Commission on the Status of Women

Fifty-fifth Session

9^th & 10^th Meetings (AM & PM)

To Redress Violence against Women — ‘Prevalent and Pervasive’ — Victims Must Not

Be Returned to Egregious Situations, Commission on Status of Women Told

 

Reparations Should Subvert, Not Reinforce, Pre-Existing Patterns, Gender

Hierarchies, Says Special Rapporteur on Violence, as Session Enters Second Week

Violence against women remained the most prevalent and pervasive form of human rights violations and its elimination depended on the effective implementation of standards to ensure that its root causes and consequences were pursued at all levels, the Commission on the Status of Women heard today, as it tackled a host of issues related to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment around the world.

In opening remarks, Rashida Manjoo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, decried that, despite the global focus on the issue, more States did not exercise due diligence to eliminate, reduce, and mitigate that abuse.  Scant attention was devoted to reparations, while women were often the target of both sex-specific and other forms of violence — in times of peace, conflict and post-conflict.

With that in mind, she argued that reparations could not be just about returning women to their previous situation before the incidence of violence.  Instead, reparations should strive to have “transformative potential”, aspiring to subvert — not reinforce — pre-existing patterns of structural subordination and gender hierarchies.  This year, her thematic report to the Human Rights Council would address the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination in the context of violence against women.

Throughout the day-long meeting, more than 60 representatives of Government and civil society alike took the floor to outline ways their countries and organizations were following up on the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000:  gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.

Spirited debate centred on efforts to achieve gender parity in education — particularly in science and technology — and further, to leverage those gains into a stronger presence for women in labour markets, where they were equal to men in status and salary.  While girls often outnumbered boys throughout the education life-cycle, many speakers said, they rarely gained commensurate status in the working world, due in part to entrenched stereotypes about which professions they should enter and what their priorities should be.

Pointing to a “tidal wave” of change sweeping North Africa, however, Ireland’s delegate said women had proven to be equal partners and equal actors in the call for dignity and basic human rights.  With the script now being written, women’s voices must be incorporated into that process.  Failure to do so would represent a loss of vision and capacity as those countries charted the way forward and tested the United Nations in promoting women’s agenda on the ground.

On that issue, a representative of the National Council for Women in Egypt said information and communications technology had played a major role in organizing community movements and in the formation of ideas, systems, policies and new structures reflecting society’s aspirations.  Recent years had seen strong demand from Egyptian women to enter new areas of industry — electronics and pharmaceuticals included — and even to establish women’s business associations.

Taking a different view, the Permanent Secretary of Botswana’s Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs said that, for many young women and girls in the developing world, science and technology education remained a “distant dream”, due to systematic barriers rooted in cultural practices, policies and laws.  In information and communications technology, where almost equal access to training had been seen, disparities persisted in terms of qualifications between boys and girls, which in the end, skewed the pay structure between the genders.

Related to that, a representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, contemporary migration dynamics showed a considerable increase in the number of women migrating independently to pursue opportunities of their own.  Efforts towards girls’ education had allowed an increased number of women around the world to obtain secondary and tertiary education.  Those increased education levels among women accounted in no small part for the growing number of women migrating independently to pursue study or career opportunities.  For some, particularly the most qualified, immigration was the only way to access the high-level occupations for which they were trained.

Also speaking today were ministers and other high-level officials from Guinea, Togo, Slovenia, United States, Burundi, Croatia, Armenia, India, Congo, Central African Republic, Marshall Islands, Morocco and Estonia.

Representatives of Thailand, Viet Nam, Eritrea, Cuba, Yemen, Andorra, Denmark, Swaziland, Syria, Austria, Peru, Switzerland, Algeria, Iceland, Ethiopia, Czech Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ukraine, Guyana, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Fiji, Gambia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Lichtenstein, Malta, Nepal, Iraq, Colombia, Bolivia, Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia and Ecuador.

Also speaking as observers were representatives for Palestine, Holy See, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), African Union Commission, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions (AICESIS), International Labour Organization (ILO), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

The Commission on the Status of Women will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 1 March, for two panel discussions on, respectively, emerging issues affecting the situation of women, and the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.

Background

The Commission on the Status of Women met today to continue its debate on the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000:  gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.  The Commission’s fifty-fifth session began on 22 February and will run through 4 March.  (For more information, see Press Release WOM/1839.)

Statement by Special Rapporteur

RASHIDA MANJOO, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, said “education acts as a critical link in the realization of fundamental human rights and is a crucial means to empowering women and girls to participate in the economic, social and political life of their societies”.  In addition to recommendations directed at context-specific forms of violence, her work emphasized the State’s role in ensuring gender equality frameworks, evolving attitudinal change, and proactively ensuring women’s participation in decision-making.

Briefing the Commission about her work over the past year, she said her first thematic report to the Human Rights Council in June 2010 addressed the issue of reparations to women who had been subjected to violence, saying the implementation of the due diligence obligation to reparations — and especially to women who had been subjected to violence — remained “grossly underdeveloped”.  Such little attention devoted to reparations contrasted with the fact that women were often the target of both sex-specific and other forms of violence in times of peace, conflict and post-conflict.

With that in mind, she argued that reparations could not be just about returning women to their previous situation before the incidence of violence.  Instead, reparations should strive to have “transformative potential”, aspiring to subvert — not reinforce — pre-existing patterns of cross-cutting structural subordination, and gender hierarchies.  This year, her report would address the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.

In other areas, she also had contributed to the third joint report by seven thematic special procedures on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to be presented to the Human Rights Council in March.  In it, she expressed deep concern at “serious” human rights violations of women and girls by State and non-State actors and urged the Council to reconsider the creation of a special procedures country-specific mandate.  As for country visits, she would submit to the Council’s seventeenth session in June reports on her official visits to El Salvador, Algeria, Zambia and the United States.  During those trips, she paid special attention to the situation of women in detention, and observed that female detainees often endured degrading conditions including overcrowding, and a lack of adequate water and sanitation and health services.

Regarding her communications sent to Governments, she said they largely reflected such prevailing trends as the pervasiveness of sexual violence and other forms of abuse amounting to torture; an increase in cases of violence against female human rights defenders; and State failure to prevent or respond to violence against women.  She also had held regional consultations with civil society, she said, recalling that last March she had attended the first ever Central American and Caribbean Regional Consultation, which took place in El Salvador, and last September, she had attended a regional consultation in Nepal focused on women, culture and human rights.

“The reality on the ground shows that violence against women remains the most prevalent and pervasive form of human rights violations that exists,” she asserted, urging that its elimination depended on the effective implementation of human rights standards to ensure that its root causes and consequences were tackled at all levels.  The Security Council, Human Rights Council and General Assembly had consistently stressed that failure to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating, prosecuting and punishing perpetrators nullified women’s enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

With that, she urged that States be pushed to meet their due diligence obligation in order to create a concept of human rights that met aspirations for a just world, where women’s lives were free from discrimination, inequality and violence.

General Debate

CHERIF NANTENIN KONATE, Minster of State and Social Affairs for the Promotion of Women and Children of Guinea, aligning with the African Group and the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, welcomed the established of UN Women and the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as its Executive Director.  She also welcomed Guinea’s inclusion on the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission.  In Guinea, pregnant women were given free health care, as were children from birth through 5 years of age.  Education was considered a fundamental right for all in her country and the Government was committed to ensuring that right for everyone by 2016 with the support of its development partners.  A policy was adopted to promote formal and informal training in technical education fields.

She said her country was also working to increase the number of women in technical fields and to increase women’s proportion of the labour force.  Nevertheless, women continued to face specific obstacles posed by communicable diseases, discrimination and violence, including female genital mutilation.  Those serious violations were not only attacks against individuals, but were detrimental to all of society.  The Government had adopted a gender-based strategy to prevent that violence, which included care for victims and research into its causes.  Adequate financing must be mobilized to support that effort.

