The Biarritz Partnership for Gender Equality
Fighting inequality, particularly between men and women, has been a common thread of the French Presidency of the G7. This now means pursuing actions beyond 2019 and proposing all States to commit to gender equality. That is why at the G7 Biarritz Summit, the Heads of State and Government of the G7 launched an international coalition to fight gender inequality called the Biarritz Partnership for Gender Equality. This coalition draws on the report with recommendations of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council that was submitted to G7 leaders at the Summit.
The Gender Equality Advisory Council of the G7 Presidency
The Gender Equality Advisory Council was created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the Canadian Presidency of the G7 in 2018. President Emmanuel Macron decided to continue its activity for the French Presidency of the G7 in 2019 and appointed new members and gave it a new mandate. The Advisory Council was made up of 35 members, including three Nobel Peace Prize winners, representatives of international and national NGOs and private companies, government representatives [1], journalists and artists.
The Advisory Council met four times in Paris in 2019 and once in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Contributing to work of the French Presidency of the G7 on gender equality, the Advisory Council members attended the G7 Gender Equality Ministers’ Meeting in May. Some members also participated in most of the other G7 Ministers’ Meetings and preparatory meetings for the Summit, led by sherpas and sous-sherpas, which helped strengthen the place of gender equality on the G7 agenda.
The Advisory Council prepared a report with recommendations and presented it to President Macron on Women’s Equality Day on 23 August 2019, right before the G7 Summit in Biarritz. At the Biarritz Summit session on fighting inequality, the two co-chairs, Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege, and the Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, presented their report with recommendations for advancing gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women and the Call to Action.
The Advisory Board identified 79 good practices in laws for gender equality in four areas (violence, economic empowerment, education and health, and discrimination) and in all the regions of the world. It called on leaders of the G7 and other countries to commit through the Biarritz Partnership to adopting and implementing progressive legislative frameworks for gender equality, drawing on its recommendations. This means:
• ending gender-based violence;
• ensuring fair and quality education and health;
• promoting women’s economic empowerment;
• ensuring full equality between men and women in public policies.
The Advisory Council stressed the need to ensure the necessary funding for the implementation of laws and to monitor them, as well as to abolish any discriminatory measures against women that may persist.
The Biarritz Partnership
In Biarritz, the Heads of State and Government adopted a Declaration on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. In this declaration, they expressed their wish to create a global coalition determined to achieve full empowerment of girls and women around the world. They recognized that effective implementation and enforcement of laws promoting gender equality can be a powerful force for the empowerment of women and girls. They expressed their concern that too many women and girls around the world are affected by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protection.
See the G7 Declaration on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
Eleven States, including the States of the seven Heads of State and Government, as well as the European Union, announced national commitments within the framework of the Partnership to help advance gender equality.
The Generation Equality Forum, which will be held in 2021 in France, will provide an opportunity for members to take stock of progress being made regarding these commitments.
National commitments taken within the framework of the Biarritz Partnership
Individual actions of the G7:
Individual actions of G7 Biarritz partners joint the coalition:
[1] The Advisory Council is an independent body. Government representatives on the Advisory Council recognize the inherent challenge in their dual role as members of the Advisory Council and the G7, and do not consider that this report to be a document endorsed by their governments.