Reona Fukuhara (B2)
I am Reona Fukuhara, an audit student of Fujii seminar at Utsunomiya University. I participated in the United Nations University Global Seminar Japan-34th Shonan Session. The theme of the program is “What Can We Do to Realize a Sustainable Society? A Gender & Sexuality Perspective”. About 100 students attended lectures during this camp and discussed the above topic actively. In this seminar, we focused on the gender and sexuality issues. More specifically, “Gender, Conflict and Human Security ”and “The relocation of paid and unpaid care work in the global economy”. We were divided into some groups and shared each idea for the group discussion. On the last day, we demonstrated a presentation about what we learned through this seminar and what we can do for a sustainable society.
≪What I learned≫
There are mainly two things that I learned. Firstly, I could rethink about what the “minority” is. Before this seminar, I thought that I should “help” LGBTQ. However, I noticed that each person has an own gender identity, and no one has the same identity. Most of the people have a possibility to be a minority. This means that minority’s problem is a majority’s problem. By having this perspective, I could pay attention to the notion of “we”. It will help me when I think the goal of “No one left behind”.
Secondly, gender issues are important to consider not only at peacetime but also in conflict settings. According to Ms. Anna Karin Jatfors, Deputy Regional Director, UN Woman Reginal Office for Asia and the Pacific, it is essential to have a cross-cutting perspective to achieve gender equality and sustainable society by involving international organizations, companies, universities and citizens. For example, when we try to eliminate the sexual violence against women, we need to apply approaches based on the SDGs Goal 1，3，4，5，6，8，9，11 and16.
This seminar provided me with broad perspectives as to these issues. Also, I could make a lot of friends through workshops. I was really inspired by these people because they had a high level of awareness about their career and goals. Lastly, I would like to show my appreciation to the UNU and Kanagawa International Foundation by which this seminar was organized.
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