>> Perhaps when there is a parity of demand for change on men, we will achieve
or be closer to achieving that parity in contribution to our societies.
And perhaps the United Nations should contemplate a commission on
the status of men to bring about achievement of that parity.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> [LAUGH] >> [APPLAUSE]
>> We have succeeded in bringing the issue
on the agenda but in many countries, although the legislation has changed,
in practice things have not changed much.
Because I think the mentalities are still pretty much unchallenged.
And the only way we can really shake the boat, if I may say,
is with a strong demand on the part of women themselves.
[MUSIC]
>> The most effective is to educate the women at the grassroot level.
Not only to educate women but also men.
It's very important, because they are the ones who are doing this and
are involved in it and support the perpetrators.
[MUSIC]
>> We began first by encouraging the spouses of some of our colleagues,
some of our services providers, some of our media allies and
organize gender awareness training programs with them,
in order to ensure that they were sharing the right message to the public.
And from there, it's evolved to more like a network.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> [INAUDIBLE]
were mostly by men in our societies.
[INAUDIBLE] against girls.
>> We adopted the youths manner that's developing, developed and
trained a group of young boys from selected secondary schools in Nigeria.
And at the beginning of the workshop most of them were coming from the perspective
that they were more important than girls, because that's what they were taught.
Some of them in their homes, some in schools, and so
the training helped to really deconstruct that Stereotype in their minds.
So for us it was really a good outcome because they are also peer educators.
>> Because real men will not abuse women.
>> Right now we have what I'll call a green movement of boys and
men working towards eliminating gender-based violence.
>> Against our will it's against the law.
>> If people are able to respect one another,
know that gender is the way we are being socialized,
and therefore tackle the issue from the root itself,
our young, we should be able to make changes.
[MUSIC]
>> People make culture and people can change culture.
But it does take contesting the values that are wrong, dialoguing and
bringing about community to sit together and look at these issues,
and then to say how do we move together to bring about this change?
There are very good things in culture that can be utilized to bring about change,
and that this change has to be towards human rights.
[MUSIC]
>> In African societies, all African societies,
it's completely unheard of to attack an elder.
It's completely unheard of to slap your mother.
But, if a man gets provoked by his wife, it's completely all right for
him to beat his wife because she has provoked him.
But when he's provoked by his parents why is not all right for
him to beat his parents?
Why is it mandatory that the man observes self-control and
self-mastery even when he's provoked by his parents, but
it's all right for him to lose control when he is provoked by his wife?
So in this way we're trying to help them see that a culture that allows women to
be respected should also remove women from having violence visited upon them.
>> One of our dilemmas is how to deal with the stigma of
reporting violence, and the fact of self-respect and
self-reliance that people seem to lose in cases of violence.
And so the learning process, the communication process that
makes people realize that the only way to confront this evil is by reporting it,
by going to the places where help is available, and
to being able to bring about change.
[MUSIC]
>> In the rural areas they are still quite in the dark.
So a lot of work has to be done in terms of reaching out to the rural area
outside of the city to bring about more awareness about frequent
like in terms of the violation of their bodies, the space.
So that art is a continuous process.
[MUSIC]
>> A thing that I think we should never do is to detach women's issues from
national issues, from social issues.
Because women's issues are not women's issues.They are not women for
women by women.
[MUSIC]
They are central issues of social justice, of democracy, and of human rights.
[MUSIC]
>> My dear friends,
I would like to welcome you all to this really historic event.
[MUSIC]
>> The spaces that were created by the UN Conferences and
the possibility of networking helped us to work together across
international lines and to be able to clarify our purpose.
To hone our strategies, and to create a shared vision across our diversities,
so that we could advocate, we could lobby, we could bring attention to abuse,
and to suggest legislation, to suggest policies.
And to be sure that they became law, and that we were able
to use that law to change the lives of people on the ground.
>> What we have learned so
far is that working together is the key to empowerment.
And despite our differences, how do we use the commonalities in our
experiences as a basis on which we collaborate?
I think that's the key.
[MUSIC]
>> I think training women's groups is so important.
And what I like to bring home when I'm talking to women who are in
difficult situations is what you're doing is important.
Because very often, women underestimate the value of getting organized,
of getting a voice out, of having a way of reaching out.
The message to the women of the world is, arise.
[MUSIC]
>> Commit these to action, this is the mission in.
[MUSIC]
>> Between Beijing and
the of women I think there's been kind of a sea change with regard to activism,
which is that wherever you go around the world you are going to find some number of
women who are committed to the universality of women's rights.
That it is no longer an alien concept.
[MUSIC]
>> So I do think there's been a sea change with regard to finding more like-minded
people willing to put their lives on the line to defend their rights and
the rights of others.
>> When we believe in this as a mission in life,
this give us in the organization the energy and
also the courage to do so until the end.
[MUSIC]
>> When you're committed, when you're passionate.
You are rewarded by what you see.
The transformation.
That is Is the thing you cannot buy, that's what we want.
[MUSIC]
>> It was said at the beginning that first they gave us a day, and
then they gave us a year.
And then they gave us a decade of women.
So we've done a lot, we've come a long way.
And there's still a long way to go.
[MUSIC]
But with the tools that we have created together and
the strategies that we have created together, one woman at a time,
one organization at a time, we are getting there.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> So
this is really a place of hope where we are.
[MUSIC]
And a place of hope for
the next generation and the next.
[MUSIC]
