A rallying call has been issued for global leaders to prioritise accountability to their citizens and improve the lived realities of girls, women and gender-diverse people.
The final day of Women Deliver, a major gender equality conference, has resulted in the Melbourne Declaration which will set the agenda for the movement’s future.
The five-day conference, hosted in the Oceanic Pacific region for the first time, has brought 6000 delegates from 185 countries together to discuss priorities, plans and challenges for the future of gender equality globally.
The declaration is the result of 650 consultations with people from every continent in the lead up to Women Deliver, along with hundreds of additional conversations during the past week.
It calls on states to uphold their human rights obligations, institutions to strengthen accountability and funders to resource feminist movements and locally-led change.
“It’s a commitment to do things differently,” Women Deliver president Maliha Khan said on Thursday.
“What comes next must be defined by accountability to people and not just to systems.”
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern received cheers and applause as she walked onstage for a session on women living in conflict zones.
She urged people to continue to demand elected representatives remain accountable to their citizens.
“We exist in a failure of leadership and it is critical that we don’t start lowering our expectations of politics and leadership,” she said.
“Build up those who lead with empathy, support women into politics, and never lower your expectations of the political system that they are a part of.
“Don’t drop your expectations, please, demand more.”
Australia’s first female prime minister has been another key speaker throughout the week.
Julia Gillard said the collective power of feminist activists gathering could not be underestimated.
She warned strategic and organised pushback from anti-rights movements against gender equality should not be ignored.
“We obviously want to be breaking glass ceilings … but right at this moment, we’ve also got to make sure we’re standing on concrete floors, and that the things we already think we have can’t suddenly crumble away,” she said.
“The world is in such a state of flux that new systems and new ways of working together need to be built … when things are in flux, it’s also a time of opportunity.”
Australia’s gender equality ambassador Michelle O’Byrne said it was no longer enough to be shocked by the efforts of anti-rights movements.
“This is no surprise. It is well-planned and particularly well-delivered,” she said.
“Our job is to make sure that we deliver not just a pushback on the pushback, but a positive and strong agenda and narrative about what it is we believe, why we need to be there (and) how we can deliver.”
The Melbourne Declaration calls for governments to prioritise public systems and strengthen civil society’s ability to hold power to account.
A key theme of the conference has been to centre voices of First Nations people around the world and ensure they are listened to.
“If there are people who are absolutely committed to gender justice and equality, make sure there’s seats around that table for those who need to be there from First Nations Indigenous communities,” former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner June Oscar said.
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