Goedele, being a clinical psychologist and sexologist, is a well-know television personality in both Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Many of her television work reached neighbouring countries and beyond, making her a well-known and trustworthy expert in the field. Her work is perceived as ground-breaking, bringing sexual health and sexual and reproductive rights for girls and women to the center of society’s stage.
Ever since 1999, Goedele has been UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) Goodwill Ambassador for Sexual Health, a role for which she has undertaken many missions worldwide, in order to support women to determine their own sexual health and life: as an Ambassador, she made several documentaries for UNFPA on safe birthing in Afghanistan, child soldiers in Uganda, FGM in Somalia & Tanzania, Fistula in Ethiopia & Nigeria, Matriarchal society in Niger, Polyandry in the Himalaya region and child marriages in Nigeria. In 2010 she was appointed a Millennium Development Goal Champion by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Moreover, Kofi Annan himself asked her to be the spokesperson for the MDG’s as well.
To Goedele, child marriage, female genital mutilation, AIDS, pregnancy complications and (comprehensive) sexual education are key issues. Regarding the last one, Goedele has been given her own television programme on British television, on Channel 4, called Sex in Class, wherein she helped to transform the traditional manner of teaching sexual education to youngsters. The show was received tremendously positive by the British press, where she was front cover news in The Times and where The Guardian spoke of “cloning this woman” for having a British version of her too!
Next to her numerous endeavours in media documentaries as an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights and women’s rights as a whole, Goedele Liekens is an author who has written many books on human sexual experience, for both men and women. As such, she has levelled the pavement for an open and constructive dialogue in Belgium, the Netherlands and beyond with regard to sexuality and gender relations in society.
Being the activist for women’s rights and equality that she is, she got elected into the Federal Parliament in May 2019 as a Member of Parliament, where she takes place in both the Commission of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Advisory Committee on Societal Emancipation. In addition, Goedele is also a member of the EPF (European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights) Executive Committee, as well as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group – Parliamentarians for the Agenda 2030, This group’s main focus is health and gender in the Cairo Programme of Action and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
Above all, the University of Brussels (VUB) granted her the VUB Fellowship Title in 2017.
