On March 10th, during CSW69 in New York, Women’s Platform for Action International, WoPAI, was officially launched. The event brought together nearly 100 women, in-person and online, and the speakers made it clear that WoPAI is needed more than ever, in times where women’s rights are shrinking, and women are being silenced, trafficked and murdered because of their sex.
WoPAI is dedicated to advancing CEDAW and is committed to creating a world where women’s lives are not constrained by violence or discrimination.
“The first article in CEDAW is about what is discrimination of women, and it´s very clearly said that all discrimination of women based on sex must be stopped”, Gertrud Åström, Chair of WoPAI.
The first woman to speak at the event was the co-president of European Network of Migrant Women, Adama Sira Le-Blay, one of the founding organisations of WoPAI. She made it clear that: “We need to save the woman and girl, and no one will do it for us, we are fighting for us, and only we can do it if we are organised and that’s why WoPAI is very important for us”
Before its official launch, Women’s Platform for Action International (WoPAI), together with the Swedish Women’s Lobby and the European Network of Migrant Women, initiated WoPAI’s first collective action: a global support letter for the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Ms. Reem Alsalem. The letter condemned the smear campaigns and baseless attacks directed at her, and expressed strong support for her crucial work defending women and girls from violence. More than 600 organisations and 6,000 individuals from around the world signed the letter.
“WoPAI is a good oppotunity to align feminist movement all across the world, across boarders and cultures because at times when feminism is attacked, at times where cultural differences are sometimes used to justify and slowing down the fight I think WoPAI is going to be a really good tool to go beyond and to defend women and girls”, Marie Debard, General Director at Coordination française pour le Lobby Européen des Femmes.
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