Breaking Open Barriers: Frontiers for Gender Equality - A Geneva Security Debate

From inspiring individual leadership to leadership across the multi-lateral system, what barriers have been broken to advance gender equality and what is needed now at a time of backsliding on women’s rights and rising inequality and insecurity?

Significant frontiers to gender equality have been passed, and Ambassador Yvette Stevens embodies many of them: the first female engineer to graduate in Sierra Leone; a 28 career including senior roles within the UN System; establishing Sierra Leone’s first Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and being Permanent Representative for 6 years. Her recent book ‘Breaking Open Barriers’ compellingly highlights how women in positions of power can open doors not just for themselves, but challenge and change systems to lift up others. She also emphasises the critical role of technology and innovation to facilitate inclusive and sustainable development.

Yet progress globally towards inclusive governance, peace and sustainable development has been far slower than anticipated, and the rights of women and girls have been backsliding. As the Pact for the Future recently made a renewed call for full and effective implementation of the roadmap in Beijing in 1995, the Secretary General of the United Nations highlighted that ‘gender inequality is on full display in the United Nations General Assembly Hall during #UNGA'. Less than 10% of speakers during the General Debate were women. This high-level expert panel will consider the political, economic and technical frontiers that have been passed, and those that remain. At a time of increasing inequality and insecurity, what do we need to be paying particular attention to, to ensure that women’s rights advance and do not further regress?

Speakers

• Yvette Stevens, Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations Office at Geneva; Executive-in-Residence within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP
• Martin Chungong, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, International Gender Champions Global Board Chair
• Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of the International Trade Centre 
• Christine Goodman, Professor of Law, Caruso School of Law, Pepperdine University 
• Ian Enriquez, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow, WIPO
• Thomas Greminger, Executive Director, Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Event Moderator

• Fleur Heyworth, Head of Gender and Inclusive Security, GCSP