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Emma Watson Addresses UN With Powerful Speech Calling For Reform On Sexual Assault Policies

“A university should be a place of refuge that takes action against all forms of violence”

Two years on from her famous feminist speech, Emma Watson has once again addressed the UN General Assembly, this time reporting on gender parity in global universities.

As an ambassador for HeforShe, Watson urged universities to ensure the safety of woman on campus and noted how important it is for female representation across student and faculty populations.

“As we leave home for the first time to study at the places we have worked so hard to get, we must not see or experience double standards. We need to see equal respect, leadership and pay,” Watson said. “The university experience must tell woman that their brain power is valued and not just that, that they belong within leadership of the university itself.”

Watson highlighted that the experience “must make it clear that the safety of woman, minorities and anyone who may be vulnerable is a right not a privilege. A right that will be respected by a community that believes and supports survivors and that recognizes that when one persons safety is violated, everyone feels their own safety is violated.”

“A university should be a place of refuge that takes action against all forms of violence. That’s why, we believe, that students should leave university believing in, striving for and expecting societies of true equality… in every sense and that universities have the power to be a vital catalyst for that change,” Watson said.

Watch the speech here: 

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