Does the struggle for realising women's human rights still matter to young women?

In her welcome speech, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda stated: “This is a real life conversation. It is an intergenerational dialogue. We represent all the age groups” . The audience and the panel included many young women who were clearly aware of the need for an intergenerational dialogue.

The diverse panel included Shonta Duncan, from the YWCA of Grenada; Oriana Lopez Uribe, from MARIA Abortion Fund for Social Justice; Temitayo Oyedemi, from Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA); Dr. Nafis Sadik, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General and Special Envoy on HIV and AIDS in Asia; and Zonibel Woods, from The Ford Foundation.

The panel suggested that young women should raise their voices as their human rights’ demands were not being heard, and many were not even aware of their rights. It also pointed out that culture, tradition and religion sometimes deprived women of their human rights and prevented them from becoming empowered.

For women living with HIV, their right to treatment, care, respect and protection are crucial. As Shonta explained, in her region, the Caribbean, the fight of women is ongoing but “today HIV and AIDS is our reality” , and young women have to fight for more protection, care and safety in their lives as well as sexual and reproductive health. However, she added, one of the biggest challenges is closing the gap between women and young women.

During the session, young women highlighted the need for mentorship and for skills to be transferred in order to become leaders. They felt this was a “woman’s obligation” . Young women have to speak out and show that they are concerned about their human rights and wellbeing and that they want to bring about change in their communities.

Closing the gap between young women and women, should be “an everyday thing” , according to Nyaradzayi, and should not be limited to just mentoring and preaching. In fact, it works both ways and it is a sharing process: not only do young women learn form older women, but older women also learn from young women.

In their closing reflections, the co-moderators asked the young panelists to tell the audience in which way young women could bring an intergenerational perspective to the conference. They replied that it was important that young women address not only their own perspective, but that of all women.

When discussing concrete actions to be taken to create change, it was agreed that women’s movements need to take a new approach. They must engage the community at large – both globally and regionally, and must, in particular, engage men, rather than continuing to only speak to their own internal community. It was suggested that a step in this direction was to work at getting the message across during the next five days at the International AIDS conference – an opportunity not to be missed.

The session concluded that intergenerational conversations and cooperation between women as a whole, are the best ways to reach the “safe space” that the World YWCA empowers women to reach.

Related Link:  

• Visit the World YWCA Blog Women Leading Change