- 20 countries answered Mexico's call to join a Group of Friends for Gender Equality.
Today, ministers, deputy ministers and representatives from 21 countries - Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Uruguay - met during the Generation Equality Forum to create a Group of Friends for Gender Equality. The event was chaired by Martha Delgado, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Foreign Ministry.
The Group of Friends was proposed by Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard at the 75th United Nations General Assembly, as part of his feminist foreign policy. The goal of the group is to promote coordinated action in multilateral forums that accelerates gender equality and advocates for the human rights of women and girls, through implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and other international commitments.
The participants agreed to coordinate their efforts in the multilateral forums to advance gender equality and to promote transformative actions to ensure that women and girls fully enjoy all human rights.
In her remarks, Undersecretary Delgado stressed that multilateralism is the best way to address the structural and systemic obstacles that prevent women and girls—in all their diversity—from fully enjoying all human rights. She further said that the Government of Mexico commends the commitment shown by the countries that have joined the group to date. Other countries will be able to join the group in the coming months, and civil society will be included in the dialogue.
