 | |
| Formation | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Human rights |
Founders | Jessica Neuwirth Navanethem Pillay Feryal Gharahi |
Global Executive Director | S. Mona Sinha |
| Website | equalitynow.org |
Equality Now is anon-governmental organization founded in 1992 to advocate for the protection and promotion of thehuman rights of women and girls. Equality Now works through public policy channels to create a just world for women and girls.[1] Through a combination of regional partnerships, community mobilization and legal advocacy the organization works to encourage governments to adopt, improve and enforce laws that protect and promote women and girls' rights around the world.
Equality Now's four main issue areas are endingsexual violence, ending harmful practices such aschild marriage andfemale genital mutilation, endingsexual exploitation including thetrafficking of women and girls, and ending discrimination in law, including the passage of theEqual Rights Amendment (ERA) in the United States.
As of 2019,[update] the organization has offices inNew York, United States,Nairobi, Kenya,Manchester, United Kingdom, andBeirut, Lebanon.
Gloria Steinem serves as the chair emeritus of the board.
Equality Now was founded in 1992 in New York by attorneysJessica Neuwirth of theUnited States,Navanethem Pillay ofSouth Africa and Feryal Gharahi. The founders believed that acts of violence against women were violations of the fundamental human rights guarantees as stated in the 1948Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that the human rights movement to that point had neglected women's rights, dismissing these violations as "cultural" or "private."[citation needed]
Equality Now helped to build public consciousness on women's rights as human rights and to channel concern into strategic action through the Women's Action Network, an alliance of organizations working to achieve their common goals. Supporters who joined the network received campaign briefings and were urged to take action against human rights violations against women and girls by writing letters of protest directly to government officials, sharing information about these violations within their communities and taking other steps to support the struggle to end violence and discrimination against women.[citation needed]
Equality Now opened its Africa Regional Office inNairobi,Kenya in 2000. ALondon office followed in 2004 and the organization opened its fourth office inBeirut in 2019. The organization also has additional outposts inAmman, Jordan,Tbilisi, Georgia,Delhi, India andWashington, DC.[citation needed]
In 2011,Yasmeen Hassan, author of the first study on domestic violence in Pakistan,[2] became Global Executive Director of Equality Now.
In 2022, S. Mona Sinha[3] was appointed the next Global Executive Director[4] of Equality Now, succeeding Hassan who had been in the position for over a decade.
Equality Now works to achieve its mission of ending violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world across four broad areas.
Sexual violence is perpetrated around the world on girls and women of all ages and all backgrounds. Systemic andstructural inequality leaves women and girls particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. Many countries have discriminatory laws around sexual violence, including:
Equality Now works to end such violence by advocating for strong laws and practices in line with international standards, including non-discriminatory implementation, as well as legal systems that support survivors and preventre-victimisation.
Harmful practices encompasses a range of violent acts or instances ritual discrimination that are primarily committed against women and girls and have become culturally normalized. Among the harmful practices Equality Now works to end are:
Child marriage is defined as a formal marriage or informal union before the age of 18 and disproportionately affects girls around the world. Every year 12 million girls are married before the age of 18.[8] It is a human rights violation that legitimizes abuse and denies girls' autonomy under the guise of culture, honor, tradition and religion. When young girls are forced to marry, they are essentially subject to state-sanctioned rape and are at risk of increased domestic violence, forced pregnancy and negative health consequences while being denied education and economic opportunity.
It is estimated that more than 200 million girls and women around the world have undergonegenital mutilation.[9] At least two million girls are at risk every year. The cutting, which is generally done without anesthetic, may have lifelong health consequences including chronic infection, severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth, and psychological trauma. Some girls die from the cutting, usually as a result of bleeding or infection.
In November 2013, a coalition of Royal Colleges, trade unions and Equality Now launched a report at theHouse of Commons titled, "Tackling FGM in the UK: Intercollegiate recommendations for identifying, recording and reporting".[10]
In 2019, Equality Now joined with other organisations working to end FGM at theWomen Deliver conference to launch the Global Platform to End FGM/C.
In 2020, Equality Now, in partnership with the U.S. End FGM/C Network and the End FGM European Network, releasedFemale Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Call For A Global Response, a comprehensive report calling for global action to end FGM/C by 2030 in line with theSustainable Development Goals.[11]
Equality Now also sits on the steering committee[12] of the U.S. End FGM/C Network.
Sexual exploitation is when someone abuses or attempts to abuse another person’s vulnerability or their own position of power or trust for sexual purposes. They may benefit from the exploitation of the other person through making money, political or social gains, or in other ways. Sexual exploitation occurs on a continuum that includes many forms of coercion and predatory actions including trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
International human rights law protects a person’s right to be free from exploitation. These treaties and standards include:
The fight forcivil and political rights, and foreconomic, social and cultural rights, all relate to the underlying struggle for justice and equality. Equality Now's work in this area addresses the organization's goal of reforming discriminatory laws and practices, and bringing justice and equality to women and girls. Equality Now leads and participates in a range of activities and campaigns that aim to hold governments accountable to the pledges they have made to protect the fundamental rights of women and girls around the world.
Every five years since 1999 Equality Now has released their Words and Deeds report, highlighting a selection of the sex discriminatory laws still in place around the world. Their latest report was released in March 2020.[13]
Equality Now has expressed its outrage at theDonald Trump administration military trans exclusion memo.[14]
In June 2018, it was announced Equality Now would partner withHulu'sThe Handmaid's Tale to release the Hope Lives In Every Name Campaign.[15]
At the time of the campaign's release, Handmaid's Tale executive producerWarren Littlefield said, "We are honored to partner with Equality Now to help raise awareness of the vital work they do for women and girls around the world...Their efforts of addressing and helping correct inequality and injustice where it exists for girls and women especially resonates with the message of our show, and we are proud to be part of this campaign."
One year later, in June 2019, Equality Now unveiled its second partnership withThe Handmaid's Tale, The World I Want To Live In, which ran in tandem the series' third season in the U.S. and the U.K.[16]
In August 2019, Equality Now revealed the organization had been selected as the official charity partner for the release campaign ofMargaret Atwood's novelThe Testaments, the highly anticipated sequel toThe Handmaid's Tale.[17] In a statement, Equality Now said they were "honored" to serve as the event's charity partner and went on to say,[17]
The rollback of women’s rights is as relevant as ever, and we hope that this global movement around The Testaments continues the momentum to fight for gender equality around the world. Although Gilead and The Testaments are fictional, they hold a mirror up to the state of women’s rights today. Gilead depicts a dystopian future in which women are enslaved, married off, raped and denied their most fundamental human rights. The patriarchal and discriminatory practices of Gilead are the practices Equality Now tackles every day.
Through a statement, Atwood said she was "delighted" the events surrounding the novel's release would be working in partnership with the organization.[17]
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