Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want: Universal or Local Action for Gender Equality?

With Roswitha Newels, former UN Women Chef de Cabinet

 

Moderated by: Maya Judd, PhD, Academic Coordinator

 

Expressions of good intent, expressions of discontent, studies, and meetings on gender and gender inequality are abundant. As early as 1945, the preamble of the newly adopted Charter of the United Nations expressed the need, “… to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…” Shortly thereafter, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with article 3 stating: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” It wasn’t, however, until 2010 that UN Women entered into formal operation. More recently, we have seen the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, with Goal 5 addressing the achievement of gender equality and empowerment. And just a week ago, the United Nations announced the set-up of a High Level Panel on women’s economic empowerment. Findings from the 2016 ILO World Employment and Social Outlook also clearly show that “gender gaps in unemployment remain significant, especially for young women. Moreover, women continue to be overrepresented as contributing family workers or in other informal work arrangements, limiting their access to social protection measures, such as pensions, unemployment benefits or maternity protection.” Against this backdrop – and the fear and want that remain the daily horizon of too many women and girls – this talk discusses three action-oriented questions: How to translate universal agreement and advocacy into local action? Is there a one-size-fits-all answer? How to go beyond intent and make policy work?

 

 

Roswitha Newels, a German national, served the United Nations system from 1985 to 2014 and held a series of senior level positions in both policy and operational fields of United Nations work culminating in her appointment as the Chef de Cabinet to the UN Women founding Executive Director from 2011 to 2014. Ms. Newels’ early United Nations assignments to the Central Planning Department, Kingdom of Tonga, the United Nations Centre for Regional Development in Japan, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Azad, Jammu and Kashmir regional government ( Pakistan ) focused on questions of decentralization, integrated regional and local development as well as local management capacity building. In 1992, Ms. Newels joined the UN Secretariat’s Department for Economic and Social Development where she was responsible for the coordination of the Department’s technical contribution to the Barbados Conference on small island states. Subsequently, as an Economic Affairs Officer, she worked on economic and social policy issues in transition economies. From 1994 to 2011, Ms. Newels joined the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Her work focused on questions of governance and public sector reform and management in more than 40 countries.  In 2006, Ms. Newels was appointed as Regional Director for the UNOPS North America Office and later on as Director of the UNOPS Switzerland Office. Ms. Newels holds a Doctorate in Regional and Urban Planning from the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

 

INSCRIPTION OBLIGATOIRE : maya.judd@sciencespo.fr