A two day meeting of the Global Network of Women’s Shelters (GNWS) was held in New York on February 25-26, 2010 to clarify and affirm GNWS vision, mission, goals and guiding principles as well as to develop a timeline for implementing the next steps of the GNWS. The meeting was specially organized to coincide with two meetings of NGO Global Forum for Women, Beijing+15, and the 54th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

The Global Network of Women’s Shelters was founded in Ottawa 2009. With the funding support of the Canadian Government and other sponsors, 17 countries, representing all regions of the world began the process of organizing so that the voice of women and their children can be present and at the centre of all initiatives to end violence. Other countries have joined the Global Network of Women’s Shelters since the Ottawa meeting. Women’s Rights Center (WRC) is a founding member of the Global Network of Women’s Shelters (GNWS) and the delegate at the two day meeting in New York was the President of WRC, S. Vardanyan.

During two days meeting, the participants discussed and identified initial GNWS structure and membership process and shared preliminary results of first world data count. An active discussion developed among the participants in the course of the two days meeting. Brief discussion of the presentation to be introduced during the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) also took place on the second day of the GNWS meeting.
The presentation provided some insight as to the experience of women and children in various global regions and discussed the role of the safe spaces for women, in the form of shelters, refuges and transition houses.

At the end of the meeting, the participants also discussed the development of a timeline for implementing the next steps of the GNWS as well as plans for the 2nd World Conference of Women’s Network.