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Values & Policies

The principles that guide how NGO CSW/NY gathers, works, and advocates—so our spaces remain inclusive, respectful, safe, and mission-driven.

At a glance

Three commitments shape our community

Choose a section to read the full policy. Each section can be opened and closed using a keyboard, screen reader, or touch.

01

Safety Guidelines & Principles

Expectations for respectful participation, wellbeing, and reporting concerns.

Read guidelines 02

Working Agreements

Shared practices that support effective, inclusive, and collaborative work.

Read agreements 03

Anti-Racism Commitment

Our commitment to reflection, inclusion, transformation, and the elimination of racism.

Read commitment

Our commitments

Values in practice

These guidelines make our expectations clear and give our community a shared foundation for participation.

Safety Guidelines & Principles Respectful participation, wellbeing, and reporting concerns

NGO CSW/NY is committed to ensuring that everyone has a fulfilling experience during the NGO CSW Forum. Our goal is to make this space as inclusive and productive as possible through a shared leadership model. These principles apply to all NGO CSW Forum spaces and NGO CSW/NY events.

Shared principles

  • Use welcoming and inclusive language. Commit to open dialogue and transparency.
  • Remain driven by our collective mission of advancing gender equality, feminism, and women’s rights.
  • Build a culture of excellence, compassion, integrity, and honesty.
  • Respect one another. Listen, avoid assumptions, enable different opinions, and critique ideas, not people.
  • Allow everyone to participate. Do not dominate the conversation, and honor time limits.
  • Show empathy toward other participants.
  • Respect the diversity of languages, opinions, and expertise while acknowledging institutionalized forms of oppression.
  • Honor confidentiality and use “I” statements. Speak from your own experience instead of generalizing.
  • Be positive and seek unity. Build up people’s ideas and refrain from personal attacks.
  • Amplify marginalized voices and give people authority when recounting their own experiences. Experiences of oppression are not up for debate.
  • Help create an anti-racist space rooted in intersectional feminism. Consider your positionality and actively avoid replicating white patriarchal structures or subjugating the voices of Black women and women of color.
  • NGO CSW/NY does not tolerate harassment, including:
    • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, physical appearance, political affiliation, age, race, national and/or ethnic origin, immigration status, language, religion, or indigeneity
    • Deliberate intimidation
    • Sustained disruption of discussion
    • Continued one-to-one communication after a request to stop

Take care of yourself

The NGO CSW Forum can be fast-paced and dynamic, and it is okay to feel overwhelmed. Step away, take a break, or try a breathing exercise: inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four, and repeat ten times.

Please feel free to visit our Healing and Community space during the NGO CSW Forum.

Report harassment or a violation

If you experience harassment or encounter a hostile environment in an NGO CSW/NY space, report it immediately. We will address the situation. NGO CSW/NY may remove anyone who does not follow these guidelines; refunds are not given to people who are removed.

Email safety@ngocsw.org

Download the Safety Guidelines PDF

Working Agreements How we collaborate with purpose, care, and accountability

NGO CSW/NY is committed to an effective and inclusive work environment. The Executive Committee developed these agreements to shape the culture of our organization.

  • Stay mission-driven.
  • Build a culture of excellence, compassion, integrity, and honesty.
  • Be present and fully engaged.
  • Respect one another: listen, avoid assumptions, enable different opinions, make room for everyone, stay on schedule, and honor time limits.
  • Commit to open dialogue and transparency.
  • Honor confidentiality and use “I” statements. Speak from your own experience instead of generalizing.
  • Be kind. Avoid gossip and critique ideas, not people.
  • Encourage everyone to shine. Inspire each other.
  • Seek unity, not separation. Build up people’s ideas and refrain from personal attacks.
  • Be inclusive. Acknowledge that sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, global North domination, and other institutionalized forms of oppression exist.
  • Be positive.
  • Appreciate each other and the work.
  • Have fun.
Anti-Racism Commitment Reflection, inclusion, transformation, and the elimination of racism

NGO CSW/NY believes that an effective, broad-based feminist and women’s movement for social transformation must be committed to the elimination of racism.

Eliminating racism, colorism, colonial and genocidal practices from our global society, communities, and institutions remains an ongoing process requiring persistence, diligence, and a concerted commitment to the defence of human rights, independent of race, religion, indigeneity, age, gender, or membership in any other minority group.

Our work must move beyond tolerance toward enthusiastically embracing and affirming our human and cultural differences.

Great strides must still be made in our ability to recognize and redress the legacy of colonization, slavery, systematic oppressions, and all subsequent forms of violence.

The feminist and women’s movements have not yet arrived—the virus of racism continues to permeate all aspects of our movements, from generation to generation. NGO CSW/NY is committed to regular self-reflection, striving toward inclusion and transformation.

Participate with us

Help us build the community these values describe.

Learn more about NGO CSW/NY or join our global community of advocates for gender equality and women’s rights.

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