‘Gender Equality Is Essential to Planetary Survival’, Speaker Underlines, as Commission on Status Women Continues Session
The Commission on the Status of Women continued its sixty-ninth session today with a high-level dialogue focused on accelerating implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, with one participant stressing the need “to make the world notice that gender equality is essential to planetary survival”.
The Platform for Action was adopted at the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women, which pledged to achieve gender equality and uphold women’s rights. Discussions this session are also focused on contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This morning’s dialogue stressed the widespread contributions of the Commission on the Status of Women, with several participants spotlighting challenges, obstacles and large financial cuts that are threatening progress.
“Today, we gather not only to reflect on the profound impact of Commission on the Status of Women over the years, but also to explore ways to strengthen its effectiveness,” Fernando Elísio Freire, Minister for Family, Inclusion and Social Development of Cabo Verde, who also chaired the discussion. To achieve the lasting impact of global frameworks for gender equality, he said, the empowerment of women and girls and the full and equal enjoyment of all their human rights and fundamental freedoms must be meaningfully connected to national and local realities. “Translating international commitments into concrete action requires policies that are responsible to the diverse needs of all women and girls,” he said. The Commission could play a stronger role, including through interactive dialogues like this one, he went on to say, to enhance national gender machineries’ role and improve accountability of commitments made.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Minister for Health of Ireland and co-facilitator of the discussion, said that the work of the Commission has had many positive impacts. It played a crucial role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensuring that gender equality was recognized as a fundamental principle of human rights. It has also been instrumental in the development of landmark institutions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol, while influencing national policies and laws through the advancement of global norms. Because of this progress more girls are in school. Maternal mortality has declined. Key legal barriers have been dismantled. “Gender equality is no longer a fringe issue, but a central aspect to development, to peace and to progress itself,” she added. But full achievement of gender equality remains a distant goal. For example, a girl born today will be 68 years old before child marriage is eradicated; she will be 39 years old before women hold as many seats in parliaments as men; and she will never, in her lifetime, see the end of extreme poverty for women and girls.
Lesego Chombo, Minister for Youth and Gender Affairs of Botswana, also a co-facilitator of the discussion, said that today’s dialogue is a platform on how to strengthen the Commission to effectively respond to the needs of all women and girls everywhere. It is incumbent on all participants to utilize each available tool to continue to achieve gender equality and advance the empowerment of women and girls. National, regional and global discussions on issues relating to gender inequality and gender equality are essential. Further opening such talks to include UN agencies and civil society partners helps create a unique environment and opportunities to better support national machineries for gender equality. “Our dialogue today can make a real contribution to ensuring that global commitments are translated into meaningful action at every level,” she added.
The world cannot afford for the Commission on the Status of Women to be merely a symbolic promise.
Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasil (Saudi Arabia), Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, stressed the need to advance gender equality and the rights and the empowerment of all women and girls “from the halls of the United Nations to the streets where women have marched for justice”. The Commission has been a force of history. “But today, we must ask ourselves with urgency, are we truly meeting the needs of women and girls in all in our countries, in our communities, in their daily lives,” he said. The world cannot afford for the Commission on the Status of Women to be merely a symbolic promise — it must drive real action and change. “The commitments we reaffirm must translate into real, tangible and measurable progress, progress that all women and girls can feel in their homes, in their workplaces, in their schools, in their economies and in their societies,” he stressed. The digital revolution is unfolding, but millions of women and girls remain locked out of its opportunities, he warned.
Bob Rae (Canada), President of the Economic and Social Council, said that taking into account what Member States have announced so far, “we are looking at the potential of a cut of as much as $60 billion in official development assistance (ODA) by 2027”, which will “have an absolutely dramatic effect” on all agencies, boards and programmes of the United Nations. “I say this to you because we need to get focused on the need for action,” he stressed. It is essential not to lose advancements already made. “Even in a time of significant restructuring of the UN system which we are now in the midst of discussing, women’s voices have to be a critical part of the conversation,” he added. It is essential to insist that affirmative steps are made by Member States to ensure “that we do not go backwards, that we continue to go forward”. This process of revitalization is a real thing that is taking place in real time, and in very challenging circumstances.
Joanne Sandler, a representative of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, stressed the need for urgency “to make the world notice that gender equality is essential to planetary survival”. Rather than negotiating long documents, she said, the Commission could produce a two-page action-oriented agenda and review progress every year. The Commission should prioritize urgent opportunities and threats that women and girls face today. Violence against women and girls is the world’s longest and deadliest pandemic. A majority of respondents to a survey conducted by her non-governmental organization want progress on eliminating gender-based violence to be a standing and urgent issue at the Commission. “They want the entire UN system to work together,” she urged. Respondents to other surveys stressed the need for leadership by youth advocates to shape their own futures. “Too many are excluded because of bureaucratic hurdles,” she added. Everyone must be included in the conversation on women and girls’ rights, including Governments, non-governmental organizations, multilateral and bilateral organizations, religious groups, academics, and the private sector, to help dismantle discrimination and shape the future. “This is not just a meeting; it is a pathway to progress; let's make it a superhighway,” she said.
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* The 7th Meeting was not covered.