This March, youth advocates from around the world sent a message to their governmental leaders: we will hold you accountable on gender equality. They came to New York for the 59th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a yearly conference that draws government leaders and delegates as well as advocates from local organizations to evaluate progress on and set standards for women’s empowerment. IWHC held a two-day “Advocacy in Practice” workshop before the conference to help prepare the young leaders and to facilitate their discussions with high-level policymakers and decision-makers. More than 20 youth from countries as diverse as Guatemala and Kenya participated in the IWHC workshop and in CSW. Several spoke on panels as part of CSW main or side events,
Tag: youth rights
Regardless of Election Outcome, Girls Are the Future in Nigeria
On March 28, millions of Nigerians will vote in what many are calling one of the most critical elections in the country’s history. As the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, faces his leading challenger, Muhammadu Buhari—who briefly ruled Nigeria in the 1980s as part of the military regime—the country, the most populous in Africa, grapples with Boko Haram, rampant corruption, and a growing economic crisis. Women and girls have been at the heart of the campaigns and recent crises, but more often than not, depicted as helpless victims or collateral damage. From the 270 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok a year ago to the rise of female suicide bombers, the plight of Nigeria’s women and girls is regularly highlighted in the news. Yet these headlines fail to capture two critical