Leave No One Behind: How to include Crisis-Affected Populations in the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence

From March 29-31 women’s rights activists, political decision makers as well as representatives from civil society, international organisations, and the private sector will virtually gather in Mexico for the first of two conferences of the “Generation Equality Forum”. The Forum is a global campaign led by UN Women to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, at which governments from around the world agreed on a comprehensive plan to achieve global gender equality, better known as the Beijing Platform for Action. The Beijing Platform is recognised as the most progressive international agreement on gender equality. The goal of the Generation Equality Forum is to reinvigorate the progress to achieve gender equality for all women around the world.

IRC believes that this process offers real opportunities to catalyse policy change in a global context where many societies are actually witnessing a roll-back of women’s rights. However, there is a real risk that women and girls living in emergencies and protracted crisis will be left out of these debates. Therefore, we are calling on the leaders of the Forum to deliver on the promise of the Sustainable Development goals to truly “leave no one behind”.

This position paper outlines why and how the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) could and should include crisis-affected populations in its work plan, that is to be presented at the Mexico Conference.