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International Women’s Day 2023: UNESCO celebrates the power of solidarity
In the face of these challenges, UNESCO urges the world to celebrate girls and women across the globe every day while the Organization continues its work to change mentalities in support of gender equality.
To spread this message, UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector developed a comprehensive agenda for International Women’s Day in 2023, focusing on the remaining obstacle on the path to gender equality, and highlighting how we can overcome them.
At the 67th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) in New York, UNESCO launched the new Women 4 Ethical AI Platform to hold countries accountable, as women’s empowerment in the AI world is core to the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. This instrument is the first global normative standard in the field of AI, and the Platform will provide a unique space for global gender quality leaders in frontier technologies to combine their strengths and influence to ensure diversity and equality are at the heart of the AI sector.
During the Symposium “Droits des villes, droits des champs” (Cities’ Rights, Fields’ Rights), Guila Clara Kessous, UNESCO Artist for Peace, spoke with Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO (ADG SHS). Together, they discussed the differentiated consequences of gender-based stereotypes and discrimination on urban and rural women. From UNESCO’s perspective, women’s leadership is indispensable to confronting the growing demands of urbanization, which often further gender inequalities and can exclude women from public and political spaces.
International Women’s Day also celebrated women and men who dedicated their life to empower women.
Elizabeth Moreno, former French Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities, and Gabriela Ramos launched the initiative “La puissance du lien” (The Power of Bonding). The high-level event launched a new mentorship network to combat gender stereotypes and obstacles in the workforce, and to encourage young women in their ambitions.
The human bond is the most precious thing we have. The human bond gives us hope in the fog. Thanks to a sentence, thanks to a look, thanks to an open door, women can transform the world. Alone we are vincible, together we are invincible.
With the power of sorority and solidarity, “La puissance du lien” aims to build strong relationships and intergenerational connections necessary for both women’s self-empowerment and the creation of inclusive and resilient societies.
Thanks to the engagement of role models, like Muriel Pénicaud (former French Minister for Labour), Fabienne Arata (Executive Director of LinkedIn France), Pierre Moscovici (former Vice-President of the European Parliament), Fatoumata Kebe (Member of the International Astronomical Union's Executive Council Working Group), Julien Fanon (Co-founder of Alter'Actions, Managing Director of Accenture Strategy), and Athina Marmorat (Founder and Director General of Rêv'Elles), the network will connect young women with leaders of the public and private sectors, from former Ministers to CEOs and entrepreneurs, who will support and guide their career development. The programme will host its first group meeting of mentors and mentees at UNESCO Headquarters in June 2023, and will extend to national and international levels by 2024.
You have the power to inspire others. We need this power because women’s rights are threatened globally. I want to dedicate this event to a 26-year-old Afghan woman, Nelofar Sorosh, whom I helped leave Afghanistan. She had to flee because of the situation in her country. She joined the NGO “Free to run”, which empowers women through sports in regions of conflict. As a marathonist myself, it is hard for me to conceptualize not being free to run.
ADG SHS Gabriela Ramos also joined the initiative “Droits des femmes : paroles d’engagées, regards sur le monde” (Women’s Rights: Words of Commitment, Perspectives on the World) of Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the French National Assembly. Focused on the voices of women's rights activists and defenders, including women survivors of violence, the event raised awareness on persisting violence against women and girls across the world — from the continued practices of female genital mutilation and child marriage, to denied human rights, including denied access to safe and quality healthcare, and even wrongful imprisonment and executions.
Meanwhile at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris, the Permanent Delegation of Haiti to UNESCO commemorated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Catherine Flon, a leading figure of the Haitian revolution. Having sewed the Haitian red and blue flag without the white of the colonists’ flag, her gesture became a powerful symbol of the fight against slavery in Haiti. This resonates strongly with the UNESCO’s Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project, which sheds light on the resistance of people of African descent to slavery and on their contributions to contemporary societies. At this occasion, the photo exhibition “Femmes haïtiennes : Mères fondatrices d’une nation” (Haitian Women: Founding Mothers of a Nation) opened at UNESCO Headquarters, highlighting the too-often-invisible role of women as freedom fighters.
ADG SHS Gabriela Ramos finished with a tribute to women fighting for the respect of their human rights and dignity during the musical event “Universelles” (Universal Women) at La Maison de la Radio et de la Musique in Paris organized by Isabelle Rome, French Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities, and Catherine Colonna, French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
International Women’s Day 2023, together with the CSW67, presented UNESCO with the opportunity to showcase flagship initiatives for gender equality, such as the Transforming MEN’talities Initiative, which aims at promoting positive masculinities by engaging men and boys as actors of change. The initiative was at the heart of discussions at CSW67 NGO Forum side event.
ADG SHS Gabriela Ramos also unveiled the forthcoming Gender-Based Resilience Framework, which will support Member States’ gender equality policies by highlighting with concrete data and indicators how empowering women and girls leads to greater societal resilience.
