The Elders: Calling for Equality for Women and Girls

The Dalai Lama Center would like to share with you a wonderful resource from The Elders. For those who are not familiar with The Elders, they are an independent group of eminent global leaders who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. The organization includes members of the DLC advisory board (Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu) as well as participants of the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit (Ela Bhatt and Mary Robinson).

They've put together an extensive collection of resources that speak to the importance of the equality of women and girls as it pertains to a wide range of topics, including peace building, education, political participation and others.

Here is an excerpt from The Elders call for equality:

"We believe that women and girls share equal rights with men and boys in all aspects of life. We call upon all leaders to promote and protect equal rights for women and girls.
We especially call on religious and traditional leaders to set an example and change all discriminatory practices within their own religions and traditions.
The Elders are fully committed to the realisation of equality and empowerment of all women and girls."

Here is a brief video from The Elders. For more resources, visit their website.