Language of Negotiation for Agreed Conclusions at the un 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women: A Case Study

The 57th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW 57) held at the United Nations, New York, in March 2013 was an international platform for state and regional representatives to present their outcome reports and resolutions as well as to engage in dialogue sessions on the theme of the year (the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls). The session's ultimate outcome was an official document of mutually agreed conclusions on the issue called ‘Agreed Conclusions’. This paper is based on a research that analyses a corpus of discourse samples taken from nine days of dialogues between state and regional representations to reach these conclusions. Selection of corpus for analysis is based on discourses that deal with three contentious issues, namely, reproductive rights, domestic violence and violence sanctioned by custom, tradition and religion. Analysis of written texts is based on discursive strategies in their various forms: thematic structures and underlying assumptions; key words as a mode of hegemony and focus of struggle; interpretative perspectives that underlie choice of words; and politeness/compromise strategies. Finally, this paper highlights the reaction given by stakeholders especially within civil society.