Palestinians would change their approach to ending the occupation of their land if Israel’s inflammatory and illegal policies — such as its recent attempt to impose its sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque, a major Islamic holy site in East Jerusalem — continued unabated, the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine said today.
While countries were on track to meet several of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, progress on those related to women and girls was uneven at best, ministers and other senior officials told the Commission on the Status of Women today, urging that more be done to accept women as equals in all areas of life.
The Commission on the Status of Women played a “catalytic” role in shaping global policy on gender equality, as well as in ensuring that the Economic and Social Council incorporated a gender perspective in its work, Council President Martin Sajdik told the women’s body today during day three of its fifty-eighth session.
Protecting women and girls from violence and discrimination was the ultimate responsibility of the State, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences told the Commission on the Status of Women today, pressing Governments to better address the legal gaps in protection, prevention and accountability.
With one year left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 target date, the international community must take decisive steps to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment became a reality, high-level speakers said today as the Commission on the Status of Women opened its fifty-eighth session.