HENRIETTE OLIVIA AMEDJOGBE-KOUEVI, Minister for the Advancement of Women of Togo, said that ensuring women’s access to the workforce was a cornerstone of development.  Education was critical to ensuring that access, especially in light of training gaps.  In that regard, Togo was adopting a new education policy that involved specific programmes that aimed to improve gender equality in education.  The Government had also adopted a number of specific measures, such as reduced school fees for girls, in 2007; the elimination of school fees for primary education, in 2008; and the reimbursement of costs for science students, in 2009.  Significant funding had been allocated to local schools, improving the enrolment rates, and new training modules took account of gender differences in learning.

She said that Togo’s educational programme for population, development and reproductive health had involved teacher training in those topics since 2007, which had positively impacted the faculty.  At information centres for women in five economic regions, thousands of women had been trained for work in the public sector.  Expectations remained high, however, to ensure that the infrastructure of rural schools was adequate to maintaining girls’ retention rates.  She said she had provided an overview only, and she underlined the hope that the international community would continue to support Togo’s efforts to reach its goals.

DRAGOLJUBA BENČINA Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, aligning with the European Union, said gender equality was not just a right; it also determined socio-economic progress, security and peace.  In her country, equal representation had almost completely been accomplished.  In 2008, women represented 48 per cent of all doctorate holders in the sciences.  Still, remaining obstacles to women’s participation in science and research must be tackled.  A priority was combating violence against women, which required a determined response by the Government.  Slovenia had adopted a law in 2008 denouncing such violence, and in 2009, it had adopted a national prevention programme.

Moreover, she said, Slovenia had consistently reaffirmed, including in the Security Council, its intention to promote gender equality and women’s rights in the area of peace and security.  As for promoting women’s equal access to full-time and decent work, 2010 was a benchmark year in terms of gender equality.  Slovenia expected much from UN Women, especially in eradicating stereotypes and truly expanding gender equality into all spheres of life.  Recalling that next week marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, she called on all men and women to stand up and confront existing inequalities.

MELANNE VERVEER, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues of the United States, said girls’ education was the single, most effective development investment that could be made and a key driver of both economic growth and social progress.  But despite gains in increasing girls’ access to primary education, considerable gaps remained, and girls were significantly less likely to get a secondary education.  The consequences of that disparity could plague girls for a lifetime.  Indeed, today, two thirds of the world’s illiterate people were women.  “Incentivizing” girls’ education led to a host of positive outcomes for the girl, her family and community, and must be a top priority.

“If we are going to solve the global challenges, we must tap the talents of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and math,” she said.  Not to do so would short-change the world.  For its part, the United States was involved with a “Tech Women” programme to provide professional peer mentorships for emerging leaders, as well as with the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development programme, in which women scientists worked to improve farming.  The United States, among other stakeholders, was also supporting the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, launched last year.  Finally, she announced a new international exchange programme to support women’s climate leaders from the developing world.

SUPARLERK HONGPUKDEE ( Thailand), aligning with the Group of 77 and China, said his Government’s policy reflected the belief that education was crucial to a person’s success.  With that in mind, Thailand had spared no effort to ensure universal access to education for all and had already achieved the Millennium Development Goal on eliminating gender disparity in education.  Further, it had taken important steps to eliminate the traditional perception that had held women and girls back from achievements in science and technology, notably through the Ministry of Education, which had revised 1,118 textbooks to eliminate gender bias.

Also, he said the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology had set up 879 information and communications technology community learning centres around the country.  Regionally, Thailand was among the major donors of a project to empower home-based workers in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).  The Government was acutely aware that women’s access and participation in the field of science and technology had a direct and positive impact on promoting women’s equal access to decent work.  As such, it had launched several programmes for women in the area of “enterprise schooling”, among others.

ESTHELLA CIMPAYE, Director of the Department of the Promotion of Women, Ministry of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender, Burundi, noted that her country was making significant progress towards implementing Security Council resolutions to prevent violence against women and girls.  Initiatives had been undertaken to increase women’s participation in the recent electoral process.  As a result, women accounted for 32 per cent of the National Assembly, 46 per cent of the Senate and 34 per cent of the municipal council.

Continuing, she underlined various institutional mechanisms in place to promote gender equality.  Legal texts to improve the situation of women had also been drafted and promulgated.  Rape was considered a crime for which there was no pardon.  The national budget accounted for women in all social sectors, including the care of victims of domestic violence.  Burundi’s strategic poverty reduction strategies were required to evaluate the gender dimension, which had encouraged different bodies to assist women, including in terms of income-generating activities.  In the area of education and training, girls were specifically targeted by literacy centres.

HELENA STIMAC RADIN, Head of the Government’s Office for Gender Equality of Croatia, said that, despite her country’s continuing gender gap in girl’s access to scientific education, girls and women accounted for the majority of Croatian students.  Roughly 52 per cent of doctorates were held by women.  In science, Croatia had approximately 50 employed scientists.  Yet women were underrepresented in computing and engineering, even though 73 per cent of mathematics graduates were women.  While women held many leadership positions in scientific and technical institutes in the country, they had not yet achieved parity.

She said initiatives were under way to introduce gender-sensitive education at all levels.  Those efforts, which aimed to change gender stereotypes, concentrated on such things as textbooks and other teaching materials, and recently, Croatia had established new textbook standards.

NOUNEH ZASTOUKHOVA, First Secretary, International Organizations Department, Foreign Affairs Ministry of Armenia, aligning with the European Union, said that, although her country addressed the principles of gender equality contained in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in its Constitution and its National Action Plan for 2004-2010 for Improving the Status of Women, legislative gaps persisted in properly defining gender equity and discrimination.  Armenia had made it a priority to gradually address those concerns through expert evaluation, examination and further reform.  A Gender Policy Concept Paper had been approved by Armenia’s Prime Minister in February 2010, which served as the country’s first ever national strategic document in that area.  In fact, it would define the main direction and strategies of State policy in equality between men and women.  In other gains, the National Interagency Committee to Combat Gender-based Violence had been established in March 2010.

She said educational criteria had been introduced in line with the United Nations Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development.  A full transition from 10-year to 12-year education had been completed and the methods of school graduation exams had been changed.  Armenian high schools had switched to dual-degree teaching systems.  State gender policies were being upgraded as gender education increased awareness.  Nevertheless, those policies still required a gender analysis to ensure a gender-oriented education strategy.  Meanwhile, a gender imbalance persisted among teaching staff in public schools.  Women remained underrepresented in the technical and natural sciences fields.

SAFAA ELBAZ, National Council for Women in Egypt, said information and communications technology played a key role in organizing community-based movements and in the formation of ideas, systems, policies and new structures reflecting society’s aspirations, especially those of young people.  In the economic area, recent years had seen strong demand from Egyptian women to enter new areas of industry, electronics and pharmaceuticals, as well as in the establishment of women’s business associations.  Women’s representation in basic education had surpassed that of males, and the numbers of female graduates from more than 25 technology-focused colleges was increasing, as was the number of female leaders of universities and research centres.

She said that a number of national initiatives had fostered such developments.  Foremost among them was the National Council for Women, which worked in coordination with Government ministries.  Outlining obstacles, she cited rising unemployment.  To address that issue, training centres for women must be enhanced and work improved on the specific issue of women’s unemployment, especially in the countryside.  Egypt would overcome such challenges and she hoped the international community would continue to assist the country in that regard.

PHAM VINH QUANG ( Viet Nam) said his Government was determined to reinforce the legal framework for gender equality in all fields, including education, training and employment, through, among others, its first ever national strategy on gender equality for 2011 to 2020.  Viet Nam had made gains in creating more job opportunities for women and men and in ensuring equal access to education and training.  The labour force participation rate for women was 78.2 per cent, while that for men was 86 per cent.  Women also comprised 30 per cent of the labour force working abroad.

