Generation Equality Forum in Paris – June 30 to July 2
Registration is open until June 27, midnight CEST.
This is the largest global feminist gathering since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
The once-in-a-century Covid-19 pandemic has widened gender and economic inequalities.
Women and girls remain underrepresented in various aspects of life (leadership, culture, sports, entertainment, etc.), and missing out on education, employment and health care, while they have become more vulnerable to abuse and violence during the lockdown and pandemic.
The crisis risks derailing hard-won gains in gender equality.
In this context, the Generation Equality Forum marked 25 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. It will be the largest global feminist gathering since then. It kicked off in Mexico City from March 29 to 31 this year. It will close in Paris on June 30 to July 2, 2021.
Governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector and young people will come together to drive gender equality forward.
The three-day virtual forum will launch a series of concrete, specific and ambitious commitments to accelerate progress towards gender equality in the next five years.
The Generation Equality Forum is organized under the aegis of UN Women and co-chaired by Mexico and France.
Beijing+25
In the 1995 conference, 189 countries agreed on a comprehensive plan to achieve global legal equality, known as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The plan is widely known as the most progressive blueprint for advancing women’s rights.
In 2019, the UN Women launched the Generation Equality Campaign and Generation Equality Forum to “tackle the unfinished business of empowering women through a new groundbreaking, multi-generational campaign, Generation Equality: Realizing women’s rights for an equal future.
Also called Beijing +25, the campaign and forum are being organized in collaboration with members of civil society, and are meant to serve as the planning events, along with the 64th Session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2020. CSW64 went virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.
On October 1, 2020, the High-Level Meeting on the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women was held, where China proposed another Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in 2025.
Action Coalitions
The Generation Equality Forum is structured around six Action Coalitions – innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships involving governments, international organizations, civil society and youth-led organizations, as well as private sector companies and philanthropic foundations.
Each Action Coalition will propose a targeted set of concrete, ambitious and immediate actions within the period of 2020-2025 to deliver tangible impact on gender equality and girls’ and women’s human rights.
Based on human rights principles, and through a data-driven process of consultation with international feminist groups, grassroots activist organizations, governments and other partners, the selected themes of the Generation Equality Action Coalitions are:
1. Gender-Based Violence
2. Economic justice and rights
3. Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)
4. Feminist action for climate justice
5. Technology and innovation for Gender Equality
6. Feminist movements and leadership
*DAC – Development Assistance Committee
Action Coalitions Leaders and Commitment Makers (possible Member States of the UN and private sector companies) are expected to make strong commitments to realize the transformative vision of the Action Coalitions. Commitments will be showcased at the Paris Forum.
Registration
Registered participants in the Generation Equality Forum may interact with other participants, ask a question, or follow a conference. There will be 90 events involving 500 panelists.
All these events are digital and broadcasted on the event platform which will be accessible from June 29.
Registration is open until June 27, midnight CEST. Register here.
