The G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council releases today its Recommendations for advancing Gender Equality and the empowerment of girls and women and Call to Action.
The Advisory Council has identified 79 good practices in gender equality laws in 4 sectors (violence, economic empowerment, education and health, discrimination) and in all regions of the world. It calls on the leaders of the G7 and other countries to commit themselves, through the "Biarritz Partnership", to adopt and implement progressive legislative frameworks for gender equality, drawing on its recommendations. In particular, it calls on the leaders to:
- End gender-based violence;
- Ensure equitable and quality education and health;
- Promote economic empowerment;
- Ensure full equality between women and men in public policies.
It calls on States to ensure the necessary funding for the implementation of laws and to monitor them on a regular basis, as well as to abolish any discriminatory measures against women that may persist.
More than 2.5 billion girls and women worldwide are affected by discriminatory laws and lack of legal protection. The actions of many brave girls and women have broken the silence and highlighted the urgent need for strong and determined action. The Council urges the leaders of the G7 to be as courageous and courageous as girls and women are every day.
The Advisory Council has presented its recommendations to French President Emmanuel Macron on 23 August at the Elysée Palace. The two co-Presidents of the Council, Nobel Prize Laureates Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege, and the Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, have then travelled to Biarritz to present this document to G7 leaders during a session on inequalities and officially launch the Biarritz Partnership.
The Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) was created by Prime Minister Trudeau during Canada's G7 presidency in 2018. French President Emmanuel Macron renewed it in 2019 by renewing its members and its mandate.
The 2019 Council is composed of 35 members, including three Nobel Peace Prize laureates, representatives of international and French NGOs, international organizations and private companies, government representatives*, journalists and artists.
The Advisory Council met three times in Paris in 2019. President Macron launched the work of the Council in February; the Council then met in May on the margins of the meeting of the G7 Ministers for Equality between Women and Men and in July. In addition, Council members participated in most G7 ministerial meetings and Sherpa and Sous-Sherpa meetings, thereby strengthening the place of gender equality on the G7 agenda.
* The Council is an independent body. Government representatives recognize the inherent challenge of both advocating and receiving recommendations in their dual roles as members of the Council and the G7, and do not take this report to be a government document of endorsed recommendations.