Turning to education, he said that, at the university level, the ratio of men and women was becoming more balanced.  The rate of female students in universities and colleges was 53.9 per cent in 2008.  Among the obstacles to promoting gender equality was female dominance of the labour-intensive sectors, while male workers were concentrated in capital- and technology-intensive sectors.  The proportion of untrained female labourers was still high, and their income was only equal to 74.5 per cent of that for men.  Women also comprised the majority of Viet Nam’s illiterate population aged 15 to 40 years.

ZOHRA CHATTERJI, Member Secretary of the National Commission of Women of India, said her country had the unique distinction of having women at the top positions of its Government, including the presidency and the lower house of Parliament.  Meanwhile, women entrepreneurs were occupying positions as top executives in banks and corporate boardrooms, nationally and globally.  In education, free and compulsory education up to age 14 was a State responsibility, and today, gender parity in enrolment had been achieved.  At the same time, the National Rural Health Mission aimed to provide quality health care for women, while an additional programme aimed a improving the health and nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women.  Government efforts also sought to improve women’s status in technological fields.

“Quietly, a social revolution is taking place as millions of women, especially in rural areas, find themselves exposed to better market information, weather forecasts and other information which his empowering them,” she said, taking up India’ achievements in the information technology sector.  Strides in mobile telephony were ongoing, with 13 million connections added each month.  India had created the globally acclaimed National Innovation Foundation to preserve traditional knowledge.  Parliament had recently launched the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to enhance the livelihood security of rural households.  In that programme, 30 per cent of the jobs were reserved for women.  Concluding, she condemned violence against women, highlighting recent legalization tabled in Parliament to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

AMANUEL GIORGIO ( Eritrea) said education and training were among the best tools available to empower women.  Eritrea had committed itself to narrowing the educational gaps between boys and girls, urban and rural citizens and the central region and other regions.  Eritrea aimed to eliminate the gender gap in primary and middle schools by 2015 and to achieve gender parity at the secondary level by 2020.  Several schools, training centres and higher institutions had recently been built to enhance access to education by all, particularly girls and women.  Access was also facilitated to persons with disabilities and to girls and women requiring additional support.  Affirmative action was applied to promote access to education, skills training, employment, credit and other resources.

Saying the overall participation of women at the tertiary level was much lower than that of their male counterparts, he stressed the need to fill that gap.  There was, however, an upward trend in the number of girls entering college and graduating in fields of study that were traditionally male-dominated.  Female enrolment in agricultural training had come close to parity, and at vocational centres, women’s participation now exceeded that of men in areas such as building technology and business management.  Microcredit programmes facilitated women’s participation in small and medium enterprises.

MAGALYS AROCHA DOMINGUES ( Cuba), aligning with the Group of 77 and China, underscored the particular impacts on women and girls of such events as the global economic crisis, conflict and universal coercive measures, among other phenomena.  For Cuba, education, especially in science and technology, was a focus.  The country had already reached Millennium Development Goal 3 (gender equality) and was working to eliminate inequality altogether in primary and secondary education.  Citing gains, she said women comprised 43.3 per cent of graduates from professional centres.  About 53.4 per cent of Cuba’s teachers were women.  More than 98 per cent of graduates from Cuban universities were women.

In addition, she said 53.2 per cent of all Cuban scientists and 48 per cent of all workers in the science and technology system were women.  Of the 10,000 students attending “informatic” universities, 50 per cent were women.  Women also comprised 39 per cent of all decision makers.  More broadly, Cuba was updating its economic model, which would involve labour readjustments and new forms of labour organization.  Amid such transformation, women would have many opportunities to be integrated.  Finally, she stressed that two generations of Cubans had been born under the unilateral blockade, which also obstructed women’s advancement.

RAMZIA AL-ERYANI ( Yemen) said her country was sparing no effort to meet women’s objectives.  In 1984, Yemen had acceded to the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention, while the Yemeni Constitution protected women’s rights.  Yemen also had introduced amendments to its laws to bring them in line with all its international commitments.  The Government had set up the Supreme Council for Women, as well as numerous departments within several ministries to address women’s issues.

She said that Yemeni women’s needs also had been reflected in national development programmes and strategies developed since 1990.  Concerning education, Yemen had set up a ministry focused on technical and training issues, among other bodies.  There was a budget for teaching and awareness-raising campaigns to increase women’s and girls’ school enrolment and to improve teacher performance.  In sum, she expressed hope that women and girls would become more easily involved in scientific and technological fields.  Women’s illiteracy rate, as well as the gender gap and high cost of education were among the challenges.

LEONIE ROSE MATETA, Director-General of the Ministry for the Promotion of Women and the Integration of Women in Development of the Congo, speaking on behalf of the Minister, Jeanne Françoise Leckomba Loumeto Pombo, noted that the right to education was a fundamental right for all, and said that progress in achieving the relevant Millennium Development Goals helped guarantee that right was expanded.  In the Congo, primary schooling was free, and the Government was facilitating access to education to children of all social strata, including by eliminating school fees and increasing the number of teachers.  Targeted action to promote gender parity included the provision of scholarships to girls.  Training aimed to promote reintegration to girls who dropped out of school, while vocational programmes strove to increase girls’ training in traditionally male-dominated fields.

She said the Government sought to improve the situation of both men and women by eliminating discrimination.  Towards that goal, schools and universities must ensure appropriate facilities to meet the needs of both genders.  For its part, the Government hoped the establishment of UN Women would curb the inequalities between women and men in all societies.

TEDIA ROSEMONDE KOYAGBIA, Head of the Department of Promotion and Protection of the Vulnerable Groups in the Ministry of Social Affairs, National Solidarity and Family of the Central African Republic, said concrete acts were needed to ensure that women’s advancement went beyond mere words and policies.  Providing broader access to education, employment and the fields of science were critical steps towards that goal.  The World Forum on Education, held in Dakar in 2000, had underlined how adequate education and training improved the situation of the most vulnerable groups.  But while the Central African Republic supported access by women and girls to education, entrenched stereotypes against women and girls prevailed.  Indicators revealed a persistent inequality between boys and girls year after year.  High rates of sexual violence existed in the educational arena.

From a social and cultural standpoint, women were prevented from knowing their rights, she said.  Moreover, the weakness of the private sector contributed to high levels of unemployment among girls.  High rates of illiteracy and weaknesses in the educational sector prevented women’s advancement in the labour force.  The Government was working to redress that situation, by establishing quotas for women.  Gender mainstreaming was also being integrated in many policies.

SOMAIA BARGHOUTI, observer for Palestine, repeated her delegation’s concern regarding the continued distortion of the context of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which was unequivocally one of foreign occupation.  That trend of distorting the real facts on the ground in United Nations reports, such as the one from the Secretary-General to the Commission, must be rectified in future reports.  Palestinian women had borne the brunt of Israel’s illegal policies and practices, which had gravely affected their political, economic and social development.

She said that the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip remained critical and tragic, with mass employment, extreme poverty, displacements, food insecurity and the skyrocketing cost of food prices caused by shortages, leaving four in five Palestinians in the Strip dependent on humanitarian aid.  In the West Bank, the cumulative impact of the Israel’s illegal policies on the contiguity, integrity, unity and viability of Palestinian territory had been destructive.  The formidable and daunting challenges posed by the Israeli occupation made the achievement of tangible results towards the advancement of Palestinian women improbable, if not impossible.  Yet, with great resilience and determination, they were making every effort to overcome the obstacles before them.

Towards that goal, she stressed that the technical and organizational capacity of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, as well as civil society organizations, must be improved to institutionalize gender equality and empowerment.  She noted many projects to combat violence against women, as well as the emphasis by the Government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on full equality between men and women.

DAISY MOMOTARO, Executive Director of Women United Together of the Marshall Islands, said traditionally, Marshallese society had been matrilineal, with general custody over land passing through the mother.  Today, new opportunities and challenges had emerged for Marshallese women, who faced hurdles in addressing the high incidence of domestic violence, low numbers of women-owned businesses and low participation in decision-making.

