FEMINISM – Rebuilding a “more egalitarian economy”, fighting violence against women, supporting activists: Emmanuel Macron kicked off the Generation Equality Forum on Wednesday June 30 in Paris, eagerly awaited by NGOs, who are asking States concrete commitments, particularly financial ones in favor of parity. All the more urgent after more than a year of pandemic crisis.
The Head of State who welcomes until Friday, July 2, thousands of delegates of States and associations opened this UN conference held a speech that wanted to be engaged. The President of the Republic has claimed his feminism. “Feminism is humanism,” he also said. “It will only take a crisis for women’s rights to be called into question,” he also added, citing Simone de Beauvoir.
A more serious pandemic for women
On this subject, Emmanuel Macron recognized that the coronavirus is an “anti-social and anti-feminist virus”. Insisting on the dangers which threaten the freedoms of women and on the importance of obtaining at the end of this summit “concrete results”, the president explained that “the pandemic has been marked by an immense setback in terms of equality ”and that women were“ the first victims of the health crisis. “For a year and a half, 47 million more women have entered poverty,” he then added.
In April 2020, the UN published a summary note on the impact of the pandemic on women. It can be read that these months had accentuated “the pre-existing inequalities, exposing the vulnerabilities of the social, political and economic systems which, in turn, amplify the effects of the pandemic”. During this Covid crisis, the wallet, health and access to care of women and girls have thus decreased. While gender violence has increased exponentially under the influence of economic and social pressures.
This “Generation Equality Forum” is the most important UN convention on this subject since the Beijing Conference of 1995. It should lead to a “global acceleration plan” towards equality, around several themes such as violence. towards women, the right to dispose of one’s body, or even economic equality. Each theme will be tackled by “action coalitions” bringing together States, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to develop a “road map” whose implementation must be evaluated within five years.
See also on The HuffPost: Before the UN forum for gender equality, associations demand a “feminist recovery plan”
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