Ambassador Mac-Donald States that “Its Important for Men to Fight for Gender Equality” at GFDD Side Event During CSW61

Taking the opportunity of the 61st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women to raise awareness on social issues currently subjugating women and marginalized groups in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (Funglode), in partnership with John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay College), and several other NGOs, hosted a side event at UN Headquarters on
Wednesday March 22, 2017. The panel discussed mass incarceration, systemic justice, policing issues, and their impact on women and marginalized communities. The event was divided into two segments including a very interesting panel discussion between government representatives as well as academic and policy experts, and a Q&A session with the audience.

Gabriela Ramírez-Vargas, Assistant Director of the Assistant Director Ronald H. Brown Law School Prep
Program at John Jay College and moderator of the panel, provided the words of welcome before an audience of more than 150 attendees.

Jodie Roure, Director and Associate Professor in the Latin American and Latina/o Studies Department and Project Investigator at John Jay College, then gave opening remarks on behalf of Janet Camilo, Minister of Women of the
Dominican Republic, making the link between women’s rights and sustainable development, and quoting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5: “violence against women is violence against human rights”.

Ramírez-Vargas then briefly introduced the speakers before allowing them to share their experience. She handed the floor to H.E. Dr. Leonard Mac Donald, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of
Suriname to the United Nations & HeForShe Campaign Ambassador. The Ambassador gave an inspiring speech, explaining to the audience why men should be supporters of gender equality. “I hope after I speak, that it will seem important for men to fight for gender equality”, he said. After congratulating the audience for closing the gender parity, he underscored how men and women truly live in two different groups, in terms of the daily security threats they face, with
women facing the most.

After this call for action, A victim of domestic violence took the floor to deliver a strong testimony of her own experience of sexual harassment and domestic violence. She told us the participants that she had been progressively trapped by a man who had initially shown himself to be “helpful, protective, funny and caring” towards, before he changed his behavior over time and started to hit and harass her. Describing domestic
violence as something which impacts women’s health in every possible way, she affirmed that she was “stronger today because strength was [her] only choice”.

The next speaker, Roxana Reyes, Deputy Attorney General for Women’s Affairs of the Dominican Republic was unable to be present at this rescheduled session due to clashes in her own schedule and therefore submitted video statement. The statement which was played to the audience
highlighted the urgent need to tackle domestic violence, as she confirmed that there were “over 64,000 domestic violence cases reported in the Dominican Republic in 2016”. Reyes’s inspiring presentation provided the audience with the opportunity to learn more about the legislative context of this issue in Dominican Republic.

Maria Dolores Fernos, Attorney and Associate Professor at the Inter American University School of Law, was also
unavailable due to scheduling reasons but her statement was read out. The audience learnt that the efforts of civil society had enabled the establishment of laws against sexual harassment and domestic violence in Puerto Rico. Fernos stressed that "Education is crucial in the strategy to end violence against women and to stop the ideologies that enforce it".

Following her statement, Jodie Roure, took the floor again to congratulates the organizers of the
event and GFDD/Funglode, but also the numerous students who came for this event. She stated “You are the future human rights warriors”. After this small parenthesis, she gave a presentation on mass incarceration and more specifically women’s mass incarceration and the impact on their lives. Roure denounced the fact that “no one wants to talk about incarcerated persons, especially incarcerated women”.

Dr. William Ramírez,
Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, broadcasted a video message. In his message he explained how after supporting the reform of the police department in Puerto Rico which had aimed to eradicate all forms of violence against women, he stated that “women must demand immediate change”.

Following on from this presentation, Johanna Pinette highlighted police violence, and the need for police responsibility in violence against women as
 in many cases the police often refuses to intervene in domestic disputes.

Michelle Leung, Associate Producer at VICE media gave the final presentation, reporting on her experience as a reporter in Brazil. She described the international media coverage of a rape investigation which took place at the same time as the Olympic Games, wondering if the media coverage would have been as important if this mega event hadn’t been taking place. She ended her
intervention by calling for more women in journalism, one of the professions suffering the most from sexual harassment and rapes. She cautioned the audience that “violence against women in the Latin America and Caribbean region is not out of the ordinary”.

Thanking the panelists for their remarks, Gabriela Ramírez-Vargas then opened the floor for an interactive Q&A with the audience. The panelists fielded a variety of questions from attendees
ranging from the normalization of violence and the media’s responsibility, to the HeForShe campaign and sustainable development.

The event ended with a screening of a short video directed by Michelle Leung in Brazil, following which a brief networking session took place between the audience members and the panelists, which provided them with the opportunity for further collaboration and partnerships to strengthen the role of women the UN’s new
development agenda.

About CSW61
The sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women is taking place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 13 to 24 March 2017. The Priority theme is Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work and the Review theme is Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.

Related
links
http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw61-2017