While the Government was challenged by limited capacity and resources, progress had been made, she said, especially with the 2009 creation of the national Resource Development Committee, which was tasked with reflecting gender issues within national planning.  Critical gaps remained, but the Marshall Islands had solutions to address them, and she urged considering how partnership to advance women’s rights in her country — and the Pacific region — was also a critical investment in a collective future.

NAIMA BEN YAHIA, Director for Family, Ministry of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Morocco, aligning with the Group of 77 and China, said her country had made considerable efforts to increase women’s access to science, technology and education.  Today, women comprised 50 per cent of those studying in those fields, reflecting parity ensured by the country since independence.  For women to move from productive work to management positions, however, they required more scientific and technological knowledge.  The difficulty women faced in creating their own businesses, as well as their limited access to credit, training and education, were obstacles to be overcome.

At the same time, she said a significant proportion of university graduates went on to become female, while women-owned small and medium enterprises contributed 30 per cent to the service sector.  In education, an important sector, Morocco had created incentives for girls and their parents in rural areas, notably through student hostels caring for girls from “vulnerable” families.  Moreover, women’s increased role in economic, social and political spheres had led to a budget that today reflected gender equality.  A national strategy for gender equality for 2010-2015 had been devised, which included nine priority areas and 30 strategic goals.

ANNE ANDERSON ( Ireland), referring to recent events in northern Africa, said “an old order was crumbling and long-stifled voices are calling out for dignity, justice and basic human rights”.  One lesson that should be underlined was that in the tidal wave for change sweeping the region, women were equal partners and equal actors.  With the script now being written for the next stage in the process, women’s voices must be heard and incorporated.  It would be unforgivable if that was not allowed to happen.  It would also represent a loss of vision and capacity as those countries charted the way forward and tested the United Nations in promoting the agenda of women on the ground.  In that regard, it was fortunate that the Organization had been restructured to sharpen the focus on women.  UN Women would put the United Nations at the forefront of a movement that would surely be one of the twenty-first century’s most important.

Turning to the situation in Ireland, she said it mirrored those in other countries.  While girls outnumbered boys in the education, too many girls still opted to study traditionally female disciplines, shying away from the more technical and scientific fields.  Following a lengthy consultation process last year, the Irish Government published a new and detailed strategy to combat violence against women, including in defeating trafficking in women and girls.  A joint consortium had been set up to combat gender-based violence in Ireland’s development outreach.  Yet it also recognized that knowledge-sharing was a two-way street:  with women accounting for only 15 per cent of the candidates participating in its recent elections, Ireland had much to learn from other countries.  In areas where Ireland could contribute to the education of others, it would continue to seek to do so.  Reiterating that the real importance of the Commission’s work was to change the situation on the ground, she concluded by saying, “Our task is to keep faith with these women:  to bridge the distance between New York to all those places where women are in urgent need of our affirmation and support.”

NARCÍS CASAL DE FONSDEVIELA ( Andorra) affirmed the global advances in the access of women and girls to education and training, stressing that that progress was nevertheless insufficient to ensure parity in education or their equal access to the labour market.  Thus, one of the Commission’s primary objectives must be to guarantee women’s access to decent work, to combat illiteracy among women and girls and to prevent girls from dropping out of school.  Women’s overrepresentation in the social sciences and their underrepresentation in scientific fields must be remedied.

He said Andorra, as part of its efforts to achieve gender parity in its policies, had created a secretariat, as well as a national commission, for equality.  The country would implement a national action plan for equality, prioritizing, among other things, a reduction in the sexual violence and aid to victims of that phenomenon.

CARSTEN STAUR ( Denmark), aligning with the European Union, stressed the importance of girls’ and boys’ access to education, saying:  “Men are key to improving conditions for women” — as colleagues, partners and parents.  They must not be overlooked in the search for gender equality.  Indeed, equality was vital for societal well-being and economic prosperity.  Further, access to education was essential for empowerment; however, in many parts of the world, cultural practices had restricted girls’ access, which, in turn, reduced their chances for entrepreneurship. Often the commute to school was unsafe and the learning environment unaccommodating for girls.

Moreover, he said gender segregation in the labour market started with stereotypes about girls and women.  More could be done in terms of broadening students’ course choices.  Gender equality was a win-win situation for all, he said, citing a study showing a strong correlation between a country’s gender gap and its competitiveness.  In sum, he said Denmark was pleased that the outcome of last year’s Millennium Development Goal summit stressed the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

ZWELETHU MNISI (Swaziland), aligning with the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Group and the Group of 77 and China, recalled that in 2010, his country had hosted the fourteenth summit of the Authority of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) under the theme of “harnessing science and technology for development”.  But despite many successes, Swaziland faced the myriad challenges of HIV/AIDS, an increasing number of orphans, high poverty incidence and high unemployment.

To address those issues, his Government had taken policy, legislative and programmatic interventions to improve women’s and girls’ access to education, training, science and technology, he said.  Among other things, it had committed to the “Global Education for All” initiative and, in 2009, had begun rolling out free primary education.  Budgetary allocations for education and grants to assist orphaned and vulnerable children also had been made. Regionally, Swaziland was part of the consensus that had resulted in the adoption last year of the SADC Regional Qualifications Framework.

BASHAR JA’AFARI ( Syria) aligning with the Group of 77 and China, said his country had always been committed to the question of women and upgrading their role in society.  Syria sought to promote their situation and access to decent work.  Taking into account that the question of women was centred around their access to education, Syria had undertaken a policy review of that area and taken serious steps to improving its programmes and initiatives in that respect.  Today’s meeting was part of the attempt to overcome the obstacles facing women in all parts of the world.  Celebrating the establishment of UN Women, he said any failure of UN Women’s agenda to include improving the unambiguous situation of women facing foreign occupation would undermine the many hopes pinned on the entity’s creation.  Syria was surprised by the lack of mention in the Secretary-General’s report on the situation of women under Israeli occupation.

THOMAS MAYR-HARTING ( Austria) said that Austrian women had now reached a higher educational level than Austrian men.  However, they only accounted for 40 per cent of the country’s teaching faculty, with only 18.7 per cent of university chairs held by women.  To change that, in 2009, Austria had developed a targeted personnel policy along with a quota of 40 per cent for women in all university bodies.  The percentage of women in leading positions in business and industry was also regrettably small, and in 2010, only 9.7 per cent of the positions on the boards of the list of 200 top-selling Austrian companies were held by women.

To attract more women to the better-paid technical fields was a programme to promote women’s participation in research, the natural sciences and technology, he continued.  Changes were also being instituted at teacher training institutions to promote gender equality.  The Austrian Government had adopted a national action plan for gender-based equality in the labour market.  Its goals included diversifying education and the choice of profession, increasing women’s participation in the workforce, as well as their number in managerial positions, and reducing income disparities between women and men.  Noting last year’s tenth anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, he said numerous challenges remained in attaining the text’s objectives.  The adoption of indicators last year to measure progress in its implementation was an important step forward.

GONZALO GUTIÉRREZ ( Peru), aligning with the Group of 77 countries and China, as well as the Rio Group, said education was among the best ways to ensure gender equality.  In his country, illiteracy had fallen from 18 per cent in 2001 to 6 per cent in 2008.  Moreover, the gender gap had almost closed at all levels of education, and the “national education project for 2021” aimed, among other things, to overcome gender discrimination in the education system.  Another programme targeted girls in rural areas, while a national programme on literacy aimed to help 21 million Peruvians attain competency in reading, writing and mathematics within five years.

He said his country also was working to integrate information and communications technology into the education process.  The “One Laptop per Child” programme sought to improve education in poor rural areas, while another distance learning project targeted secondary students in border and other distant areas.  Despite those gains, inequalities in the labour market persisted.  Women received 66.8 per cent less income than men, due in part to the type of work they did.  To address that issue, a survey on leisure time had been carried out.  In closing, he stressed the need for international cooperation, especially South-South cooperation, for achieving gender equity.

