 Aloha and welcome to Cooper Union, what's happening with human rights around the world. Today we'll be looking at the UN Charter to Generation Equality Forum in the UN Human Rights Council, Women's Rights Around the World. We'll explore the importance of the UN Charter and subsequent meetings currently taking place to ensure gender equality and equity in world affairs. We're here to celebrate something that many people don't know, that in 26 June, the United Nations wrapped up two months of negotiations to create really the Charter for Humanity. This was the UN Charter, and on June 26, in San Francisco, the countries of the world, 50 at the time, signed the UN Charter. The San Francisco Conference of 45 was where the Charter was signed, but it was really dominated by men out of 850 delegates, only four women signed the Charter, and of 50 countries represented, women only had voting rights and 30 of them. So ensuring women's rights was a very hard battle. Many people have heard about Eleanor Roosevelt's role and subsequent leadership with the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but eight women attended, and only one country sent two delegates, and that was Great Britain. Ellen Wilkinson and Florence Gertrude-Horsboro were the ones who attended for Great Britain, but many other women, those eight women really organized. Female delegates from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and female participants from Mexico, Venezuela, and Australia promoted feminist views that demand an explicit reference to women's rights in the Charter. Interesting enough, it was Dr. Bertoluz who really promoted to ensure a feminist perspective and was even asked to not include women in the Charter because some people thought it would be a vulgar thing to do, but luckily Bertoluz didn't back down. And now we can see around the world so much has happened on women's rights. And I'd like to welcome Malika here to be able to share with us some of the exciting aspects, especially the upcoming forum. Malika, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me on such an important day. And the UN Charter, the underlying principles of it are human rights, peace, security, and sustainable development. And gender equality is inextricably linked to each of these principles as it is linked to conflict prevention, sustainable peace, and women's empowerment. And women's leadership and meaningful participation in decision-making on peace, security, humanitarian action, and political decision-making more broadly is essential to the achievement of the UN Charter and this vision that we have for the world. So 76 years after the adoption of the UN Charter, we've seen a lot of progress in terms of women's leadership. We've seen women negotiators and mediators of peace processes in Colombia and the Philippines. We've seen women's civil society groups responding on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We see women as leaders of countries and women innovating in technology and the private sector as well. So I think we've made a lot of progress so far and the UN Charter is a nice, on the anniversary of the UN Charter, it's a nice way to reflect on how far we've come in terms of achieving women's rights, but the critical work left for us ahead. Absolutely. And Global Network of Women Peace Builders, your organization, can you share maybe some of the priorities and how you actually ensure that the Charter exists for women around the world? Sure. So for us, we work specifically on peace and security and as a coalition of women's rights and youth groups, we work on the assumption that peace cannot be defined merely as the absence of war or armed conflict. So when you think about a country like the United States, is it peaceful? Well, that really depends. Are we completely free of violence and insecurity and inequality? No, I wouldn't say so. So that means that this issue of peace is relevant to everyone across the world. And we work towards human security, development, good governance and harmonious communities relying on nonviolent conflict resolution as the true essence of peace. And we are working towards building a gender equal and peaceful world, which ensures the meaningful participation and leadership of women, young women, adolescent girls and LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people in decision-making on peace, security, and humanitarian action. Absolutely essential work. And it's exciting to see, of course, how the women's rights movement is in all the meetings. The UN Human Rights Council just began its 47th session on Monday. And there, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet also highlighted a concerted action to recover from the worst global deterioration of rights she had ever seen. And so when we look at that, she highlighted the situation in China, Russia, Ethiopia and many places in her address yesterday. But we can also see that women's rights have actually gained momentum. Can you maybe highlight some of the gains women have made? Absolutely. So we're seeing women still be excluded largely from formal decision-making spaces because of structural patriarchal barriers and also insecurity and the context in which they operate. But despite that, we've seen women forge their own avenues and approaches to advocacy and activism. Campioning this agenda for gender equality and sustainable peace, we've seen women lead peaceful demonstrations and movements for progressive social transformation most recently in Myanmar or in Colombia, across the world, outside of the formal decision-making structures, women have said, we're not waiting for an invitation and we're going to be advocating on the front lines for human rights. And with this energy that women have always brought, starting from when the UN was established to now coming together as global movements, we're creating this space for intersectional and intergenerational