long time member and former WPPP Task Force Convenor Tahira Khan at the CSW sessions and meetings. Tahira together with Lois Herman, Coordinator of Women's United Nations Report Network- WUNRN, collaborated in having this panel discussion. Panelists included Dr. Yakin Erturk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women; Indira Patel, Global Expert in Harmful Cultural, Traditional and Religious Practices and a representative of the Great Britain National Council of Women on NGO Committee; and Denise Scotto, Attorney at Law (NY) International Federation of Women Lawyers, Vice Chair of UN NGO Committee on the Status of Women.

Held on March 1st at the Church Centre, New York, the panel discussion attracted 30 participants- women from all over the world- who benefited by learning more about the growing problem of honour crimes against girls and young women. The purpose of the panel discussion was to highlight the nature and impact of honour related violence against girls and young women across the globe and to draw the UN attention to do more lobbying and campaigning with the State parties to address this issue. A further objective was to highlight honour crimes as an issue of violation of girls' and women's right to life and security.

Tahira, who has recently published a book on honour crimes, said that the response to this activity was excellent as the discussion gathered the maximum number of participants for the venue. Discussions following the panelists' presentations were lively and enlightening. After the panel discussion many participants contacted her and the panelists to get more information on the issue. The participants were keen to know about the available resources on the issue online.

From the NGO platform, Tahira further added, that this was the first time that a panel was held on the topic of honour crimes at the CSW. She recommends that APWLD continues to support advocacy and campaign efforts in drawing attention to this issue to activists at all levels and the State.

The fifty-first session of CSW took place from 26 February to 9 March 2007. In accordance with its multi-year programme of work for 2007-2009, the Commission considered "The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child" as its priority theme.