JEAN DANIEL VIGNY ( Switzerland) said, despite the fact that education and training was open to both sexes in his country without restrictions, the choice of post-compulsory training, area of study and profession was still characterized by gender.  That was why Switzerland had taken various measures to promote equality, among them, the vocational act, which provided annual federal funding for developing and implementing measures to reduce gender stereotypes.

He said that, since equal training for girls did not automatically lead to equal job access or work conditions, the equal sharing of responsibilities, as well as the equitable sharing of paid and non-paid work between women and men helped improved women’s social position.  Switzerland had launched innovative strategies to promote equal wages, he said, citing the development of software enabling companies with more than 50 employees to determine whether their wages were in line with the principle of equal wages.  As part of its commitment to implement Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), Switzerland supported projects in various countries, and last year, had presented its second national action plan, as a way of improving access for girls and women to less traditional specialized areas, such as peace and security policy.

BAYA BENSMAIL (Algeria) aligning with the African Group and the Group of 77 and China, said the Commission’s current theme enabled Member States to assess their ongoing difficulties in implementing their obligations to advance women’s rights.  Since Algeria’s accession to the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention in 1996, the country had sought to put women’s rights at the heart of its policies.  A range of laws had been adopted and the Constitution revised in 2008.  By the same token, Algeria’s Family Code had been amended to create balance in family responsibilities.  The Government’s political resolve in that area was reflected at the institutional level by a number of strategies and action plans to strengthen the achievements of Algerian women in social, political and economic rights.  The right to education was guaranteed through age 16, which had improved the enrolment rates among girls.  Currently there were 90 girls for every 100 boys at the primary level.  At the secondary level, there were more girls than boys:  140 to every 100.

She went to say that women formed the majority in the medical field as recently as 2008.  Women also held an increasing number of jobs, and had achieved parity with men in the number of teachers and doctors.  Before concluding, she expressed approval for the launch of UN Women, which would help boost the ability of Member States to further implement the Beijing Platform for Action.

GUNNAR PÁLSSON ( Iceland) said that, generally speaking, the situation of women and girls in terms of access to education had increased in the last decade.  Ensuring a gender-sensitive policy and the increased participation of women in all areas of education, training, science and technology would advance women’s rights and contribute to a better and more just society, while also accelerating economic growth and social development.  In Iceland, substantial progress had been made on gender equality, yet, Icelandic women still lagged behind men in economic terms.  It was important to ask why higher education levels did not translate into higher wages for women.  Legislation had been adopted to establish a gender quota of 40 per cent for board members in companies with 50 employees or more within three years.  Companies with 25 employees or more were expected to include gender-based statistics in their annual reports.

Underlining Iceland’s determination to fight domestic and sexual violence, he said a revised action plan for 2011 to 2015 would put special emphasis on examining gender-based acts of violence, as well as their prosecution.  Iceland had also criminalized the purchase of sexual services, as well as strip-dancing, in view of the clear links between sex clubs and the sexual slavery of women.  Gender equality was at the forefront of Iceland’s foreign policy.  Special focus had been given to women’s empowerment particularly in terms of peace processes, development cooperation and climate change.  He urged other countries to adopt national action plans to ensure the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000).

EVA-MARIA LIMETS, Director of International Organisations Division of Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aligning with the European Union, said the equality of men and women was enshrined in her country’s Constitution and underpinned all laws and policies, as well as their implementation.  In line with the country’s 2004 Gender Equality Act, the Government had continued work to mainstream gender in every area from education to employment, and to pursue gender equality through specific means like awareness campaigns for young people, job seekers and other specific groups.  A 2010 gender equality survey showed that while men and women had positive attitudes towards gender equality, gender stereotypes persisted in reality and more focused attention was needed to dispel them.  Also in 2010, Estonia had developed a plan to reduce violence against women and girls.  Self-empowerment training for school-age girls had also been introduced.

She said Estonia had no gender divide among the very high rate of Internet users.  The country also had a relatively high proportion of women involved in the education sector.  But while there were more women than men graduated from universities, that proportion was not reflected in pay levels.  She stressed that the establishment of UN Women presented an opportunity to enhance the Organization’s work towards gender equality.  The tenth anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) in October 2010 also provided an opportunity to affirm efforts to ensure the inclusion of the gender perspective in peace and security processes.

JANE ADOLPHE, observer for the Holy See, said a real education unlocked a person’s potential, forming and preparing them to make a concrete contribution to family life, as well as to their community and society as a whole.  The principles by which educational agencies, institutions and schools operated must be firmly rooted in a profound respect for human dignity and religious and cultural values.  Values rooted in natural law common to humanity played a key role in a proper education.  Primary education should focus on basic skills and should respect the primary role of parents regarding their children, especially in, but not limited to, human sexuality.

She stressed that the family, founded on the marriage between a man and woman, was the natural and fundamental unit and should be protected by society and the State.  All States must enact legislation to protect girls from all forms of violence and exploitation from conception onwards, including from abortion.  The demand side of human trafficking must be addressed.  The authentic advancement of women began with full respect for the dignity and worth of all persons, with a view to the full life cycle, from conception to natural death.  That necessarily entailed recognition of the deep fundamental anthropological truths about men and women, the equality of their dignity and the unity of both.  It must also respect the well-rooted and profound diversity between the masculine and the feminine and their vocation to reciprocity and complementarity.

TEKEDA ALEMU ( Ethiopia), aligning with the African Group and the Group of 77 and China, said the condition of women was a good measure of progress made in virtually all sectors of society.  Globally, the dropout rate among girls from school was still high, due to financial constraints and cultural barriers, while women constituted two thirds of the world’s illiterate adults.  Similarly, women’s employment opportunities were not in line with their educational gains.  Hence, he urged redoubled efforts to ensure that women and girls had equal access to education, training and full employment opportunities.

In Ethiopia, he said the Government had made tremendous efforts to increase enrolment and retention rates of women and girls at all educational levels, which had led the gross enrolment rate for girls at primary schools to increase from 53.8 per cent in 2002 to 93 per cent in 2009.  The Constitution also guaranteed women’s equal rights and accorded them full legal rights to participate in political and economic decision-making.

EDITA HRDÁ ( Czech Republic), fully aligning with the European Union, said the promotion and protection of women’s rights were long-term priorities for her Government.  For the first time ever, a woman recently had been appointed Government Representative for Human Rights.  Also, the national action plan to promote gender equality aimed to combat all inequalities, among them, stereotypes about women’s role in the family, workplace and in society itself.

In that context, she said the Government was working to decrease, and ultimately eliminate, horizontal gender segregation in the labour market.  In the area of education, the Czech Republic maintained a very high share of female university students, who comprised more than 55 per cent of all university students.  Women’s employment was also relatively high, at 60 per cent.  Among the challenges ahead was the issue of family and professional life harmonization.  Among other efforts in that regard, the Government was working to improve conditions for parents with children to allow them to quickly return to work.

YOUSSOUFOU BAMBA (Côte d’Ivoire), expressing gratitude to the United Nations community for supporting democracy and stability in his country, said the situation of human rights in Côte d’Ivoire remained extremely worrying, with the former President holding onto power.  Ongoing instances of violence were causing destruction and death in the capital, including among women and children.  That situation was unacceptable.

He welcomed the establishment of UN Women, as well as Ms. Bachelet’s appointment as its Executive Director.  He noted the protections provided to women by his country’s Constitution and by various State institutions dedicated to their advancement.  Côte d’Ivoire was working to fully implement the Beijing Platform for Action, including through the normalization of resources and other activities to promote income generation by women.  Côte d’Ivoire intended to make gender equality and women’s empowerment fundamental elements in overcoming its current crisis, he said, urging States to recognize the invisible work done by women.  His delegation looked forward to the agreed outcome of the Commission’s current session.

