UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Annie Lennox galvanized participants at the opening of the Women Deliver conference, which is taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 16 to 19 May. Ms Lennox said that women had to break down the structures that cemented gender inequality and end all forms of gender-based violence. Her speech electrified the more than 5000 delegates taking part in the conference, which is the world’s largest global conference on the health, rights, and well-being of girls and women to take place in the past decade.
The 2016 Women Deliver conference is being held under the theme of “Implement the Sustainable Development Goals so they matter most for girls and women.” The conference has a special focus on health, and in particular maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights. Other themes include gender equality, education, the environment and economic empowerment.
The agenda of Women Deliver is central to the UNAIDS Fast-Track approach which calls for action on women’s empowerment and the advancement of sexual and reproductive health and rights in order to end the AIDS epidemic.
Other speakers at the opening ceremony included Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of Denmark, Jill Sheffield, the Chief Executive Officer and President of Women Deliver, Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Prime Minister of Norway, Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, and the journalist, human rights activist and Nobel Prize laureate, Tawakkol Karman.