dialogue, collaboration and cross-learning. And it's critical for us because we are roping in more stakeholders and more gender equality allies than ever before in our fight for the protection, preservation and promotion of women's rights. Really excellent points. And at the Human Rights Council, we see that there's a couple of specific elements that are gearing towards women's rights. The high-level panel that will take place this week focuses on female general mutilation, but then there is also the important issue of the working group, focusing on violence against women and the annual discussion on women's rights. That will be featured at the Human Rights Council during this session that will go until July 13. And when you talked about intersectionality, there's a whole lot of other issues I think that are brought up. One is this is when the mandate on sexual orientation and gender identity will be speaking. And so in the Pacific, we've been looking at decriminalizing certain laws that have existed from colonial times. There was a real tragic circumstance where there was a murder for LGBTQIA and Tonga. So we're working throughout Oceania. But the other important issue is the resolution on systemic racism and police brutality, resolution 43-1 focusing on the United States. And that will be brought up on July 12th. And I think your holistic perspective of peace is so important. It's not just living in from violence and having a violence free life. It's proactive in creating a process where everyone's able to ensure equality and equity. And maybe you could share some of those as we know there's Breonna Taylor as an example in the United States. There's the intersectionality, the inner generation. I think those are really the key focus that we can do if we forge a future of freedom for all. Absolutely. Not to get too technical, but there is something called the sustaining peace agenda. That's a part of a suite of resolutions at the UN. And it talks exactly about this, about how women define peace. And it's really food security, being able to walk home, racial equity and equality, economic security and independence. It's very, very base needs. So when we talk about responding to conflict, it's not just about the warring parties, we need everyone present. And a point I just wanna make that's related is that armed conflict continues to be the most significant obstacle to the fulfillment of women's rights and gender equality. And it's been established that armed conflict increases the levels of sexual and gender-based violence, marginalization and discrimination experienced by women, young women, girls, LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people. And higher levels of gender inequality and education, financial inclusion and employment, as well as high levels of intimate partner violence are significantly correlated with higher levels of violent conflict. So when we're talking about what a peaceful world looks like or what a gender equal world looks like, they're similar and they're related. And that goes back to what I was saying earlier that no country has yet achieved sustainable peace or gender equality. So points and really does highlight what Michelle Bachelet was speaking about, about the deterioration, but we do see women and really the high commissioner for human rights has almost always been an amazing woman, Mary Robinson. And when you look at the leadership role, but also as you pointed out around the world with COVID, it was women leaders and young leaders who actually were able to coordinate campaigns to bring their country together, to make sure that people thought of one another and we have Yacinda Arden in New Zealand, but there's many young women leaders who are providing that model of how to move forward. Yep, absolutely. During COVID, despite the disproportionate impact of the pandemic itself on women, they were able to quickly mobilize as frontline responders to the pandemic, especially in conflict and crisis affected communities. And critically, they were often bridging the gaps in government relief programs to meet the urgent needs of historically marginalized and vulnerable groups. So a lot of the women and young women, geese builders that we work with provided humanitarian relief and still continued some of their essential work on conflict prevention and resolution. And this included passing out PPE, so personal protective equipment, and then gender responsive humanitarian items like sanitary pads and pregnancy kits as well, pregnancy testing kits and things like that, along with food, just to make sure that the urgent needs of women and girls in crisis and conflict aren't being overlooked, despite the delays in the delivery of humanitarian aid and all of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But I do wanna say that while there are a lot of positives, there's still a lot of work to be done. And despite the fact that women really led this response to the pandemic, only 24.7% of the world's health ministers are women, even though they make up 70% of healthcare workers. And in all of the national COVID-19 task forces, you wouldn't be surprised to note that there aren't that many women included there either. So how can we then ensure a feminist and inclusive equitable recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic if the people involved in planning for that are not representative of all the different stakeholder groups? I really appreciate all your pertinent points and it reminds me also today as a Elizabeth Senator, Elizabeth Warren's birthday, so we could at least celebrate that. Also even the Global Gag Act and the Global Her Act, the legislation in the US to make sure that reproductive rights and family planning are part of a foreign policy feminist perspective all the time, not just depending on who's in office, but you also got me thinking about resolution 1325. Can you maybe share a little bit about that because I know