OLHA KAVUN ( Ukraine) welcomed the first session of the UN Women’s Executive Board as a very important step forward.  It demonstrated the strong support, significant credibility and great expectations regarding women’s empowerment among Member States.  Fifteen years after Beijing, more countries had understood that women’s equality was a basic prerequisite for development.  The persistence of stereotypes was perhaps the most insidious barrier to women’s equal participation in leadership roles.  Those stereotypes perpetuated discrimination and entrenched prejudices.  The problem of sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings had also seriously challenged many States.  That “terrible business” flourished in areas of armed conflict.  The tenth anniversary last year of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) had been a key opportunity to strengthen the global agenda on women, peace and security.

Turning to Ukraine’s domestic efforts to advance women’s empowerment, she said a national law adopted in 2005 on equal rights had led to the development of an institutional mechanism on gender equality; gender-oriented systems for education, science and statistics; civil society activities; and a State human resources policy.  The Ombudsman on protecting children’s rights, equality and non-discrimination started her work.  But while gender stereotypes were changing, the “gender transformation” remained incomplete.  Further development of gender statistics was needed, as well as a greater understanding of the legal aspects of women’s equality.  When Ukraine assumed Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in May 2011, it would include gender mainstreaming as an inherent part of its work.

GEORGE TALBOT (Guyana), aligning with the Group of 77 and China, as well as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Rio Group, said he firmly believed women should not be hindered in pursuit of opportunities and be actively encouraged to make contributions as development partners.  In Guyana, education was every person’s right and it was provided free of charge in public schools.  Both males and females were being encouraged to study and pursue careers in science and technology.  Today, 71 per cent of graduates from the University of Guyana were female, 10 per cent of whom focused on science and technology.

In that regard, he thanked the United Nations and other multilateral and bilateral sources for their support for programmes aimed at promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.  Guyana was convinced that through consistent and collaborative efforts that States would be able to realize the goals set out in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.  Guyana had made a modest first contribution to the core budget of UN Women and encouraged other States to do likewise, but he cautioned that the earmarking of funds limited flexibility in responding to State needs.

SIRODJIDIN ASLOV ( Tajikistan), aligning with the Group of 77 and China, said the access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology were among his Government’s priorities.  Much had been accomplished in the field of education, particularly with the reforms aimed at increasing integration into the world education system; changes in the financing of the education system; and the establishment of a training system for emerging leaders among women involved in Government management.  There was also a presidential quota for girls from remote regions by which they received access to higher education.  Mandatory basic education and general access to secondary education were the main principles of Tajikistan’s education policy.

He said the new draft law addressed issues of access to education on a broader basis.  Starting in 2014, the national education system would be transformed into a 12-year system and aimed at drastically reducing the number of girls without secondary education.  A new National Education Strategy was also being developed by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with the World Bank.  Still, Tajikistan had discovered that achieving real equality between men and women required overcoming several economic, political, cultural and other obstacles, for which support from the international community was needed, particularly in the framework of international projects to ensure equal opportunities for women and girls.

GHAZI JOMAA (Tunisia), associating with the Group of 77 and China, as well as the African Group, said that since independence, Tunisia had created human rights legislation to ensure women’s dignity and equality.  The Civil Code of 1956 outlined the most modern laws for freedom in marriage, prohibiting polygamy and sanctioning those who acted against such edicts.  In addition, Tunisia had worked to implement all international texts ensuring women’s rights and freedoms.  Amid change in Tunisia, the Government had decided to lift reservations that had prevented its accession to the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention.  Indeed, the protection of human rights, including women’s rights, was one way to achieve political modernization.

As for gender equality, he said there was no discrimination in education.  Regarding labour, Tunisia wished to ensure social protections and equality, especially by enacting special laws for lactating and pregnant women.  Pensions should be equal, while social coverage should be designed in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, which Tunisia had signed.  Indeed, women were indispensable to building Tunisia’s future.  “Men and women will be on an equal footing,” he asserted.

PETER THOMSON (Fiji), aligning with the Pacific small island developing States, said the women’s plan of action in his country had contributed to reforms called for in the Beijing Platform for Action, as had national policies against sexual harassment.  Fiji’s target of 30 per cent representation of women on all Government boards and committees was also progressing.  In line with resolution 1325 (2000), Fiji continued to value the significant role its women played in peacekeeping missions around the world.

At the same time, “our power to progress lies in education”, he said, stressing the country’s 99 per cent school enrolment record.  To sustain those gains, Fiji had put in place measures to guarantee education regardless of background or gender, including with the provision of food vouchers, and free transport and textbooks by 2012.  The Government also encouraged girls to consider scientific and technological fields, efforts in which non-governmental organizations played a complementary role by enabling young female students to be more informed about future career choices.

SUSAN WAFFA-OGOO ( Gambia) said women’s access to and participation in science and technology, or education and training in the developing world was affected by various factors, which must be addressed through innovative policy interactions, legislation and the establishment of partnerships.  Gambia had made education a top priority and embarked on several measures to improve literacy among girls and women.  The “Rethinking Education for Poverty Reduction” emphasized gender mainstreaming and increased equitable access to basic, senior secondary and tertiary education, including in science and technology.

Pointing to best practices, she said it was imperative to create a school environment conducive to promoting the health and welfare of the girl child throughout the learning cycle.  Gambia aimed to achieve that through the “Child Friendly School Initiative”, which sought to promote gender equality in enrolment and eliminate gender stereotypes.  The Government was also working to promote women’s equal access to full employment and decent work, notably through the “GamJobs” project designed to improve women’s vocational and technical education.

KANIKA PHOMMACHANH (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) said her Government was making very diligent efforts to follow up on the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly.  That had led to major strides in the fields of education and employment.  The Government had devised the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy and adopted the National Strategy for the Advancement of Women.  The education sector had subsequently developed, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.  Gender mainstreaming was ensured in the education system, with the thrust of the Government’s efforts focused on creating highly qualified personnel to meet the new and growing needs of national development.

She said that new labour legislation prohibited women from being prevented from work on grounds of pregnancy or childbirth.  Through a number of ministries, the Government was leveraging all legalization aimed at women’s labour.  Gender equality priorities had meanwhile become central to national, local and sectoral planning and in the budgeting procedures for national institutions and programmes.  Concluding, she said the challenges facing her country, like those of other developing and least developed countries, demanded nothing less than robust multilateral action to be addressed at the national, regional and global levels.

MOTLATSI RAMAFOLE ( Lesotho) said that his Government wished to share news of the “modest strides” it had made in promoting access to education by women and girls.  Education for all was protected by the Constitution, and specific measures had been taken to eliminate discrimination and universalize education.  The Government envisioned a functionally literate society with well-grounded moral and ethical values and adequate social, scientific and technical knowledge by 2020.  A Gender and Development Policy had also been adopted.  It sought to eliminate sociocultural barriers to girls’ and boys’ education and to ensure gender-sensitive career guidance at all educational levels.

He said Lesotho had exceeded gender parity in access to primary education, achieving 82 per cent for girls and 75 per cent for boys.  Girls enjoyed higher completion rates.  Lifelong learning and non-formal education had also been instituted for the less privileged.  Non-refundable education grants were offered to children identified by the Social Welfare Department and teachers needing financial assistance.  Lesotho’s legislation had also been reformed to guarantee equal opportunities for all and equal remuneration for equal work.  Support services in the form of women’s entrepreneurship and skills training, as well as access to credit had also been initiated.

CHRISTIAN WENAWESER ( Liechtenstein) said that gender equality and women’s empowerment were central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in their entirety.  As education and training were essential for empowering women economically, it was worrying that women’s educational gains had yet to be translated into equal access to full employment and decent work.  The gender divide in science and technology education and careers must be addressed through gender-sensitive programmes that took into account women’s underrepresentation in those areas.

