Media advisory: International Women’s Day 2020 events

This year’s International Women’s Day (8 March) takes place in the context of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, considered the most comprehensive roadmap on women’s rights.

With UN Women’s Generation Equality campaign being leveraged worldwide, the 2020 International Women’s Day commemoration at UN Headquarters aims to bring together the next generation of women and girl leaders, many of whom were not even born in 1995, with the women’s rights advocates and visionaries who were instrumental in creating the Beijing Platform for Action more than two decades ago. 

As the forthcoming UN Women report, “Women’s Rights in Review 25 years after Beijing” reveals important progress in some areas such as education and heath, while others have seen stagnation and reversals. Overall change has been too slow for the majority of the world’s women and girls. Progress is now under threat from rampant inequality, runaway climate change and the rise of exclusionary politics.

Today, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and in culture. Women and girls continue to be undervalued; they work more and earn less and have fewer choices; and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces. Many hard-won victories are being reversed.

Members of the Media are invited to attend the following events

Press Conference to launch UN Women’s report “Women’s Rights in Review 25 years after Beijing”

When: Thursday, 5 March, 12.30 – 1.30 p.m.

Where: S-0237, UN Press Conference Room, UN Headquarters, (46th St and 1st Ave), New York

The press conference will present the findings of UN Women’s latest report “Women’s Rights in Review 25 years after Beijing” examining progress and obstacles in women’s rights since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995. It draws on the UN Secretary-General’s Report, the most comprehensive and participatory stock-taking exercise on women’s rights ever undertaken: 170 Member States have submitted national reports, and hundreds of civil society activists have contributed to national and regional reviews, combined with global data and analysis.

Participants will include:

• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
• Silke Staab, Research Specialist, UN Women
• Anya Victoria Delgado, Senior Programme Coordinator of the Feminist Alliance for Rights

The event is open to UN accredited media, and will be webcast live on UN Women and UN Web TV .

UN Observance of International Women’s Day 2020

When: 6 March, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Where: UN General Assembly Hall, UN Headquarters, (46th St and 1st Ave), New York

Leveraging the 2020 International Women’s Day theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”, the UN commemoration will celebrate change-makers of all ages and genders and include addresses by senior representatives of the United Nations system, an inter-generational dialogue with gender equality activists, and musical performances by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Grammy Awards winner Angelique Kidjo, who will also speak, The Pihcintu Multicultural Chorus and Broadway Singers. It will look at the progress achieved in the last quarter century since the historic Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and identify solutions for advancing gender equality and transforming women’s lives.

Participants include:

• Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland
• Mher Margaryan, Chair of the 64th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women
• António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
• Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate
• Charlotte Bunch, Feminist Author and Organizer
• Alexandria Villaseñor, 14-year-old Climate Justice Activist
• Natasha Mwansa, 19-year-old Journalist and Youth Activist
• Samaira Mehta, 11-year-old Coder and Inventor
• Aaron Philip, fashion model

The event is open to UN accredited media, but seats are not guaranteed. Please contact media.team[at]unwomen.org if you wish to attend but do not have UN media accreditation. 

The event will be webcast live on UN Women and UN Web TV.

Ring the Bell for Gender Equality Events at Stock Exchange

When: 2 March, 12:30 p.m.

Where: Nasdaq - 151 West 43rd St. – 10th Floor New York, NY 10036, and nearly 90 stock exchange locations around the world on different dates

In celebration of International Women's Day, 90 stock exchanges around the world will raise awareness of the pivotal role that the private sector can play in advancing women's empowerment by hosting a bell ringing ceremony.

In New York, the Ring the Bell for Gender Equality event,“We Are All Generation Equality”, is co-organized by Nasdaq and UN Women's WE EMPOWER - G7 programme team, in partnership with the European Union and ILO.

2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), which offer guidance to businesses on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community. To celebrate, UN Women and Nasdaq invites partners to share lessons learned and good practices in implementing the WEPs at the event.

Participants will include:

• Adena Friedman, CEO, Nasdaq
• Anita Bhatia, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women

To register for the New York event, please email diana.rusu[at]unwomen.org

For more information on Ring the Bell events around the world, please click here.

Exhibition by UN Women: “Generation Equality: The Time is Now”

When: 5 March-20 April

Where: UN Visitor’s Lobby (UN Headquarters, NY)

Through high-impact, large-scale prints, this UN Women exhibit takes the visitors through the history of women’s activism journey towards gender equality. In addition to learning about and drawing connections with women’s rights activists throughout history, the exhibit is designed to foster participation and interaction through photo opportunities. It calls on audiences to join the conversation on social media, and take collective action through art. The exhibit will include a CSW64-branded social media corner for use by UN Women for Facebook live broadcasts as well as participant interviews and photo ops. 

Unstereotype Alliance Global Member Summit - UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

When: 5 March, 9.30am - 12.15pm

Where: Conference Room 2, UN Headquarters, (46th St and 1st Ave), New York

The Unstereotype Alliance is a thought and action platform that seeks to eradicate harmful gender-based stereotypes in all media and advertising content. Convened by UN Women, this annual knowledge sharing summit hosted by UN Women will see over 400 participants, members and invited guests sharing best practices and experiences on breaking stereotypes in the advertising and media industry.

Speakers will include (full list available here):

• Chaka Khan, 10-time Grammy Award winner singer, actor and activist
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
• Jess Weiner, CEO, Talk to Jess

Member of the press without a UN media accreditation are requested to apply here for a temporary media pass before March 2. If you are bringing your own videographer/photographer, please send their names and a list of all equipment to unstereotypealliance[at]unwomen.org.

Spotlight Initiative #WithHer campaign launch event

When: 5 March, 5.30 – 8.00 p.m.

Where: Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Brussels

The Spotlight Initiative is a global, multi-year partnership of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations to eliminate violence against women, implementing programmes in 25 countries around the world, with a seed funding commitment of EUR 500 million from the EU.

The #WithHer digital engagement campaign is designed to promote the elimination of violence against women and girls, while bringing visibility to the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative and its partners. The campaign will have online and offline activations, including human-interest stories, videos and photographs from around the world that highlight Spotlight Initiative’s programmes. 

The event will feature stories and testimonials from advocates, EU and UN leaders, UN Goodwill Ambassadors including Jaha Dukureh, celebrities and social influencers.

To attend the event, please email events[at]spotlightinitiative.org indicating you are a member of the media and any request you may have.

For more information, editorial content and assets on International Women’s Day 2020:

WEBSITE: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/international-womens-day

SOCIAL MEDIA: Join the online conversation on Twitter using the hashtags #IWD2020, #internationalwomensday, #GenerationEquality and by following @UN_Women.

MEDIA: For press covering IWD event at the UN headquarters in New York, UN press accreditation is required. More information at: https://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/

For interviews with senior UN Women officials and speakers at the events, contact media.team[at]unwomen.org