UN Women Announces First-Ever HeForShe GetFree University Tour

Leading European universities to welcome HeForShe activists and global thought leaders

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2015 /CNW/ -- UN Women announced today the launch of HeForShe GetFree University Tour, an initiative aimed at bringing an important conversation on gender equality and women's empowerment directly to students around the world. In commemoration of the HeForShe Initiative first year anniversary, the inaugural tour will launch on September 29, 2015 across the United Kingdom and France – and will reach universities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North America in 2016 and beyond.

Since the launch of the HeForShe initiative on September 20^th 2014 by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, Emma Watson, hundreds of thousands of young people have raised the bar for gender equality, translating their passion into the creation of more than two hundred HeForShe Student Associations around the world. The HeForShe GetFree Tour provides a platform for youth to explore their own understanding of gender issues, empowering them to take a lead in advancing equality in their environments and communities.

"It's this generation of young people who will be the ones to steer our societies and our economies into the living reality of what it means to be equal. Their energy and dedication to making this change happen are inspiring," said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, introducing the initiative. "The GetFree tour is a perfect way for us to connect directly with thousands of students. We are grateful to the universities for their warm welcome and hope that this is just the beginning of a journey around the world on the road to gender equality."

The HeForShe GetFree Tour will visit the following universities in United Kingdom and France: University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of Leicester, the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of Nottingham, University College of London, and the Paris Institute of Political Science (Institut d'études politiques de Paris) respectively. The University of Leicester and the Paris Institute of Political Science are part of HeForShe's IMPACT 10x10x10 programme, which engages ten leaders across three sectors to drive systemic change: http://www.heforshe.org/impact/

The Tour will convene university and student leaders, United Nations experts, and prominent personalities at each institution including; British Actors, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Douglas Booth; Honourable Nicky Morgan, MP for Loughborough & Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, and Women's Editor for U.K. based The Telegraph, Emma Barnett.

UN Women is the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. For more information, visit www.unwomen.org.

Created by UN Women, the HeForShe solidarity movement for gender equality provides a systematic approach and targeted platform on which men and boys can engage and become change agents towards the achievement of gender equality. HeForShe invites men and boys to build on the work of the women's movement as equal partners, crafting and implementing a shared vision of gender equality that will benefit all of humanity. For more information, visit www.heforshe.org/.

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SOURCE UN Women