COMMUNITY

Today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements, resilience, and leadership of women everywhere. As GQUAL, we reaffirm our commitment to defending women’s rights and to continuing to dismantle obstacles to women’s equal and inclusive participation in international decision-making spaces.

Many of today’s greatest challenges are global and affect us all. Whether in terms of addressing conflicts and the climate emergency, promoting economic equality and sustainable development, or protecting democracy and human rights, the voices of women, in all their diversity, are powerful and experienced; women have a right to be heard and to play an equal part in finding solutions, and in all aspects of leadership and participation along the way. 

International and multilateral bodies and mandates play an especially key role in shaping global policies and decisions— and it’s high time that spaces for participation, power, and leadership are equally shared  between women and men.        

Gender parity in international decision-making is a human right, which we are committed to achieving both as a measure of equality, and because women’s leadership and their equal participation will lead to more robust, inclusive, impactful, and legitimate institutions, that will serve to better uphold the human rights of all persons, Our partners have said it best here and here, a world with women’s equal and inclusive participation in decision-making and leadership is a better place for all. 

For almost 9 years, GQUAL has been a crucial voice in promoting women’s equal representation in international justice and human rights bodies. Our work with our partners has produced new data that helps us understand women’s participation; our advocacy has led to the achievement of gender parity and facilitated leadership by women in an array of international bodies and mechanisms for the first time, as well as to the adoption of key political commitments and the creation of roadmaps for gender parity to become the rule.  

In celebrating #IWD and our work to date, and particularly in light of the importance of continued efforts to expand conversations and achievements around gender parity in international representation, today we launch GQUAL’s new website. We invite you to take the time to explore its content and share relevant data and items, whether for instance the most recent GQUAL ranking, up-to-date information on current vacancies, news upcoming events, or our archives of research and calls to action, among others. For more details about our work this International Women’s Month and beyond, stay tuned and follow us on Twitter/LinkedIn. 

While there is still a long way to go, we believe in the importance of celebrating the achievements along the way, which remind us that changing the picture is possible, when we work together.   

In this spirit, we invite you join us and #ChangeThePicture this #IWD, and beyond!