in Geneva 1211
The campaign under the slogan “I say no to sexism. What do you say?” originates from former UN Geneva Director-General Michael Møller, who in 2017 made it his commitment to launch a campaign to counter casual sexism at UN Geneva. This campaign consisted of awareness-raising, outreach activities and actions to encourage and empower staff to tackle casual sexism in their working environment.
The term casual sexism denotes behaviour and attitudes that foster stereotypes based on sex and perpetuate unequal treatment, often women. Casual sexism feeds into a culture and a mindset in which de facto discrimination becomes part of everyday life and opens the door to harassment and abuse.
Today, this campaign is being relaunched to support implementation of the IGC Gender-based Violence Pledge, a commitment for “Champions to uphold IGC’s core values of creating and maintaining safe workplaces and treating every person with respect and fairness; and to accelerate collective action towards the elimination of all forms of genderbased violence within Champions’ spheres of influence”. The campaign is also a part of the IGC Secretariat’s commitment to the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition theme on gender-based violence.
The campaign’s objectives are to:
1) Encourage IGC Champions to uphold the IGC Gender-based Violence Pledge by positioning the institution as a sexism-free zone.
2) To encourage and empower staff and managers to call out and counter casual sexism.
3) Raise awareness of the harm done by casual sexism and gender-based violence from an intersectional approach.
4) Foster a change in the mindsets, change the culture and generate safe environments for all free of stigma, sexism, and violence.
5) Amplify and mobilise support for transformative change to achieve the IGC Commitment towards the Action Coalition on Gender-based Violence.
Please join us for the re-launch of the campaign on 30 September 2022 14:00-15:00 CET, Room 25 XXV at Palais des Nations.
Speakers:
• Tatiana Valovaya – Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva
• Martin Chungong – Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Chair of the IGC Global Board
• Federico Villegas – President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, year 2022
• Michèle Taylor – Ambassador and US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council
• Esther Dingemans – Executive Director of the Global Survivors Fund and Founding Director of Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation
• Maria Teresa T. Almojuela – Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Philippines
Please RSVP by 10:00 CET on Friday 30 September via the following link.