He said that progress had been made in his country in the areas of education and employment, especially regarding the compatibility of family and work, and in providing assistance for female victims of criminal offences.  Turning to gender-based violence, which violated human rights and undermined economic growth, he described a project financed jointly with Switzerland aiming to promote the full implementation of Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security.  He also cited Liechtenstein’s membership in the Humanitarian Working Group of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

SAVIOUR BORG ( Malta) said equal access to and participation in education and training were fundamental to achieving de facto equality in society at large.  Clarifying Malta’s position on the statement made last week on behalf of the European Union, he said Malta was unable to endorse or accept language to the effect that gender equality could not be achieved without guaranteeing women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.  Discussion of rights and services in connection with reproductive health could not take place outside the framework of the fundamental human right to life.

Turning to education, he described Malta’s national minimum curriculum, the legal framework outlining the importance of equal access to education, which provided clear directives regarding the school-to-work curriculum, and encouraged gender-equal guidance, as well as equity in opportunities and outcomes.  Gender equity also was a core issue in teacher formation at the University of Malta.

GYAN CHANDRA ACHARYA (Nepal), noting that the constitutional assembly in Nepal was one of the most representative in the world, said his country considered gender equality a basic human right, a fundamental value and an issue of social justice.  It was constitutionally mandated to ensure that one third of the seats of every elected body went to women.  Mechanisms for gender budgeting had been launched, women were being involved in local development plans as a matter of course, and progress had been made in education, but there were gaps in women’s presence in science and technology.  His delegation believed that international efforts could go far in helping to strengthen national programmes.

He noted that Nepal’s laws had been amended to align them with the principle of women’s equality.  Among other things, anti-trafficking laws had been adopted.  Efforts were also being made to implement Security Council resolution 1325 (2000).  Despite significant resource constraints, progress in reducing maternal mortality also had been made.  Concluding, he underscored women’s paramount role in building democracy and ensuring a stable, prosperous world.

PARIKHAN SHAWKY ( Iraq) said her country was working to restore the unique position it had traditionally held in the Middle East in terms of its social opportunities.  Iraq had earmarked a special quota of 25 per cent of seats for women in Parliament.  That goal had been exceeded during recent elections.  Education indicators in Iraq underscored the great need for efforts to reform that sector.  The Ministry of Education was working with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to adopt a gender perspective in education.  Efforts were also being made to identify the largest areas of opportunity for female students and women workers.  Statistics indicated there had been an increase in women’s enrolment rates in universities from 50.9 per cent in 1991 to 86.8 in 2008, and at four universities, women had achieved parity.

Turning to provincial efforts, she said the Ministry of Women’s Affairs had conducted a field survey on, among other things, girl’s retention rates in school.  The number of teachers of both sexes had been increased.  The Government was also working to establish a national development plan for 2010 to 2014.  Iraq was also working to combat instances of marginalization among its women and girls.

SEGAKWENG TSIANE, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs of Botswana, aligning with the Group of 77 and China, said that for many young women and girls in the developing world, science and technology education remained a distant dream, due to constructive and systematic barriers entrenched in socio-cultural practices, policies and laws.  The impact of science and technology on women should add value, especially in the area of research and innovation.

In information and communications technology, where almost equal access to training had been seen, she said disparities persisted in terms of qualifications between boys and girls, with boys tending to choose computer engineering studies and girls choosing network design, systems integration and data management, skewing the comparative pay structure between genders.  Botswana provided financial support to technical and vocational education, including through scholarships and student loans with flexible payment terms, as a way to encourage youth to opt for such education as an alternative to attending a university.

MIGUEL CAMILO RUIZ ( Colombia) agreed that Member States, the United Nations and civil societies alike were challenged to overcome barriers to women’s access to education.  Colombia’s “educational revolution” for the 2002-2010 period focused on four areas, namely:  quality, coverage, relevance and efficiency.  Policies were implemented with a view to expanding opportunities for all.  As a result, Colombia had achieved more education at all levels, improved opportunities for vulnerable groups and ensured better school infrastructure.

More broadly, the education system aimed to train children to meet twenty-first century challenges, he said, noting Colombia had designed basic competence standards based on equity, which was mandatory for all curricula.  Between 2009 and 2012, women outnumbered men graduates, while in post-graduate courses, more women than men studied pedagogy, the environment, administration and finance.  Women’s increased participation in the labour market was due in part to better education.  However, the country faced serious stereotyping problems, and it was important to remember that social norms were fostered in various environments, including the home.

RAFAEL ARCHONDO ( Bolivia) said that over two dozen articles of his country’s Constitution addressed women’s equality.  Through those, the Constitution sought to dismantle a historical system of discrimination against women.  Among other rights, women were granted the right to land ownership.  The Government also had established a new educational law.  With regard to health, Bolivians had the right to secure and free maternal health care.  The Government had also set up a mother-child voucher initiative to reduce maternal mortality, the beneficiaries of which were entitled to periodic medical check-ups.

He stressed the need to recognize women’s invisible work.  Indeed, women’s contribution to development must be acknowledged, and their contribution to a family unit’s wealth should be quantified in the national budget.  Bolivia proposed to disseminate the concept of shared responsibility in terms of family life.

HELEN BECK (Solomon Islands), aligning with the Group of 77, the Pacific Forum and the Pacific small island developing States, underscored that ending the worsening of social and economic conditions experienced by all women must be the collective objective.  The impact of the global financial, food, energy and climate change crises had not made the ride for the world’s most disadvantaged any smoother, nor made efforts to transform the lives of women and children any easier.  The Solomon Islands still faced challenges in providing education infrastructure and services to enable access to education for girls and boys, particularly in rural areas.  Today, 28 per cent of rural women and girls still did not have access to any form of formal education and the gender gap in retaining girls in schools had even increased.

She said that women operated in two worlds in many developing States — the modern world and the traditional world.  But as women’s conventional roles were subsumed, their power base in the traditional setting was further weakened.  The Solomon Islands was working to mainstream gender within its wider governmental procedures.  Baseline data had been established to allow the development of strategies to enhance gender capacity within the national system.  Noting the effects of climate change and natural disasters on her country, she urged a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by those responsible, in order to protect the women and lands of the Solomon Islands.  The focus on women’s access to basic education should also include agriculture, since that sector remained the largest employment sector for women in many least developed countries.

SARAH FLOOD-BEAUBRUN ( Saint Lucia) said women’s equal participation in achieving the Millennium Development Goals was a rights issue, enshrined in the United Nations Charter.  Women brought unique talents to all spheres of human activity, and for that reason, it was essential that those distinct capacities were encouraged to flourish.  Globally, there had been an overall increase in women’s enrolment in scientific disciplines, which pointed to the need to make that field a more attractive career path for girls.

She said computer technology was a particularly compelling area in which to encourage women’s participation, as the demands of work and family could be more easily balanced.  Thus, promotion of women in computer technology had a practical component as it lent itself to a dual career for women as scientists and mothers.  “We need to recognize that, for women to have the freedom to choose science and technology careers, those careers must also respond to the essential choices she makes in her life to have a family and become a mother,” she asserted.

FRANCISCO CARRIÓN-MENA (Ecuador), aligning with the Group of 77 and China, as well as the Rio Group, said his country encouraged legal recognition of the family, with equal rights and opportunities for its members, especially in the area of non-remunerated work.  Reciprocity between men and women in domestic work and family obligations was also promoted.  Among other measures, the Government had incorporated women’s needs in its “plan for good living”, and had included a gender perspective in the fiscal budget.

On 5 February, Ecuador welcomed a proposal to include women in institutions, he said, underscoring the importance of promoting women’s equal rights in public office and in decision-making bodies.  Comprehensive programmes must be implemented to allow women access to financial resources, including for training.  In the area of education, Ecuador had reversed the gender gap in primary education; however, more would be done to ensure that gains made would be sustainable.

UFUK GOKCEN, Permanent Observer for the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said that as part of the new vision established in the Organization’s 10-year action plan, the OIC was focused on some key areas of women’s development and empowerment.  Indeed, it had held three ministerial-level meetings on women since December 2005.  A plan of action for women’s advancement had also been adopted to advance the status of women in the Muslim world and to bring them into the mainstream of society, including in areas of science and technology.  The Organization had also established an Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights.  Additionally, the General Secretariat, as well as the Observer Mission, intended to highlight the role of women in development, reconciliation and peacebuilding, including women’s role in faith-based and interfaith initiatives.

