7th Annual Symposium
on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs
January 26 2021, 8:00 am – 12:30 pm EST
Symposium to examine role of religion and the UN in working for gender equality in 2021
January 19, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
TEXT: Senior UN staff, representatives from faith groups and members of civil society will be presenting at the 7th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs on January 26, 2021. This year’s event will focus on “2021: A defining year for accelerating gender equality, equity and justice,” with a series of presentations and discussions on issues including multi-stakeholder collaboration to accelerate gender equality, equity and justice, the urgency for achieving it, women advancing peace and security, and multilateralism and the intersection of religion and human rights.
The Symposium will examine these issues in light of the major issue facing the world today, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the broader gender justice landscape including the Commission on the Status of Women, Generation Equality Forum, and others. “Pre-existing social inequalities including gender inequalities have been highlighted and new ones created, which will continue to exacerbate these crises unless resolved,” the organizers state in the event concept note. “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold suffering and economic hardship, all the more so as it connected to the raging crises of gender inequality, racism, structural economic injustices and climate change.”
Who: Speakers include:
Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
Mr. Ib Petersen, Deputy Executive Director, Management, UN Population Fund
Ms. Alice Nderitu, UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide
Dr. Ibrahim Salama, Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Mr. Anwar Khan, President, Islamic Relief USA
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klaus, former inaugural Senior Rabbi to the Movement for
Reform Judaism
Mr. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary, ACT Alliance
Where: Streaming on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hZzHAsZRQfw
When: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 8:00am-12:30pm (EST).
Media package: https://actalliance.org/documents/symposium-2021-media-package/
Sponsors: ACT Alliance, General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church, Islamic Relief, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Soka Gakkai International, United Religions Initiative, World Council of Churches and UN Women and UNFPA, for the UN Inter-agency Task Force on Religion and Development
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MEDIA CONTACTS
ACT Alliance: Simon Chambers simon.chambers@actalliance.org
World Council of Churches: Marcelo Schneider msc@wcc-coe.org
Islamic Relief: David Hawa dhawa@irusa.org
General Board of Church and Society – The United Methodist Church: Kurt Adams kadams@umcjustice.org
URI: Isabelle Ortega-Lockwood, iortega@uri.org isabelle@uri.org , Gaea Denker gdenker@uri.org
UN Women: Ines Esteban Gonzalez ines.esteban.gonzalez@unwomen.org