that's very pertinent in how we move forward? Absolutely. So resolution 1325 is a Security Council resolution and it's international law. And it is the first of nine other resolutions that are part of a suite called the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. And the Women, Peace and Security Agenda is transformative because first, it recognizes the role that women play in building sustainable peace, responding to humanitarian crises, preventing violent extremism, countering terrorism and many, many other areas related to this. Before the adoption of resolution 1325 in 2000, women were really seen as passive victims of conflict. And on the media, in the news, you see a picture of a woman crying, suffering a loss of a partner, a child or something along those lines, always portrayed as a passive victim of armed conflict instead of someone who actively responded to the needs of their community. And that's something women have been doing historically if you go from Northern Ireland to Liberia to Afghanistan across the world, women have always taken up the responsibility of building peace. So resolution 1325 recognized that role and responsibility that women have taken upon themselves and have been doing for decades and decades. And importantly, the resolution says that we need to invest and increase women's meaningful participation, which I've been referring to a little bit here and there in decision-making on peace and security. And then we need to prevent armed conflict. That's another important pillar. Not only preventing armed conflict, but sexual violence as a weapon of warfare within armed conflict. Then it talks about the protection of women's rights in armed conflict. And the fourth pillar is on relief and recovery. So survivors of sexual violence should be able to have access to justice, to psychosocial counseling, to economic empowerment, whatever it is that they might need to experience relief and recovery from what they've experienced. And apart from that, it also looks at the gendered impacts of the conflict. So it's a really, really important international law. And 98 countries in the world actually have translated this international law into national legislation in what we call national action plans. So it's not just words on paper. It's actually being implemented. There are budgets. People are monitoring implementation. Governments are being held accountable. And it's a really, really important advocacy tool for women as well to push this agenda forward of protecting women's rights in conflict and not allowing governments or armed groups to use the excuse of, we would work on women's rights, but we're in a war right now and we have to prioritize peace. No, peace and gender equality are inextricably linked. And that's what this suite of resolutions emphasizes. It's been amazing to look at the UN Charter and then also currently beyond historically what's happening in the Human Rights Council as well as the anniversary of the resolution 1325. But a lot is happening in the future. And we know the Generation Equality Forum will culminate in Paris next week, policymakers, advocates, business and civil society leaders to accelerate transformative action for women and girls around the world. Can you share a bit what will happen, when it'll happen and how people could be involved? Absolutely. So the Generation Equality Forum is marking the now 26th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. And for those of you who haven't heard of it, it's considered like the International Bill of Rights for women. Very, very important. And it's the most comprehensive global agenda for women's rights and empowerment. And it's actually one of the founding documents of resolution 1325 that I was talking about earlier. So the Generation Equality Forum is a historic opportunity to galvanize global action on women's rights and gender equality. And it's going to convene civil society governments, the United Nations, private sector organizations and academia together to reflect on our achievements so far in terms of gender equality and women's rights and the massive amount of work left to do. And it's going to provide this critical momentum to build intersectional solidarity, accelerate implementation, strengthen accountability mechanisms and mobilize funding for gender equality and sustainable peace. The Generation Equality Forum is being organized by UN Women, France and Mexico in partnership with civil society. And the first part of the Generation Equality Forum took place in March. It was called the Mexico Forum. Now next week between June 30th and July 2nd, we have the Paris Forum, which will serve as the final phase of the Generation Equality Forum. So women's rights activists, youth peace builders, member states, private sector, the UN academics are going to come together in a virtual space to strengthen intergenerational and transformative leadership. And we're going to take the time to analyze opportunities and challenges in achieving feminist recovery and resilience in a post-pandemic world and we'll also be building alliances. So if you are able to access a computer and join online, I urge you to participate. And registration is open until June 27th. So you still have a couple of days to fill out this quick online form. And no matter what time zone you're in, you will still be able to join virtual discussions and meet allies and people who are just as passionate about gender equality as you. And most importantly, get your perspective integrated really into the outcomes of the Generation Equality Forum. And there are many. It's a great idea. So on the 76th anniversary of the UN Charter, normally we'd be doing things in San Francisco around pride and exciting things, but we can actually register for the Gender Equality Forum and the Generation Equality Forum. So that would be an exciting thing. Is there a panel or a certain speaker you're very excited to hear