Calls for peace, gender equality as Melinda Gates delivers 13th Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture

The 13th Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture had a strong emphasis on the war in Palestine and a moment of silence was observed for the thousands of victims who have been killed so far.

Philantrophist Melinda French Gates, a prominent advocate for women and girls' empowerment, was the keynote speaker, but the CEO of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Janet Jobson posed a question to all about the conflict in Palestine.

The lecture was held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday evening.

“What would Tutu do? How would Arch have responded to the horror unfolding in the holy land? What would he have said or done about the horror of grief stricken Israeli families in communities; about the horror of indiscriminate bombardment of the civilian population in Gaza”.

Jobson questioned the attacks on hospitals and called on world leaders to make it stop.

“What we know for sure is the scenes and the scale of the suffering of the Gazan children in particular, would have moved him to tears, that he would have spent considerable time in prayer and he would have regarded remaining neutral as an indefensible position.

“When he spoke out, it would have been on behalf of the voiceless. He would have spoken for justice and for peace, on behalf of the wounded, the mothers giving birth and the bombs”.

Jobson said when Gaza came under attack in 2014, Tutu strapped up his boots and joined pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Cape Town.

She remembered how he chanted “We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine; we are opposed to indiscriminate killing in Gaza; we’re opposed to the indignity meted out to the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks; we are opposed to the violence perpetrated by all parties; but we are not opposed to Jews.”

In her address, Gates highlighted the plight of children in Malawi who were subjected to child marriage, which she, Michelle Obama and Amal Clooney were trying to understand and advocate for.

“In order to create change in the world, we have to work towards change and I believe the only thing that is going to create lasting peace and change on this continent and the world, is to empower women everywhere and to make sure they can step into their full power,” she said.

Gates, in her keynote address focused on the plight of young girls and affirmed that society had to treat girls the same as boys and women the same as men. She said that marrying a little girl to an older man, immediately locks her into a cycle of poverty.

“She is too young to have a baby and yet she is expected to. She ends up with obstetric fistula; sometimes death. (With regard to) her child; you start the cycle of poverty right there for that child because the children (babies) are often born preterm and they’re low birth weight and they’re stunted.

“When you look at that issue, which is horrific, or you look at gender based violence. What does gender based violence do to a woman? It silences her. It puts her in a state of trauma,” Gates said.

Gates encouraged everyone to support and encourage young people who were showing abilities in whatever sector.

“If you leave this world better by lifting up one person; that is a successful life,” Gates said.

Meanwhile, Tutu’s wife, Leah, who was an activist who played a critical role of partnering, bearing witness to and of consoling her late husband, was honored on her 90th birthday.

The 90 Voices exhibition, which honours Leah Tutu on her milestone birthday is a collection of stories of 90 women who had contributed in some way, big or small to South Africa’s liberation, was on display outside the lecture venue, Auditorium 2 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

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