A Partnership of Vital Voices and the Eleanor Roosevelt Project

The climax of a remarkable year for Vital Voices begins on December 8 when our Global Partnership, jointly with the Eleanor Roosevelt Project, will convene the Global Summit for Women Leaders in Geneva, Switzerland. This event, The Courage to Lead, is designed to train and prepare young women leaders from nearly 30 countries to become agents of positive change.

This will be our last major event in an extraordinary year, as 2009 has been filled with notable benchmarks in human rights. Among the highlights: observance of Eleanor Roosevelt’s 125^th birthday; the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the return of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration that women’s issues are the cornerstone of US foreign policy, and her epochal creation of the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the State Department.

The event in Geneva, the city of peace and birthplace of the human rights movement, honors these milestones and renews our commitment to public service, women’s leadership, and human rights. The Courage to Lead Summit will focus on three topics: access to adequate food and shelter, access to education and full political participation, and the eradication of human trafficking and other forms of violence against women.

The Summit organizers invited world-renowned women and human rights organizations to mentor young women who have shown promise. Over three days, comprehensive workshops, training exercises, networking, and brainstorming sessions will enable participants to design strategies to employ in their home countries. In short, the Summit will equip these emerging leaders with knowledge, skills, connections, and international support—assets essential to affecting change at home. The Summit aims to develop sustainable programs to protect, feed, house, educate, and empower women, because to invest in women is to improve the world.

Geneva is the ideal location for this landmark event. It is home to major UN social and human rights agencies, many of which are partnering with us. The International Labor Organization, the U.S. Department of State, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will all be participating in the summit. The Summit will conclude with a tribute to courageous women everywhere, a ceremony to be attended by the Geneva diplomatic and human rights communities. The Eleanor Roosevelt Project will present Secretary of State Clinton with the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award in Human Rights for her devotion to “women’s rights as human rights.” Cambodian Parliamentarian Mu Sochua and Somalian Peace Activist Asha Hagi will receive the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Leadership Award.