UNECE Regional Review Meeting on Beijing+30
21 Oct 2024, Geneva
Below text is our collective intervention delivered during the session "Item 4: Key trends on gender equality across the ECE Region". It was delivered during the plenary, in a room full of Member States, UN Agencies, Civil Society and Youth. Learn more about the regional review here.
Distinguished delegates,
My name is Bruna Martinez. I am a Brazilian young feminist based in the Netherlands and today I speak on behalf of Young Feminist Europe, and as a co-convenor of the Young Feminist Caucus.
It is imperative to acknowledge that women and girls in all their diversity face multiple forms of oppression that are a threat to gender equality.
Despite the progress made over the past 30 years, we are severely off track. Rights are being rolled back, fundamental freedoms are being curtailed, and autonomy is being eroded because agreed-upon standards, commitments, and international law, including human rights law, are not being implemented. Although many governments have adopted feminist foreign policies, they have failed to ensure policy coherence both domestically and internationally, as well as to secure adequate investments and sustainable partnerships with feminist civil society. Real change will only happen when we truly walk our talk.
As young feminists, we continue to honor the legacy of those who fought before us, yet we recognize our job is not done. Our generation is bold, unafraid, and committed to reshaping systems and societies with decolonial, anti-imperialist, and intersectional feminist values. We center the struggles of historically excluded communities— Roma people, Dalits, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQIA+ persons, sex workers, persons with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, amongst others. Amidst rising authoritarianism, patriarchy, and corporate control, we rise to demand justice and reparations.
We join progressive feminists across Europe and Central Asia who are actively holding the line and opposing anti-gender and anti-democratic actors. We recognize that the anti-gender agenda is intrinsically linked with climate denial, islamophobia, misogyny, racism, xenophobia and discrimination. Our fight for rights, safety, and equity is deeply linked to all forms of oppression. We stand in solidarity with those resisting occupation and struggling for self-determination across the world, including in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine.
Grounded in the values of the Young Feminist Manifesto and the Generation Equality Feminist Movements and Leadership Action Coalition priorities, we assert that women, girls, and gender-diverse people must be included in policy and decision-making spaces as equal partners as well in leadership. We must radically restructure systems of exclusion, invest in gender-transformative policies and firmly protect civic space.
Esteemed excellencies, the time for bold, collective action is now. We call on member states to prioritize rights-led agendas over neocolonial, capitalist models and to resource grassroots feminist movements globally. Development justice, debt justice, demilitarization, and dismantling Global North-South power imbalances are critical. To conclude, we strongly reject corporate capture of feminist spaces and demand binding accountability mechanisms that center those most affected.
Thank you for your attention.