Edmonton joins UN Women Safe Cities

Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2016

The City of Edmonton is one of only two cities in Canada to become a champion city for the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Programme Initiative.

Partnering with the Government of Alberta, women’s groups and other civil society organizations, Edmonton will learn from cities around the globe to support the development of innovative local strategies to address and prevent sexual violence.

“By joining the UN Women Safe Cities Initiative, Edmonton is part of the global movement to change harmful social norms and attitudes that discriminate and tolerate violence against women,” said Mayor Don Iveson. “We are taking action against violence so that women and girls feel safe and live free of violence in our city.”

The Safe Cities programme, which launched in November 2010, is the first global initiative that supports cities in developing approaches to prevent and respond to sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces. Edmonton is one of the few cities in North America to join the programme.

"Every woman deserves to enjoy public spaces without fear of being sexually harassed or assaulted. This global partnership will help make Edmonton's neighbourhoods safer for all women and girls," says Alberta's Minister of Status of Women, Stephanie McLean. "Our government is proud to partner with UN Women and City of Edmonton to prevent violence against women."

Edmonton has joined the UN Women programme in response to recommendations made by community groups. The programme is also part of the work being done by the City of Edmonton’s Gender-based Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Initiative.

All participating cities in the UN Women programme are committed to developing and implementing comprehensive laws and policies to prevent and respond to sexual violence in public places; invest in the safety and economic viability of public spaces; and change attitudes and behaviours to promote women’s and girls’ rights to enjoy public spaces free from violence.

“By doing this work, you are making sure that we can generate best practices that can be shared with the 24 cities in the world that are part of this UN Women Global Flagship Initiative,” said UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The City will identify an administrative liaison who will work collaboratively with key contacts in the provincial government and UN Women and will be responsible for all aspects of Edmonton safe city and safe public spaces programme development and implementation, as well as communication and reporting to UN Women.

More information:

edmonton.ca/safecityUN

humanservices.alberta.ca

unwomen.org/en

Media contact:

Shani Gwin

Communications Advisor

City of Edmonton

shani.gwin[at]edmonton.ca

780-495-0658

Tina Faiz

Press Secretary

Status of Women

Government of Alberta

tina.faiz[at]gov.ab.ca

587-986-1505