Media Advisory: Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action

Media Contacts:
Oisika Chakrabarti, Ph: +1 646 781-4522; Email: oisika.chakrabarti[@]unwomen.org
Sharon Grobeisen, Ph: +1 646 781-4753; Email: sharon.grobeisen[@]unwomen.org
Zina Alam, Ph: +1 646 781 4783; Email: zina.alam[@]unwomen.org

WHAT: UN Women and the People’s Republic of China will co-host a landmark event in conjunction with the UN Summit on the post-2015 development framework and as part of the 20th Anniversary commemoration of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. At the high-level “Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action” event on 27 September, over 70 world leaders are expected to make concrete commitments and firm pledges to overcome gender equality gaps. It is a historic and a unique opportunity: for the first time at the UN, commitments to women and girls will be made at the level of Heads of States and Government. 

WHEN: 27 September, 9 a.m. onwards, UN Headquarters, New York, Conference Room 4

WHO: His Excellency Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, and Ban Ki-moon, UN Nations Secretary-General, will give the opening remarks and co-chair parts of the event. The Presidents of Mexico, and Kenya—as the hosts of two previous World Conferences on Women—and the President of the 70th session of the General Assembly will contribute to co-chairing the remainder of the event. Along with top leaders, the meeting will be attended by representatives of multilateral organizations, civil society, private sector and youth groups.

BACKGROUND: In 1995, in China, 189 governments adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a comprehensive roadmap for gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Global Leaders’ meeting is the culmination of an 18-month long journey, spearheaded by UN Women, which included the review of the Beijing Platform for Action at its 20th anniversary. National reviews by 167 countries were undertaken that identified achievements and gaps, providing national blueprints for action to achieve gender equality as a major contribution to achieving the SDGs.  On 27 September world leaders will be asked to make concrete commitments on how to close the identified gaps and change the trajectory of gender equality and the empowerment of women as key drivers of the new development framework and the Sustainable Development Goals.

INFORMATION FOR MEDIA: The event is open to media but space is extremely limited and media attendance may have to be on a rotational basis. Please RSVP to http://goo.gl/forms/l40EHCjgZN by 2 p.m. on Thursday, 17 September.Confirmation e-mails with detailed media instructions will be sent from UN Women prior to event. UN media accreditation is mandatory for this event, along with a secondary pass, distributed by UN Women. Information on UN accreditation: https://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/UNGA70.shtml 

ADDITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• The meeting will be webcast live, with interpretation in all six UN official languages.
• Media can also watch the live webcast from UN’s Media Centre for journalists covering the UN General Assembly in North Lawn Building (NLB), in old CR-1. [Seating is first-come first-served basis].

SOCIAL MEDIA: Join the conversation around the #GlobalGoals and #Planet5050 on Twitter via @UN_Women. Messages and images for sharing on Twitter and Facebook will be available in English, Spanish and French at http://owl.li/S6uFd.