The session runs from February 6 to 15 and this year’s priority theme is “Creating full and productive employment and decent work for all as a way of overcoming inequalities to accelerate the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. CSocD61 is the first major commission session of the year that deals with social issues, the second and more significant which addresses Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights is the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67 ) March 6 – 17, and finally the Commission on Population Development (CPD56) April 10 - 14. Priests for Life will there for all three sessions defending innocent unborn life and promoting authentic healthcare for women. Priests for Life had statements accepted for both CSW67 and CPD56 and they will be released during both sessions. While we did not submit a statement for CSocD61 we believe:
Creating full and productive employment and decent work should always take into account the important needs of parents caring and providing for their children. Children in the womb are the most hidden victims of the pandemic as they develop and grow during the most vulnerable time in every human being’s life. What happens in the womb will affect them for the rest of their lives and will impact their families, communities and countries. Priests for Life believes that their lives, and every human life, need to be valued for their innate worth. No member of the human family should be stripped of human dignity and denied their most basic right — the right to life — through policies that allow individuals to be marginalized, treated as a problem, and their elimination considered an acceptable strategy for meeting 2023 Agenda goals. If the pledge this year is for the full implementation of the 2023 Agenda for Sustainable Development in all its forms and to recover from COVID-19 must encompass the complete life cycle, from conception to natural death, including those suffering disability or illness, the older persons, or children alive but not yet born. No individual, and no group, regardless of condition of dependency or stage of development, be treated as expendable and left behind.