PNG Artists Advocacy on GBV

“Everyone hears that rhetoric of how bad gender-based violence is in PNG.”

“No one talks about our Parliamentarian champions.”

“No one talks about our artists who are putting this in the spotlight. No one talks about our musicians who are inspiring communities. No one talks about our journalists, who are writing these stories and bringing these issues to the fore,” said Caroline Nyamayemombe, UN Women’s Deputy Country Representative, at the launch of the global Generation Equality Forum.

The forum will take place in Paris from 30 June to 2 July 2021.

Leading artists from across the country met with Ms Nyamayemombe and French Ambassador to PNG Guillaume Lemoine for the launch of the global Generation Equality Forum, recently.

They were joined by UN Resident Coordinator Gianluca Rampolla, UNDP Resident Representative Dirk Wagener, EU Ambassador Jernej Videtic, representatives for Australia and USA, Governors Allan Bird and Powes Parkop, President of the PNG Business Coalition for Women and Chairperson of the Spotlight Civil Society Reference Group.

Ms Nyamayemombe said there are great things happening in Papua New Guinea.

“Our challenge is to start telling our stories globally and take our commitments a step higher to accelerate gender equality,” she said.

Mr Lemoine welcomed young creators to engage with leaders and those in positions to effect change, taking the opportunity to have the difficult conversations on how the Generation Equality Forum can address the stalled progress towards gender equality. 

“Feel free, young people and young leaders, to challenge us. We owe you that,” he said.

The Generation Equality Forum (GEF) is a global civil society centred, multi-stakeholder global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France, in partnership with civil society and youth.

GEF’s efforts for PNG will focus on the Gender based violence action coalition. There is a high momentum on addressing GBV through multi-stakeholder partnerships involving Parliamentarians, government, international organizations, development partners, civil society and youth-led organizations, as well as private sector companies and philanthropic foundations.

Photo credit: UN Women

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