Event report: Unidas virtual event on Generation Equality
On 3. December 2020, Unidas facilitated a virtual event on UN Women’s campaign "Generation Equality". This event was moderated by Monika Remé from the National Council of German Women’s organizations and about 25 Unidas members from Latin America and Germany participated.
Bettina Metz, Executive Director of UN Women National Committee Germany, started the meeting by introducing "Generation Equality" as a global campaign of UN Women. The aim of Generation Equality is to bring feminists of all generations together to see the tasks of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action accomplished. Ximena Mariscal, Director of International Affairs of the National Institute for Women (INMUJERES) Mexico, built on Bettina Metz's message and further explained the process of the Generation Equality Forum which are to be launched in Mexico in March 2021. She put emphasis on the role of gender equality globally: “the struggle for equality of gender cannot be separated from the struggle towards global equality”. Consequently, women's movements must be the driving force in order to have a lasting positive impact on human rights globally.
Following these insights, three Unidas members reported on the current situation of gender equality in their own country and their activities. Firstly, Juliane Rosin, advocate at the National Council of German Women’s organizations, spoke about gender equality in Germany which have only been achieved by 66% and presented her organizations’ activity to promote and support young female politicians to create equal representation in state and federal level. Ana Fontes, social entrepreneur and head of Rede Mulher Empreendedora, a network and institute for female entrepreneurs in Brazil, discussed the great effect the current pandemic and the accompanying measures have had on the situation of women, particular Black, Indigenous women and women of colour (see photo below). She presented some of her organisation's activities, including the production of mouth and nose masks by 5,000 Brazilian female tailors to help contain the pandemic whilst supporting the women’s financial situation and consequently, their self-determination. Natalia Gherardi, Executive Director of Equipo latinoamericano de Justicia y Género (ELA) and lawyer in Argentina, recognised the situation of women in Argentina and the whole of Latin America to follow the same general trends as in Brazil and added that access to jurisdiction and justice have also suffered during the pandemic and the interventions.
The discussion at the end of event captured the interest of the attendees in participating in the Generation Equality Forum and their process, as well as the fact that mutual support is the key to empowering women.
