Generation Equality Forum: The Time to Act is Now

 This week we have a historic opportunity, as the world comes together to accelerate the fulfillment of the promises made to women and girls over two decades ago in Beijing.

The Generation Equality Forum is the catalyst for a global dialogue that calls for urgent action and accountability to achieve gender equality. Its protagonists are representatives of civil society, governments, the private sector, entrepreneurs, trade unions, artists, academia and influential personalities.

Following the same logic that made possible the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action twenty-five years ago: the power of activism, feminist solidarity and youth leadership to achieve transformative change, the Generation Equality Forum is promoting a series of meetings to address the structural and systemic obstacles that prevent the achievement of true gender equality and guarantee the exercise of the human rights of women and girls at the global level.

In this special feature, we present the new generation of activists who are contributing to the dialogue in a proactive way, not only demanding but also being protagonists of transformative change.

"My appeal to today's leaders is to wake up, because we are already awake! We are clear about our capabilities, our goals and we know that the solutions are here. Since we are part of the problem, we are also part of the solution," says young Chilean activist Julieta Amara Martínez.

"To facilitate equality and inclusion, we need to influence those spaces for participation and if they don't exist, we need to create them," says Panamanian activist Stephanie Murillo.  

"To achieve peace and inclusion you need education," says Moana Tepano Contesse, an activist from Easter Island.  



"What I ask of today's leaders is to recognize that trans people, non-binary people, intersex people exist! We are here and we are dying, waiting for rights!" states Chilean activist Ariel Herrera.  



"The call I make to the leaders is that they should not be indifferent to the situations we live in, that they should generate protection policies for us, women, as well as for the LGBTI community," said Angy Pasache, activist from Peru.  



Zanda Desir, an activist from St. Lucia, assures that in order to achieve equality and inclusion, it is necessary to provide opportunities for young people from all over the world.  



Argentine activist, Juan Pablo Poli, urgently calls for an end to gender violence, but especially to femicides. "I believe that leaders have to look for mechanisms that allow them to put an end to the cultural mandates in which these violent practices are based."  

Learn more: Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Youth Statement [Spanish]