Member States, Civil Society and Even Royalty: UNRISD at the ECE Beijing+20 Regional Review Meeting

UNRISD Director Sarah Cook moderated a distinguished panel of speakers at the first substantive session of the ECE Beijing+20 Regional Review Meeting, held in Geneva on 6 November 2014. The speakers included representatives of member states, a senior EU official and experts from government and civil society.
With Sarah Cook on the podium were:

• Valentina Leskaj: Member of Parliament, Albania
• Christian Friis Bach: Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECE
• Tina Tchen: Assistant to President Barack Obama; Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama; and Executive Director for the Council of Women and Girls, USA
• Salla Saastamoinen: Director for Equality, DG Justice, European Commission
• Makhabbat Bekbosynova: Head of the National Commission on Women and Family-demographic Affairs, Kazakhstan
• Daniela Terzi-Barbarosie: NGO National Women’s Studies and Information Center “Partnership for Development”, Republic of Moldova

The panel discussion on Long-term trends in gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the ECE region was part of a two-day meeting organized by the UN Economic Commission for Europe to review progress and challenges in the European region in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, signed 20 years ago. The report from this meeting will serve as the European region’s input to the global Beijing+20 review to be held in New York in March 2015 during the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The Review Meeting opened with a ceremonial session, in which the delegates were addressed by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who is patron of a number of health and humanitarian associations, and actively supports activities led by the WHO and UNFPA.

Photo: US Mission Geneva via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0