An international round table, “Gender equality: make it your business”, organized by the UNESCO Bureau of Strategic Planning’s Division for Gender Equality, will be held on 10 March (Room II, 3-5.30 p.m.) to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day (8 March).
Based on the United Nations’ official theme for International Women’s Day 2008, “Financing for Gender Equality”, the Round Table will bring together high-level fundraisers, businesswomen and men, and philanthropists who draw on their wealth to undertake and support initiatives in favour of women’s empowerment and gender equality. (See list of speakers in the attached programme.)
The Round Table will kick off a series of literary, artistic and cinematographic events taking place at UNESCO during the month of March:
· An Ivorian evening with singer, dancer and percussionist Dobet Gnahoré (11 March, Room I, 7 p.m.). She will sing in different African languages, accompanied by Nabil Mehrezi, Colin Laroche de Féline and Boris Tchango.
· A documentary, “Mutilations, Women’s Cries”, depicting the struggle to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation around the world, will be shown on 25 March (Room XI, 6.30 p.m.). The feature-length film (1h 20) , is produced by the association Kerciné in collaboration with the World Health Organization to raise awareness among decision-makers and the general public about the practice of female genital mutilation. A debate with the filmmakers will follow the screening.
From 11 to 21 March, UNESCO’s exhibition spaces will present the following shows:
· The art exhibition, “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize”, by the Swiss organization “Peace Women Across the Globe”, portrays in colorful postcards the 1000 women nominated collectively for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
· The exhibition “Alice in Cinemaland” is organized in collaboration with Thierry Peeters and the association « Les amis d’Alice Guy-Blaché ». Consisting of panels, paintings, posters, sculptures and cinematographic apparatus from the period, it outlines the life and times of the world’s first woman cinematographer, Alice Guy-Blaché from France. Beginning back in 1896, she made the cinema’s first fiction films.
· The exhibition “Engaged African Art with a Woman’s Touch”, by painter Brigitte Rabarijaona from Madagascar, takes a lyrical look at the lifestyles of African women.
· The exhibition “Women from Day To Day”, by Colombian painter Mercedes Uribe, offers a series of surrealist portraits – in paintings, kakemonos and engravings - of women living in a man’s world.
· The exhibition “After the Literary Boom: Colombian Writers And Poets”, composed of photos, texts, poems and books, brings together the works of four women writers and 15 women poets from Colombia.
Source: UNESCO PRESS
