An 80 Country “Family” Reunion

by Rob Okun

Some 450 delegates from nearly 80 countries have gathered in Rio de Janeiro since Monday a four day conference on masculinity’s next steps, shining a the bright light of hope and possibility in the growing international effort to prevent violence against women, increase awareness about men’s health, including HIV/AIDS, and promote men’s roles as fathers and caregivers.

The Engaging Men and Boys conference on gender equality is the most ambitious and far-reaching ever undertaken, bringing together an international community of activists, researchers, policymakers, and leaders of NGOs, including the major United Nations’ programs addressing women and girls, boys, domestic and sexual violence, and AIDS/HIV.

The Hotel Intercontinental along Rio’s inviting coastline, dramatically situated in the shadow of breathtaking Sugarloaf Mountain, may have been an unlikely place to openly plot the next chapter in the evolution of masculinity, but the rainbow of delegates seemed up for the task.

Words alone during historic welcoming remarks from conference co-hosts, government officials and the leaders of major United Nations programs couldn’t adequately convey the face of the changing men’s movement or its sisterhood of collaborators. Even slowed by simultaneous translation into three languages—English, Portuguese, and Spanish—the buzz of energy and connection among the assembly was palpable.

After the speeches delegates strolled in the humid Rio evening to a gathering for food and drink and conversation. Clusters of men and women from nations in Africa, Northern Europe and Central America mingled with USAers and Canadians, Indians, and men and women from the Caribbean. The bright light of awareness and solidarity shone in they eyes of the delegates—some meeting for the first time; others colleagues of longstanding connection. There was a sense of deep knowing among those gathered, a recognition that they were part of a big family reunion with an ambitious agenda to tackle in the days ahead.

7.30 a.m., 31 March, 2009