that you know will be speaking during that time? So I know we have a lot of leaders of countries and artists and women's rights activists. We haven't seen the agenda yet, so I can't tell you who's going to be there. But I'm very excited for the conversations amongst young people on Women, Peace and Security. The Mexico Forum was a space for us to mobilize, put our heads together and be as creative and innovative as we want. Talking to people from Haiti to see more or less and really feeling this energy and solidarity amongst feminists. So that's really what this Generation Equality Forum brings and having young Americans is a really big part of that too. Often young Americans are left out of conversations on peace and security because we don't really think of ourselves as in conflict but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be part of these really, really important conversations and be learning from people in Afghanistan or Bangladesh on how they advocate with their governments and what we can learn from them to make our country a safer and more equal place for everyone. That's a great point. And we know the United States will actually be running for the Human Rights Council to get, we are back in. It's great also to see us back focusing on the climate negotiations and the Paris Agreement. So I agree. I mean, U.S. citizens can learn so much from our counterparts. The citizens of the world focusing on the exact same issues and bringing that forward. Could you maybe share a little bit where some of the results of the Mexico meeting that we're bringing forward to this Generation Equality Forum in Paris? Absolutely. So there was a framework developed like a feminist roadmap and the Mexico Forum has introduced these action coalitions and the action coalitions are partnerships between the different stakeholders that I mentioned to drive action forward on gender-based violence, economic justice and rights, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, feminist action for justice, technology and innovation for gender equality and feminist movements and leadership. So there are six action coalitions and the Mexico Forum introduced those and now they're going to be five-year mechanisms or platforms for action. And it's as clear as that. Everything is going to be resource and there's gonna be a lot of coordination and collaboration. And I personally with the Global Network of Women Peace Builders have been working on the Generation Equality Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action. And this was introduced at the Mexico Forum and it's going to be officially launched at the Paris Forum. And this is really important because it's gonna be one of the very few coordination platforms that isn't trying to create new commitments or anything like that. We're just saying we have all this international law but conflict is still happening and sexual violence rates are still increasing. So what do we do to actually make sure what already exists is being implemented. And this is being launched at the Paris Forum. It's gonna be a five-year partnership and we're gonna be putting our heads together really to make sure that everything we discussed in virtually in Paris and Mexico has a place that is used and turns into action and commitments rather than just staying out there and open space and not being implemented. Excellent, and that also brings up the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, CEDAW. That is probably one of the most important instruments on top of Beijing and the other examples you shared. Maybe we could talk a little bit about CEDAW and the importance of that 23-member committee and what they're able to do to actually realize the issues you're talking about in Paris. Absolutely, so the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women or CEDAW is again, one of those hugely important international frameworks, normative frameworks on women's rights. And perhaps the most useful part of CEDAW is that state parties to the convention have to report on their progress and implementation of the convention and not just governments get to report. Women's Civil Society groups also get to report. And we at GNWP have supported women's civil society groups in Ukraine, in Nepal, and in other countries to report on specific provisions. It's called General Recommendation 30 on Women and Armed Conflict. We've helped them report on those particular provisions of CEDAW so that if the government is manipulating information or missing information or presenting a picture that is a lot rosier than it actually is, women's civil society reports are treated just as valuable, yeah, just as they're seen as just as valuable to the CEDAW committee. And it's really a great way to hold governments accountable for women's rights and to monitor what they've done so far. And that's a great point because I believe I'm a 24th of this month and just two days, they'll be doing a general comment consultation focusing on indigenous women and girls. And so that's a really good point to explain that a bit because that's a way like updating and amending that important international bill of rights for women to include more women's voices and the issues that have emerged. Yep, absolutely. It's great that there's an amendment process and that general recommendations are being drafted. There was also one that was drafted on trafficking recently. I think last year, which CEDAW was missing, so it's good that we're able to keep adding to ensure that all the diverse perspectives and voices are protected and recognized. Alika, thank you so much for joining and sharing about the Generation Equality Forum and how people can participate and with that coming forward, we really thank you for showing and speaking and standing and speaking truth to power here at Cooper Union. And look forward to hearing the success from next week's meeting and continue our conversation. Thank you.