APWWmeet Series 2020 – Working for the Creation of UN Women

APWWmeet Series 2020 – Working for the Creation of UN Women
As UN Women reach their 10th anniversary let’s look at civil society’s push for the establishment of UN Women through the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign in the Asia Pacific.

Welcome to the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) APWWmeet Series 2020 this is a series of webinars and conversations that will take place at the Asia Pacific level over the next few months, building on the outcomes from the Beijng + 25 processes and in the lead to up to CSW and Generational Equality. We will contextualise discussions into the current pandemic crisis and investigate what strategies are effective to mobilise, impact decision makers and policy discussions.

July 2nd 2020 is the10th anniversary of UN Women. This webinar focuses on the important 5 year campaign for the creation of UN Women carried out by feminist and women’s NGOs over a period of five years . Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) involved global and regional NGO’s in an intense and passionate lobby for reform in the UN gender architecture from several relatively weak structures to one dynamic, high-level, well-funded UN entity focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The webinar features women who have unique perspectives on the GEAR campaign from both inside the UN structures and from Civil Society advocate leaders.

Speakers are:
Dr Patricia Licuanan.  Dr Licuanan, chaired the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) during the preparations for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), in Beijing, China in 1995. She chaired the main committee that negotiated the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Bandana Rana, is the vice-chair of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW). She served as as Executive President for Saathi a women’s NGO working on violence against women and children in Nepal.

Dr Noeleen Heyzer, has served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Prior to this, Noeleen headed the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), for 13 years, and

Lopa Bannerjee, is the Director of the Civil Society Division at UN Women. She is based in New York and leads UN Women’s work on supporting and strengthening women’s rights groups and civil society movements.

Moderator
Dr Sepali Kottegoda, is an academic and a women’s rights activist. She is the Director Programmes – Women’s Economic Rights and Media at the Women and Media Collective, Sri Lanka. She was the Chair of Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (2008-2012) and member of the Asia Pacific B+25 CSO Steering Committee.

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