Kinshasa, March, 2020: The theme for International Women’s Day 2020 to be commemorated on 8th March is, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. The theme is aligned with UN Women’s new multigenerational campaign, Generation Equality, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Adopted in 1995 at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, the agenda is considered the most progressive roadmap for women’s and girls’ empowerment around the world.
The year 2020 is a pivotal year for advancing gender equality worldwide, as the global community takes stock of progress made for women’s rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. It will also mark several other galvanizing moments in the gender equality movement: a five-year milestone towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security; and the 10th anniversary of UN Women’s establishment.
The emerging global consensus is that despite some progress, real change has been agonizingly slow for the majority of women and girls in the world. Today, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and in culture. Women and girls continue to be undervalued; they work more and earn less and have fewer choices; and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces. Furthermore, there is a significant threat of rollback of hard-won feminist gains.
The year 2020 represents an unmissable opportunity to mobilize global action to achieve gender equality and human rights of all women and girls.
This year’s campaign is “Each for Equal” which runs all year long #EachforEqual. An equal world is an enabled world. Equality is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue. Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. A gender equal world can be healthier, wealthier and more harmonious.
It is with the above realisation that, in accordance with its 2020 action plan, the Forum of Parliaments of the member-states of the International Conference on Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR) will be convening meetings of its Committees on “Gender, Children and Vulnerable Persons” and “Humanitarian and Social Issues” that will focus on the progress made in line with the marking of major anniversaries on the rights of women and girls, while also looking at how far Member States have gone the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Parity.
We urge the Parliaments of Member States of the ICGLR that enact laws and policies to continue to encourage the implementation of gender quotas and for Member States of the ICGLR to fully ratify the ICGLR Protocol on the Prevention and Suppression of sexual gender-based violence against women and children.
Happy Women’s Day to all.
About the FP-ICGLR
The Forum of Parliaments of the-ICGLR (FP-ICGLR) is an inter-parliamentary organization bringing together the National Parliaments of the 12 Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) namely: the Republic of Angola, the Republic of Burundi, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of South Sudan, the Republic of the Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Zambia.
The FP-CIRGL was established on 4 December 2008 in Kigali, Republic of Rwanda, through the signing of the Inter-Parliamentary Agreement by the Speakers of the National Parliaments of the MEMBER States of the IGLS. At the end of the 2010 Plenary Assembly in Khartoum, Republic of Sudan, it was decided that the General Secretariat of the FP-CIRGL should be established in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has the rank of diplomatic mission.
Le FP-CIRGL intervient dans les domaines suivants :
- Democracy and Good Governance;
- Peace and Security;
- Humanitarian and Social Issues;
- Economic Development, Natural Resources and Regional Integration;
- Issues of Gender, Children and Vulnerable Persons.
Hence Women issues (as part of Gender) are of great importance to us.
Final Communiqué of the 27th Ordinary Session of the Executive Committee of the FP-ICGLR
Final communiqué of the 1st Statutory Meeting of Finance and Resource Mobilisation of the FP-ICGLR
Press statement: 14th Ordinary Session of the Plenary Assembly of the Forum of Parliaments of the ICGLR