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 COVID-19 layers crisis upon crisis in communities affected by climate change and conflict, gender-responsive action is urgently needed

In a statement for the first International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on 19 June, UN Women recounts the historic firsts this year in combatting sexual violence in conflict.