While COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated structural inequalities disproportionately affecting females, new approaches are turning the pandemic into an opportunity to boost their involvement in politics and public life, ministers told the Commission on the Status of Women today, as it continued its sixty-fifth session with a morning-long general discussion.
The Commission on the Status of Women continued its sixty-fifth session today, resuming a general discussion and hosting an interactive dialogue via videoconference to investigate how building gender-sensitive COVID-19 response plans can shape more resilient, inclusive communities.
Current and former Government officials, many speaking candidly from personal experience, explored the daily threats faced by women in positions of authority — both offline and in the world’s “new public space”, the Internet — as the Commission on the Status of Women continued its work today.
Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message for the Commission on the Status of Women’s sixty-fifth session (CSW65) Ministerial Round Table on “Getting to parity: good practices towards achieving women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life”, 15 March:
Ministers highlighted obstacles and shared best practices to accelerate the race towards gender equality, as the Commission on the Status of Women continued its session today with a general discussion and two ministerial round tables.
Already rampant around the globe, gender inequality has only worsened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with women hard hit by job losses, school closures, rising poverty and spiking rates of domestic violence, speakers told the opening session of the Commission on the Status of Women today, describing equal representation as the “game-changer we need” in addressing the world’s toughest challenges.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the opening of the sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held today:
The Economic and Social Council, holding its first in-person meeting in 2021, adopted a range of decisions today, extending COVID-19-related procedures, rescheduling delayed meetings and filling several vacancies, including on the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).
The Commission for Social Development concluded its fifty-ninth session today, forwarding four draft resolutions, all without a vote, to the Economic and Social Council for consideration, including one that addressed this year’s priority theme for the 46-member subsidiary body — the role of digital technologies on social development and the well-being of all.
The protection of vulnerable communities took centre stage in the Commission for Social Development today, as representatives of Government and civil society alike explored ways to digitally connect the elderly, persons with disabilities, minorities, migrants and people living in rural, coastal or inland areas with the services they need to enhance their well-being.
