Her Turn – Imagining Feminist Futures for the United Nations

Location

PAR-263- Level 2- Room 217 - Kwong Lee Dow building, University of Melbourne. 234 Queensberry St., Parkville 3053 VIC

Overview

This event invites participants into an intergenerational space for reflection, dialogue, and collective imagination.

Our current global moment is exposing the limits of the United Nations’ capacity to sustain peace and security, while calls for institutional reform continue to grow. Within this context, GWL Voices’ HER TURN initiative advocates for a renewed vision of leadership at the highest level of global governance, one that reflects the diversity of the world it serves. The absence of women in the role of UN Secretary-General highlights deeper structural dynamics that continue to shape international decision-making.

Co-hosted with the University of Melbourne’s Initiative for Peacebuilding, this event invites students into an intergenerational space for reflection, dialogue, and collective imagination. Through the Lab for Feminist Futures, participants will engage with leading practitioners in multilateralism to critically explore how the United Nations and global governance can be reimagined through intergenerational feminist lenses. The session combines expert dialogue, participatory exchange, and collaborative futures thinking to move from analysis to imagination and possibility.

👥 Speakers & Contributors

• Dr. Tania Miletic, Co-Director, Initiative for Peacebuilding (TBC)

• Ms. Cristina Gallach, Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications & Public Information, Former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs & for Ibero-America & the Caribbean of the Spanish Government, Executive Director (a.i.) & Board Secretary, GWL Voices

• Ms. Kate Gilmore, Former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Member of GWL Voices

• Representative, Open Society Foundations (TBC)

• Camila Gonzalez Lopez, Feminist Futures Lab, PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne

• Shadi Rouhshahbaz, Feminist Futures Lab, PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne

💡 What to expect

• Insightful dialogue on the future of the United Nations

• Direct engagement with feminist leadership in multilateralism

• A participatory futures-thinking workshop

• Space for intergenerational exchange and critical reflection

For more information, please visit www.gwlvoices.org

or email shadi.rouhshahbaz@student.unimelb.edu.au