Campus gender violence must fall
WITS vice-chancellor Adam Habib is to help launch the next major phase of a global campaign against sexual violence on campuses, at the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 20.
The campaign will be part of a wider focus on combating gender violence and advancing women’s empowerment.
Cristina Gallach, UN under-secretary-general for communication and public information, said in Pretoria this week that the UN would launch the next phase of the campaign against gender violence on campuses with Habib and nine other university rectors from around the world.
The idea of gender violence at universities might seem “strange, but it is a global phenomenon”, she said.
The campaign would be part of a wider campaign, to be launched at the General Assembly through the appointment of a high-level panel to promote gender equality, with a strong emphasis on the economic empowerment of women.
United Nations officials said the 10 university principals were known as impact champions. They and 10 heads of state and 10 global corporate leaders form the Impact 10X10X10 group, established last year as part of the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign to engage men more actively in the fight for gender equality.
The head of the Wits Gender Equity Office, Professor Jackie Dugard, said the 10 university principals would be meeting for the first time in New York.
A report would be published on the progress they had made so far in implementing their pledges to combat genderbased harms and violence on their campuses.
The 30 impact champions would also decide how they should carry the campaign beyond their institutions into society.
Gallach, who is in South Africa for a seminar on the Israeli-Palestine conflict, said another big event at the UN on September 19 would be a summit to try to address the issue of migration.
“This has arisen as a key issue that has to be addressed in a global manner by all countries – those that see people moving out, those that see people in transit, those that are welcoming and receiving refugees and migrants.”
The aim would be to produce an agreement by member states on that day to work towards a global compact for addressing the huge movement of people.
Gallach said US President Barack Obama would chair a meeting at the UN the following day that would be aimed more specifically at the issue of resettling refugees.
The UN’s website says this will be the first UN summit on large movements of refugees and migrants.
The meeting will seek a “more humane and co-ordinated approach”.
Gallach said the opening of the General Assembly would also commemorate the adoption a year ago of the Sustainable Development Agenda – which aims to achieve 17 broad Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
One of the key elements of this agenda is stopping climate change.
Gallach said UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had asked member states that had ratified last year’s COP 21 climate agreement in Paris to meet other leaders at the UN to encourage them to ratify it, so it could be brought into force. – ANA