Members of the UN Women summit, including the organization’s executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka, say the Brazilian government has not shown interest in participating in the international forum that will establish an agenda to fight inequalities gender for the next five years.
“We are in contact with the government, but we have not had much success. Despite this, we are open if they want to negotiate participation, ”Mlambo-Ngucka said. “Although the government is not present, the private sector and civil society will represent Brazil.”
The CEO addressed journalists at a conference on the Generation Equality forum, which will take place from June 30 to July 2, in Paris, and will be broadcast on the internet.
According to the organizers of the event, Brazil has been contacted by France and informed of the modalities of institutional participation in the forum. To do this, the Brazilian authorities would have to be willing to make a commitment linked to the discussions of the forum.
Canada, for example, has pledged to invest R $ 10 million in a United Nations fund to combat violence against women. Mexico, for its part, has promised to launch a program to encourage the establishment of nurseries and subsidies to alleviate the “care crisis” made worse by the pandemic.
The event will bring together heads of state and government, international organizations and representatives of the private sector and civil society to sign concrete agreements to achieve SDG 5, the sustainable development goal of gender equality. gender established by the UN in 2015.
The agenda is part of a list of 17 global goals that make up the international agenda until 2030, adopted by all members of the UN, including Brazil. “Now we have to create a technical plan, much more specific, to execute what is in the ODS,” said the executive director. The first stop of the event took place in Mexico in March, which Brazil also did not attend.
According to the secretary general of the Mexican stage of the forum, diplomat Yanerit Morgan, the Brazilian government has shown no interest in participating in the launch of any of the actions, divided into six axes: violence against women, rights sexual and reproductive rights, economic rights justice, climate action and gender, technology and inclusion and fostering feminist leaderships and movements.
“The participation petition was open to all UN member states. This is an agreement with states that commit to the objectives of the forum. So the participants in Mexico were the ones who were really committed to the goal, ”said the Secretary General.
“In the case of Brazil, we have received no interest in participating for reasons that we know: the public policy objectives are not the same at the moment. On March 8, for example, Brazil teamed up with countries like Poland, Hungary and Saudi Arabia and refused to sign a global pledge for women’s health because it contained references to the “Sexual and reproductive health”.
Brazil-snubbed forum will bring together presidents of France, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tunisia, plus prime minister German, Angela Merkel, and the Prime Ministers of Canada. , Spain and almost all Scandinavian countries.
The UN Secretary General, the Portuguese António Guterres, the President of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and representatives of philanthropic entities like the Ford Foundation are also expected to attend the opening ceremony, which will be held in person in Paris. . The United States is to send a representative and President Joe Biden is expected to videotape a speech.
Contacted, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MDH), headed by Damares Alves, indicated that it had not participated in the first part of the forum, in Mexico, due to “operational difficulties And that he was working to be in Paris. Organizers of the event, however, said they had not received a contact from the Brazilian government to allow participation.
Folha then questioned the ministry on what the Brazilian presence would be like and was informed that the ministry had recruited officials from the National Secretariat for Women’s Policies and the Special Advisory Council on International Affairs via the general participation form, sent to the public. .
According to the forum, this means that representatives of the Brazilian government will not be able to attend the discussion tables, like any other citizen, which does not configure the country’s adherence to the agenda proposed by Generation Equality.
The MDH also informed that it will send a delegation to Paris and that the list of names will be sent to Itamaraty, who told Folha that he has not yet received an official communication of the file on this subject.
Lack of interest in attending the event was not the only concern expressed by forum officials at the press conference held on June 16-17. Speaking on climate change and gender, former Irish Prime Minister Mary Robinson, the first woman to chair Elders, an association created by Nelson Mandela to bring together former governors, said “the world needs to do more pressure on Brazil to prevent damage. made the Amazon to be permanent “.
She and Mexican activist Maria Reyes, a member of Fridays for the Future, a youth movement against climate change, said they did not expect any changes in environmental policies until the end of the Bolsonaro administration. “We need political change, not climate change, in Brazil,” Reyes said.
The final program established by Generation Equality could be complemented and respected by other UN member countries, such as Brazil, over the next five years.