He said that, in order to empower women in the areas of science and technology, the Islamic Network of Women Scientists had been created.  It was administered by senior women scientists from the Organization’s member States.  In 2010, the Fifth Islamic Conference of Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research had called for joint action among member States towards the empowerment of women in the various scientific and technological fields.  It had also called for the provision of measures that would allow women to succeed in their lives.

LITHA MUSYMI-OGANA, Director, Women, Gender and Development, African Union Commission, aligning with the Group of 77 and China, highlighted the synergies between the priorities of UN Women and the themes of the African Women’s Decade.  That overlap provided a natural entry point for UN Women to engage the African continent.  For its part, the African Union Commission had already pledged to support UN Women’s efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in an unprecedented manner with the aim of transforming the situation of African women generally and rural women in particular.

Further underlining how five of the priorities selected by UN Women constituted 50 per cent of the themes of the African Women’s Decade, she stressed that the accelerated advancement of women globally though the United Nations would translate directly into changes in the lives of African women.  The African Union had adopted the African Women’s Decade as the framework to guide implementation of its Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment agenda through the 10 themes of the Nairobi Declaration, following the launch of the Decade in October 2010.  She invited delegations to visit the Decade’s website at www.africanwomensdecade.org.

ELYSE MOSQUINI, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said crucial to reaching common development goals was improving women’s access to health and participation in health-related initiatives.  Reaching marginalized women, whether in remote or urban areas, remained a major challenge, and the Federation was uniquely positioned to engage with women in diverse situations around the world.

Discussing one best practice, she said the Afghan Red Crescent Society, since 2009, had run a community-based health and first aid programme that engaged women as agents of change, with results showing volunteers playing a vital role in delivering key messages on hygiene, antenatal and post-natal care, and in providing first aid.  The Federation was committed to programming that equally benefited men and women, according to their different needs.  Livelihoods support was vital to both humanitarian response and development assistance, and was an increasingly prominent part of the Federation’s programming.

MARGARET MENSAH-WILLIAMS, Inter-Parliamentary Union, described the outcome of her organization’s annual parliamentary meeting, held last week, which focused on the role of parliaments in promoting women’s access to and participation in education, training, science and technology.  The first point stressed the need to address gender stereotypes as a way of supporting women’s education and access to the science and technology labour market.  “We need to look at school curricula very closely and weed out images and examples that perpetuate stereotypical roles,” she observed.

In terms of education, she said the question was not only to facilitate access for girls, but to ensure that the education provided was of high quality.  During debate on facilitating women’s equal access to the science and technology labour market, participants had underscored the need to ensure respect for international labour standards.  Finally, discussions had highlighted how information and communications technology made for better-functioning parliaments, as it allowed for a level playing field between the genders.

PAOLA MANACORDA (International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions) said the Association, which was created in Mauritius 10 years ago by 27 countries, now included more than 56 institutions from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.  Its principal goals were to promote dialogue and exchange experiences and best practices among its members.  The Association also worked to reinforce the practices of social cohesion and participatory governance.  Although it was well-known that education was a driver of economic growth and social change, 72 million children globally did not have access to primary education in 2007, and 54 per cent of those were girls.  Likewise, 54 per cent of the 71 million adolescents that did not attend secondary schools were girls.

Many countries – including China, Brazil and India – had recognized that science, technology and innovation not only improved productivity and competitiveness, but if used correctly could help fight poverty, protect human health and improve food security, she said.  They were subsequently devoting big resources to research and scientific development, and to scientific and technical education for young people.  The same could not be said for Europe, where continuous cuts to the public spending on education had mainly affected the science-based faculties.  Overall, women also tended to be underrepresented in information technology and engineering.  Those shortcomings must be put forcefully before Governments and parliaments, universities and social partners.

Michele Klein Solomon, speaking on behalf of the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that contemporary migration dynamics showed a considerable increase in the number of women migrating independently to pursue opportunities of their own.  Efforts towards girls’ education had allowed an increasing number of women around the world to obtain secondary and tertiary education.  Those increased education levels accounted in no small part for the growing number of women migrating independently to pursue study or career opportunities.  For some, particularly the most qualified, immigration was the only way to access the high-level occupations for which they were trained.

But despite the skills those women brought with them, they remained disadvantaged for several reasons, she said.  Women were significantly underrepresented in the fields of science and engineering, which were usually favoured in immigration countries.  Further, women tended to dominate professions linked to the public sector.  That had implications for the transferability of their skills.  Women were also more likely to be the secondary migrant, which held important implications for the way in which their skills were perceived in the labour market.  In light of the changes in women’s immigration patterns, she suggested it was time for a collective reflection on foreign credential recognition systems and how they tended to disadvantage migrant women.

RAPHAEL CROWE, Senior Gender Specialist, International Labour Organization (ILO), said decent work in science and technology fields should involve good jobs for women with working conditions equal to those of male colleagues, and maternity protection.  Science and technology were changing at an ever increasing speed, making it difficult for scientists to re-enter the field after a hiatus.  As such, the “school-to-work” transition must be supported by policies and science training throughout the life cycle, especially for women and girls.  To achieve quality education, the status of teachers also must receive more attention, with decent work standards for men and women teachers.

He said the conclusions of the 2008 International Labour Conference emphasized that training and policies to improve employability must ensure equality.  In 2009, the Conference’s conclusions were equally clear on the nature of “learning for earning” and on women’s contributions to economic growth.  Indeed, upgraded skills increased the ability of women entrepreneurs to apply new scientific technologies, thus enhancing their employability and competitiveness.  To increase productivity and diversify into higher value-added activities, those women must be encouraged.  To be fully effective, however, education and training must be part of national gender-sensitive economic empowerment strategies.

BERTIL LINDBLAD, Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) New York Office, speaking on behalf of the UNAIDS secretariat and other co-sponsors, said that, as of December 2009, there were 15.9 million women living with HIV worldwide, representing more than half of all HIV-positive adults.  Today, evidence pointed indisputably to the impact of gender disparities on the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection.  To be effective, efforts to reduce HIV transmission must address the social, cultural and economic factors that increased their vulnerability.

He said that promotion of gender equality was a strategic priority under the new UNAIDS Strategy 2011-2015, which focused on meeting the HIV needs of women and girls and called for “zero tolerance” of gender-based violence — both of which were essential to make progress towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.  As for the workplace, it offered a unique entry point to facilitate women’s equitable access to such services.  At the same time, women working in the informal economy were at increased risk of gender violence and HIV infection.  He reminded delegates that the ILO Recommendation on HIV and AIDS applied to all women and men working under all forms or arrangements, and encompassed all categories, including the informal economy.

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS, speaking on behalf of Joan Clos, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), said the world was undergoing an information and technological revolution with great strides being recorded in science.  Most people were living longer and the Internet and mobile phones were changing the way the world was connected.  Many of those scientific and technological changes were hatched and nurtured in cities around the world.  Many young men and women were also on the move from rural to urban areas, or from one country to another in the hope of benefiting from the urban advantage.  However, many settled in inner cities, slums and informal settlements that lacked basic services and infrastructure.  There, schools were overcrowded and often did not have sanitation facilities for girls.  Moreover, an estimated 100 million street children, of which 30 per cent were girls, endured the harsh living conditions and temptation of street life.

Against that backdrop, he said a multi-pronged approach was needed to respond to gender issues in education, science and technology.  Efforts should permeate schools of science and engineering and centres of technological innovation, and special measures should be taken to increase the number of girls in education in general and in science and technology in particular.  Greater attention should be paid to the impact of rapid urbanization and urban poverty on gender equality and women’s empowerment in developing countries.  He urged delegates to think creatively about how UN Women could develop an urban dimension in its thematic priority areas, including in thinking about women’s equal access to land and property as a strategy for economic empowerment.

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For information media • not an official record