On the occasion of the 58th session of the Commission of Women (CSW 58) in New York, the Women Peacemakers Program (WPP), together with Cordaid, the City College of New York, ABAAD – Resource Center for Gender Equality, and the Ecumenical Women’s Initiative (EWI), organized a panel discussion on involving religious leaders in women’s rights work. The event took place on March 11 and was hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the UN.
We were honored with the attendance and opening speech of Lilianne Ploumen, Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.
To analyze the challenges and opportunities that exist in terms of involving religious leaders for the gender equality agenda, WPP moderated a dynamic discussion, during which its partners highlighted several examples, from UN to grassroots level of challenges posed by religion, while simultaneously sharing the innovative strategies they have developed to address these.
"Only by entering into a dialogue with religious leaders mutual overlapping positions can be found, though there must also be room to discuss issues of disagreement."
"We have to create opportunities for engagement, including a formal process at the UN, between religious leaders and the women's rights movement."
"Religion is part of the problem, but must also be part of the solution for women's rights"
"We believe that supporting women on the inside, within religious institutions, can move mountains for women's rights."
"Civil Society can start working with religious leaders today, but we need to focus that work on "common denominators" or issues of gender on which we can agree on."
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