Global leaders united today to call for bold, unapologetic, and concrete progress towards gender equality at the official opening of the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City. Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, officially opened the Forum alongside President of France, Emmanuel Macron, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and convener of the Forum, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women. They were joined by youth activist Elvira Pablo and civil society leader Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, representing youth and civil society groups who are partners in designing and co-creating the Forum, as well as by Olga Sanchez Cordero, Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, and Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Mexico.

Member states and observers, civil society organisations, gender equality leaders, CEOs, and heads of academia will gather virtually on 21 July 2020 in a multi-stakeholder hearing to bolster priority actions at the global and national level that will address the challenges that threaten the bold vision of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, twenty-five years after its adoption.

As a preventive strategy to reduce the prevalence of violence against women and societal violence overall in a region with one of the highest rates of rape in the world*, UN Women’s Caribbean Office and its partners have developed a community intervention programme for boys aged 13-16.

Every minute, a young woman is newly infected with HIV. As a result of their lower economic, socio-cultural status in many countries, women and girls are disadvantaged when it comes to negotiating safe sex, accessing HIV prevention information and services.