Metropolis Secretariat General
Metropolis Women presidency impacts role of cities in eradicating urban violence
The Seoul Foundation of Women and Family held the 2nd Asian Women’s Network Forum entitled "Building safe and inclusive cities for women" on 1 September. This event was organised in order to analyse Sustainable Development Goal 11 – to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable – and featured President of Metropolis Women Laura Pérez Castaño speaking in the second session: Building safe cities out of violence. Pérez began her speech by stressing the right to the city and highlighting usability as a fundamental element of cities and metropolitan areas. She then turned to the threefold role of local government in eradicating urban violence in our cities:
- Decreasing sexual violence and harassment against women and girls in public spaces, by implementing legislation, local ordinances and policies to raise awareness and bring about cultural change in coordination with different stakeholders of civil society and feminist organisations.
- Decreasing the feeling of insecurity among women and girls, in two main areas: Mobility and Urban planning.
- Establishing solid international agreements as a key strategy for more efficient, sustainable public policies to prevent, reduce and eradicate all types of violence against women and girls in public spaces.
The 2nd Asian Women’s Network Forum came to a close with the guest cities from Asia and the President of Metropolis Women signing the Recommendations of the 2nd Asian Women’s Network Forum "Building safe and inclusive cities for women".
Work on these recommendations began at the debate session entitled "Asian Dialogue" held on 31 August, where Laura Pérez coincided with some representatives of the Huairou Commission, which helped organise the Habitat III Gender Assembly Day along with Metropolis and other organisations.
The aim is for these recommendations to be incorporated into the New Urban Agenda, which will be made official at the Habitat III Conference. Click here to see the recommendations.
Additionally, the Metropolis Women Presidency took advantage of their time in Seoul to meet with Mr Ahn Joon Ho, president of the SHRDC, which serves as the headquarters of the Metropolis training programme. At this meeting, they requested that gender mainstreaming be included in all training programmes in 2017, which is one of the main goals of the new Metropolis Women workplan.