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Advancing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls - part 1
Sixty-ninth Session, High-level Thematic Debate AM and PM Meetings
General Assembly President Opens Meeting with Senior United Nations, Government Officials
Two Panels Follow
Despite gains made since the 1995 adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action for Women, a renewed commitment to eliminating inequality was vital to reaching sustainable development goals, senior Government and United Nations officials said as they opened today’s General Assembly thematic debate aimed at inspiring women’s advancement in the run-up to agreement on a post-2015 agenda.
Providing delegates with a sobering snapshot of remaining challenges was Nohelia a 13-year-old speaker from Ecuador, who described a grim reality for girls in her region, which included rape and a dearth of opportunities that had kept generations mired in poverty. She said her mother’s childhood — living with relations and pulled out of school to do housework — remained a pattern for many girls in Ecuador. Fears of sexual assault were rampant, resulting in pregnancies, and a lack of reproductive health care only exacerbated the vulnerabilities.
“If our rights are realized,” she told delegates, “it would change the world”. Calling on delegates to commit themselves to truly transforming the lives of girls, she said it was critical to include their demands in the negotiating and decision-making processes leading up to the post-2015 era.
Indeed, General Assembly President Sam Kutesa (Uganda), opening the day-long meeting that featured two panel discussions, said bold decisions and frank conversations were needed to ensure progress on promises made in Beijing. Hoping that the debate would produce a renewed commitment from all actors, with tangible expressions of support for advancing gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, he said such support was “critical to realizing a truly people-centred and transformative post-2015 development agenda”.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that, even though the attitudes of societies in all regions were still stacked against women, resulting in early marriages, targeted violence and a lack of political representation, this year was an opportunity to “end these wrongs”. Indeed, he declared, the time for women’s empowerment had arrived.
“We can see the end of the journey begun two decades ago in Beijing,” he said. “Let the rallying cry be ‘50-50 by 2030!’” This was the first generation that could eradicate poverty and the last generation that could avert the worst consequences of climate change, he said, emphasizing the importance of empowering women in order to make significant gains in those efforts.
Participating Heads of State agreed, with some describing their own challenging paths to making inroads towards those gains and to personally overcoming discrimination. “Some of us have broken the glass ceiling,” said Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia’s President. “Yet, the current pace of change has been much too slow so that at the current pace it will take 81 years to achieve gender equality. It is not enough to make nice speeches, hold international meetings, issue communiqués and declarations. It is time for equality,” she urged.
During negotiations on the post-2015 agenda, she said “our call for women’s empowerment and equality must go beyond rhetoric”. That appeal must motivate realistic and achievable goals with monitoring and evaluation systems that spurred countries to action. Thanking all who had helped her to “break the glass ceiling”, she said that in 2020, she would have served and left a better country than she had found. Liberia had celebrated a decade of peace, she added, pointing out that her country had also risen to the task of tackling Ebola, with no new cases had been reported over the last 13 days. She also hoped that all would work towards ensuring that the African Union would not return to male domination.
When the floor was opened to delegations, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Croatia’s President, said “we should ask ourselves what we, as politicians, as diplomats, as representatives of civil societies, as men and women, can do to finish the unfinished business”. To do so made sense, she said, pointing to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that showed the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) gain from closing gender gaps ranged from 15 to 35 per cent.
“Through education and media, we can combat intolerance and prejudice, including sexism, and promote equality, diversity, understanding and acceptance,” she said, urging all to “work for the day when gender equality becomes a way of life for all”.
Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister of Turkey, said, as the only male Head of Government on the podium and a father of three daughters, he was honoured to participate in the debate. To aspire to build a better future, it was essential to support the empowerment women and girls, he said, emphasizing that the full implementation of the Platform for Action was critical in efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals.
Although advancing gender equality was among the most important tasks, remaining obstacles, including limited choices in areas, such as education and work, had constrained living standards for women and girls. For its part, Turkey had taken steps to improve their lives, including supporting the Government’s strong belief in equal access to education. “Women are the drivers of development and peace and security,” he said. As such, he underscored the need for them to “be on board” to ensure successful development, for which gender equality must be a stand-alone goal, as well as woven weave through other objectives and targets.
Outlining ways to forge ahead in reaching the goals were special guests Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), and Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women.
Emphasizing that this was the first generation that could put an end gender inequality, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka said overcoming sustainable development challenges hinged on the empowerment of women and girls. Several things could further that, including strong political will and defining a clear role for civil society.
Calling on delegates to do what was necessary to achieve those goals, she noted that Governments were the primary “duty bearers” to, among other things, repeal discriminatory laws and ensure access to credit, reproductive health and rights, as well as end impunity for perpetrators of gender-based violence. The private sector also had a role to play in becoming “game changers”, by investing in economic empowerment and ensuring decent work and equal pay. “Positive masculinity” also was essential, she said, applauding male leaders who had joined the HeForShe campaign, which engaged men and boys to promote gender equality.
Ms. Thanenthiran said that she enjoyed freedom and rights today because of the work, sacrifices and dedication of women that had come before her. Those present today had a great opportunity to unfurl an enduring and inspiring post-2015 development framework. “If you think that the world is indeed a broken place, you are able through this process to put in place solutions which you think will be able to build the world we want,” she said, noting progress in the Asia-Pacific region.
However, she went on, substantive gender equality was still a distant dream for most women and girls — including the poorest, least educated and those living in rural or hard-to-reach areas. “These are the women we should aim never to leave behind in the next 20 years,” she said. Indeed, it was a “travesty” that girls were still prohibited from going to school, or were abducted or even shot for seeking an education. She highlighted poverty, hunger and climate change as additional major challenges, urging leaders to stand up for women and girls, not only in their own countries but across the globe. A development justice model was needed that would deliver sustainable and equitable development, she added.
Wrapping up the opening segment, keynote speaker Michaëlle Jean, Secretary-General of La Francophonie, outlined future challenges, drawing attention to the women around the world who were victims of rape, violence, abuse, slavery and discrimination, and to those who suffered from forced marriages and who died in childbirth. She also pointed to those who fought tirelessly, sometimes at the price of their freedom or their lives, for better conditions. Twenty years after the Beijing Conference, it was time to give hope and concrete assurances to all women, and to take decisions to improve both their present and their future.
She commended the participants’ dedication to the search for peace, noting that women in recent decades could have turned to violence, but instead, they had resisted, with courage, reason and constructive engagement. Peace, democracy and development were inseparable, and “excluding women means they are condemned to fail”. Some normative advances had been made, but they meant little without implementation. “We need urgently to move forward,” she stressed in that regard.
The opening statements were followed by two panel discussions, after which the General Assembly President delivered closing remarks.
