Commonwealth Youth Gender and Equality Network

Where: Across all Commonwealth countries at first, then virtually after April 2020 due to COVID-19

Area of Solutions: LGBTQI Rights, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Ending Violence Against Women

Operating under the Royal Commonwealth Society, a registered charity in England and Wales, Commonwealth Youth Gender and Equality Network (CYGEN) is a youth led, and focused network which actively promotes and supports the meaningful inclusion of youth voices on gender equality issues in local, national, regional, Commonwealth and international agendas. In 2020, CYGEN launched #Reform 53 - together for legal equality, an advocacy campaign calling for the leaders of all 54 Commonwealth countries to reform laws that discriminate against women and girls and LGBT+ people.

Leading up to the 2021 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), #Reform53 aims to spark conversations, commitments and actions towards five main objectives:

1. Decriminalizing same sex relationships

2. Reforming consent laws on child marriage

3. Ensuring provisions in law for abortion by choice

4. Ending workplace discrimination for women and LGBT+ people

5. Increased political participation for women and LGBT+ people

In April 2020, when in-person activities came to an abrupt halt due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they kept campaign alive online. The CYGEN reached out to journalists, resulting in being featured by 12 online media houses. They partnered with other organizations advocating for the same cause by joining their campaign calls to action, writing articles for their newsletters as guest authors and drafting blog posts for their websites, thus boosting our campaign visibility. To enhance audience engagement, they encouraged supporters to share selfies of their campaign logo drawn on their palm. The CYGEN launched a webinar series that has garnered more than 10,000 views and engaged more than 100,000 people. The promotional videos shared on social media have now been seen by half a million people and counting. At CHOGM, the network plan to showcase a collage of the selfies as well as qualitative and quantitative impact stories and statistics to further advocate for legal reform.

Video provided by CYGEN

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