Huriye Göncüoğlu Bodur attended the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Geneva on 6–7 April 2022. Bodur’s work contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 Life Below Water, which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. Her work also relates to SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls.

Meet 25 women and girl change-makers from across Europe and Central Asia who are sharing inspiring strategies and leading creative campaigns to probe, reimagine and create a gender-equal world. This collection of profiles was originally compiled to mark the 25th anniversary of the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

The Generation Equality Forum Paris concluded today with the announcement of bold gender equality commitments and launch of a global 5-year action journey to accelerate gender equality by 2026. The Forum’s bold, action-oriented agenda will be under-written by nearly USD 40 billion of confirmed investments as well as ambitious policy and programme commitments from governments, philanthropy, civil society, youth organizations and the private sector.

At a high-level event on the second day of the landmark Generation Equality Forum in Paris, UN Women, in partnership with the Council of Women World Leaders, convened world leaders to discuss ambitious and urgent actions to ensure that women and young people, in all their diversity, are promoted as leaders and supported as a force for positive change and progress

Generation Equality Forum to drive major policy reforms and generate over USD 40 billion in new investments

Altyn Kapalova is a feminist activist, artist, and children’s writer from Kyrgyzstan contributing to the Awake Not Sleeping: Reimagining fairy tales for a new generation. She converts the results of her anthropological research into works of art that aim to make the voices of vulnerable communities louder so that they influence political decisions and structures.

The Generation Equality Forum is the most catalytic global gathering for gender equality held in the last quarter century. Convened by UN Women and co-chaired by the Governments of France and Mexico, with the leadership and participation of youth and civil society, the Forum is a once-in-a-generation moment to advance global gender equality.

Helena Dalli is the first European Commissioner for Equality. She was appointed to the post after a longstanding career in politics in Malta, both as a parliamentarian and a minister of portfolios including industrial relations, equality and social dialogue.

Building Game-Changing Commitments and Mobilizing Partners Regional Consultation was held within the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative Regional Programme for Central Asia and Afghanistan. Representatives of civil society and government agencies identified key areas of cooperation and what commitments could be made by partners to achieve the goals of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based violence.

Registration is now open to participate in the Generation Equality Forum in Paris – a milestone global event to advance action and investment for gender equality.

Dilnaz Kamalova, 17, is a winner of international competitions, and a children rights and girl’s empowerment advocate from Almaty, Kazakhstan. In 2019, together with her team of girls at school, she was one of the TOP-20 finalists at the Google Science Fair at their Headquarters in California. Recently, she got an offer to study at Harvard University.

Lolja Nordic is a young intersectional ecofeminist activist, independent artist and DJ from Russia. She is also a columnist and blogger. She is the co-organiser of the International DIY Charity Festival “NE VINOVATA” (“Not Her Fault”) in support of domestic violence survivors and co-founder of GRRR party – a series of safe space LGBTQ+ feminist night events in Moscow.

The Generation Equality Forum Mexico concluded today with the unveiling of an Action Coalition blueprint and of new catalytic commitments for gender equality. These set the stage to pass the Forum’s torch to its next step in Paris on 30 June, which will be a major commitment-making moment.

In her remarks at the opening of the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "It is going to be now in Mexico that we start this work; start an era of catalytic action to accelerate change".

Eighteen new organizations have stepped up to steer Generation Equality ‘Action Coalitions’ – innovative partnerships of member states, corporations, youth-led, civil society and international organizations and philanthropies, designed to propel a dramatic acceleration in gender equality.

Kyzzhibek Batyrkanova, 26, is the director of the Kyrgyz Space Program. She is also a TechWomen 2019 alumna, hosted by Mozilla HQ in San Francisco Bay Area, and founder of the TechCamp project, implemented in partnership with the UN Women Country Office in Kyrgyzstan.

Maja Hadziselimovic is a twenty-nine-year-old robotics software developer from Bosnia and Herzegovina. She develops human-robot applications for the automotive industry at MRK Systeme GmbH and the first industrial exoskeleton at German Bionic Systems in Augsburg, Germany. She actively shares her robotics & automation experience and motivates young people, especially women and girls, to take up robotics and STEM professions.

Starting out with a feminist meme page six years ago, Hana Curak is a 26-year-old feminist from Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently, she is a sociology researcher in Berlin, at the Freie University, and works as a consultant developing her own political education & media start-up, Witch Media.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held from 4-15 September, 1995, we invite you to be inspired by the stories of activists from Europe and Central Asia. They were at the Beijing Conference, an experience that shaped them in their quest to build a gender-equal world.

Zeliha Ünaldı, the Programmes Manager of UN Women Turkey, talks about her experience of participating in the Fourth World Conference on Women.