Amateur Journalism

So my latest claim to fame is a guest log post on Huffington Post about the engagement of young women and young men in the creation of gender equality. I feel the need to clarify that I am talking about equality as in equal rights and equal opportunties, rather than gender equity (which would mean that every single person on the planet should be doing exactly the same thing).

I think gender equality could actually mean an acceptance of more than 2 genders as if we don't discriminate on the basis of gender there may be a more freeflowing display of different gender traits. And as such gender equality could have a huge role in ending discrimination faced by all members of the LGBTQI communities too.

Tonight is my last night (of the 16 I've been here!) in New York, and this afternoon I observed the closing session of this CSW. It has been really interesting to see international politics at work and I can't wait for my next adventure!

I'm sure I'll have some more musing over the coming weeksto update you with my adjustment back to daily life in the UK, but for now I need to finish my packing...

Signing off from the Big Apple with a large tomato!

Happy International Women's Day

This morning I headed over to the Girl Scouts USA headquarters to do a broadcast of our delegation film created to celebrate international women's day. It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGue5fiZjQ. This was followed by a question and answer session about my experience at the Commission on the Status of Women and we had viewers from all around the world!

Negotiations of agreed conclusions are in closed session at the moment so there was little we could do at the UN. Instead we took the subway out to Coney Island for a walk along the beach. The paddle in the Atlantic Ocean was extremely brief!

Oral Statement of the Young Women's Caucus

Delivered on Monday 5th March to the General Discussion on the 56th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. 

Despite recent attention to their role in development, young rural women and girls continue to experience rights violations, gender inequality, and exclusion from many of the gains made under the Millennium Development Goals. More urgent action is needed.

Safe, affordable and quality formal and non-formal education facilitates the empowerment of girls and young women. Access to safe and quality education enables young rural women to obtain skills and knowledge for economic empowerment and also equips them with the skills needed to break the escalating cycle of gender inequality by strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Child marriage is just one human rights violation, for example, that continues to hinder rural women's levels of empowerment but can be eradicated by the institution of safe, quality and continuing education.

The Young Women’s Caucus calls for greater investment in school buildings and infrastructure, authentic curriculum, more incentives for quality teachers in rural communities and legislative measures to ensure that girls stay in school. This will facilitate empowerment of the individual woman and also enhance the political health, labour participation rates and the economic and spiritual wellbeing of communities and nations.

Young women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights must be protected through direct legislation and all young women have the right to comprehensive sexuality education. This extends beyond biology and anatomy to include information on gender inequality; sexuality; reproductive health and rights; human, physical and emotional development; body image; contraceptive methods; sexually transmitted diseases including HIV; harmful traditional practices; healthy relationships and decision-making.

The Young Women’s Caucus calls for increased measures to support the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, including those that combat female genital mutilation and eliminate early and forced marriages. We also call for young women’s access, particularly in rural areas, to adequate health services, including maternal health provision and comprehensive sexuality education.

Young women must be involved and represented in all levels of politics and policy making. This includes as members of parliaments, representatives in advisory groups for policy development, and in the implementation and evaluation of policy. It is only through significant improvements in the levels of representation and participation of young women in these processes that programs will be truly responsive. Young women must be recognised and included as decision makers, and not just considered as victims or recipients of assistance.

The Young Women’s Caucus calls for increased efforts to include young women in politics and policy making processes and ensure that the views of young women are represented and considered across all government and intergovernmental activity. It must be recognised that significant barriers exist for young women in rural areas to have their views heard, and we strongly encourage the implementation of strategies to engage with these young women.
Young women are one of the most powerful driving forces to improve lives and transform communities, and we deserve better.

Oral Intervention on Behalf of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

Delivered as an oral intervention on the 6^th March 2012 during a panel of the 56^th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The webcast of the session can be found here, and the speech can be heard at 1 hour and 1 minute in. 

Thank you, Mr Chair.

The World Association, I believe, answers some of the panel’s challenges through giving girls and young women the spaces to have their voices heard and the advocacy skills to participate fully.

In response to the Ugandan panellist’s comments on social entrepreneurs, I want to say that I want to be a social entrepreneur – using technology and exhibitions to achieve gender equality. How would the panellist from Uganda suggest starting this process?

I already have a project that I started as a girl guide - ‘Speak Out, Reach Out, Camp Out’ – that aims to inspire, inform and empower young women to take action on the Millennium Development Goals in the UK. My project utilises a website, blog, and social media to share multimedia amongst peer networks. I ask the panellists how we can encourage the further utilisation of technology for gender equality work.

One element of my project is an exhibition of positive female role models, which seeks to challenge stereotypes by drawing attention to women who have excelled beyond traditional expectations.

I believe that stereotypes of both men and women are also an underlying cause of violence against women and girls including in intimate relationships. As the panellists said this is a widespread problem and I wish to suggest non-formal education as one solution.

Our Stop the Violence campaign, called for by our 10 million young members, aims to ‘start the conversation’ about this topic through a joint project with UN Women to create a non-formal, co-educational curriculum. I feel this campaign is vital because I have experienced violence in my own personal relationships, and I ask the panellists and all delegates here to support our campaign.

As the panellist from Uganda suggested I think CSW is missing an opportunity. As a young delegate at the past two sessions I have noticed the limited opportunities given to young women to participate in the decision making processes at the CSW. We have a space created by the NGOs that work directly on our interests, and other NGOs are forced to take notice when we speak out at events dominated by older women, but in support of the panellists challenge, it seems to me that young members of government delegations seem to be few and far between.

This needs to change and we need a universal definition of ‘youth’. I would be interested in the panellists’ views on this matter.

Thank you.

A very busy week!

This week I have attended a lot of side events dealing with the topic of violence and we have been promoting the WAGGGS 'Stop the Violence' campaign. I want to share my experience of violence:

Aged 13

I left school due to violence. Every day at school I faced taunts for being asthmatic, for how I expressed my gender identity, and for being smart. This constant pressure lead me to try and hide who I was and lead to suicidal thoughts. Instead my family were supportive and I left formal education.

Aged 16

Walking down the street of a European capital city in a crowd of my peers a stranger grabbed my chest. I pushed him away and the crowd only saw my action and I was perceived as the aggressive one. The incident was the trigger of regular panic attacks over the following months.

Aged 17

Whilst teaching English in rural Africa, I was attacked based on judgements made based on my age, sex and perceived sexuality and gender identity.

Aged 18

I went off to university and got into my first long term relationship. After a couple of months this relationship turned abusive and she was controlling when I saw my friends, where I went and how I spent my own money. In total I went through around £2000 of my personal savings. She resented me going away to guiding events and as it was a same-sex relationship I didn't know where to turn. After 9 months - whilst away doing fieldwork - I found the courage to end the relationship.

At university

 

Throughout my time at university I have been subjected to homophobic abuse. People shouting at me in the street, people inappropriately touching my in night clubs, and stopping people, both male and female, from assaulting my friends. When I reported the assault to the police there wasn't enough evidence to press charges. 

 

Last summer

 

I moved from a shared house 5 minutes walk from my workplace to another over an hour bus ride away because my homophobic housemate decided he would ignore my existence and pretend that I wasn't there. The daily journey was better than the mental effect of living in such an environment. 

 

All this violence occurred before I was 21 years old. Unfortunately, my experiences are not unique.

 

Throughout all these years guiding has provided a way through - they helped me to build my confidence when I was insecure, they taught me my rights as a human being, and they offered me non-formal education which developed my key skills after I dropped out of school.

 

As such I call on you to ADD YOUR VOICE to the WAGGGS 'Stop The Violence' campaign.