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STORY: UN / CSW 68 OPENING
TRT: 5:44
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
11 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, General Assembly Hall
3. SOUNDBITE (French) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The Commission on the Status of Women is a catalyst for the transformation we need. At this difficult and divided moment, let’s work together to end poverty in all its dimensions. Let’s do it by investing in women and girls, betting on women and girls, and pushing for peace and dignity for women and girls everywhere.”
4. Wide shot, General Assembly
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The facts are clear: Women lead to peace. Budgets and policies must follow – with ambitious targets for women’s participation and urgent investments in women’s peacebuilding.”
6. Wide shot, General Assembly
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We cannot accept a world in which grandmothers fear their granddaughters will enjoy fewer rights than they had. We must speak out, loud and clear: Not on our watch.”
8. Wide shot, General Assembly
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Women’s needs, women’s bodies, and women’s fundamental rights are ignored. Male-dominated algorithms could literally programme inequalities into activities from urban planning to credit ratings to medical imaging, for years to come. This endangers men and boys, as well as women and girls.”
10. Wide shot, General Assembly
11. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
It’s time for governments, civil society and the Silicon Valleys of the world to join a massive effort to bridge the digital gender divide and ensure women have decision-making roles in digital technology at all levels. This is one of the main goals of the Global Digital Compact that will be central to the Summit of the Future in September.”
12. Wide shot, General Assembly
13. SOUNDBITE (French) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“It takes policies that drive women’s full economic participation and empowerment, through decent work, training, upgrading skills, accessible public services, and social protection. Governments must recognize the key economic role of unpaid care work, with policies that support both mothers and fathers to take paid work outside the home. They should ensure that their climate policies, including a just and equitable transition to renewable energy, boost employment opportunities for women, and improve access to goods and services for women and girls.”
14. Wide shot, General Assembly
15. SOUNDBITE (French) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Accelerating gender equality by tackling poverty requires women’s full representation and leadership of financial institutions. More than eight out of 10 finance ministers are men. More than nine out of 10 central bank governors are men. Overwhelmingly male-dominated financial institutions need to dismantle the structural barriers that are blocking women from leadership roles.”
16. Wide shot, General Assembly
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Stacey Mdala, Youth Representative, Data Scientist from Malawi:
“I urge each and every one of us to make a deliberate efforts in supporting us young people to continuing our diversities, protecting us against all forms of discrimination and harassment because we want to be heard.”
18. Wide shot, General Assembly
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Stacey Mdala, Youth Representative, Data Scientist from Malawi:
“I urge you to invest in women and girls, women and girls in engineering, in science, in math.
We, ladies and gentleman, we want equity in allocation of these resources. And we want equality in all these opportunities. Last empower young women and girls. Let us be their allies or not opponents. Let us support them and not precede them.”
20. Wide shot, General Assembly
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women:
“We call on the immediate and safe delivery of humanitarian aid across Gaza, the release of all hostages, an end to occupation and for a return to a path of peace, a peace that is just and comprehensive and that is inclusive of the crucial voices and leadership of women. This is our only hope for the future we want.”
22. Wide shot, General Assembly
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women:
“More than 100 million women and girls could be lifted out of poverty. If government prioritized education health care, fair and equal wages and expanded social benefits. Closing gender gaps and employment could boost gross domestic product per capita by 20 percent across all regions. The return on investment in gender equality is a guaranteed win for any society and economy.”
24. Wide shot, General Assembly
Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The Commission on the Status of Women is a catalyst for the transformation we need,” adding that at this difficult and divided moment, let’s end poverty in all dimensions by “investing in women and girls, betting on women and girls, and pushing for peace and dignity for women and girls everywhere.”
Guterres today (11 Mar) made his remarks the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
The UN chief noted that the world is going through turbulent times, and women and girls are being hit hard. In conflict zones around the globe, women and girls are suffering most from wars waged by men.
The Secretary-General reiterated, “The facts are clear: Women lead to peace. Budgets and policies must follow – with ambitious targets for women’s participation and urgent investments in women’s peacebuilding.”
Guterres also said that many women and girls are also facing a war on their fundamental rights at home and in their communities. Hard-fought progress is being reversed.
He said, “We cannot accept a world in which grandmothers fear their granddaughters will enjoy fewer rights than they had. We must speak out, loud and clear: Not on our watch.”
On digital technologies, and particularly Artificial Intelligence, the UN chief said that they are today dominated by men – as leaders, and at the technical level.
Guterres added, “Women’s needs, women’s bodies, and women’s fundamental rights are ignored. Male-dominated algorithms could literally programme inequalities into activities from urban planning to credit ratings to medical imaging, for years to come. This endangers men and boys, as well as women and girls.”
He reiterated, “It’s time for governments, civil society and the Silicon Valleys of the world to join a massive effort to bridge the digital gender divide and ensure women have decision-making roles in digital technology at all levels. This is one of the main goals of the Global Digital Compact that will be central to the Summit of the Future in September.”
The Secretary-General also said that globally, poverty has a female face. He is counting on governments’ support for deep reform of the international financial architecture at the Summit of the Future in September, so that it reflects today’s global economy and meets the financial needs of developing countries, enabling them to invest in equality and opportunity for women and girls.
At the national level, governments have a responsibility to invest in ending poverty and achieving inclusive, sustainable development for all. That takes budgets and taxes that address the specific needs of women and girls living in poverty, Guterres pointed out.
He said, “It takes policies that drive women’s full economic participation and empowerment, through decent work, training, upgrading skills, accessible public services, and social protection.”
“Governments must recognize the key economic role of unpaid care work, with policies that support both mothers and fathers to take paid work outside the home. They should ensure that their climate policies, including a just and equitable transition to renewable energy, boost employment opportunities for women, and improve access to goods and services for women and girls,” the UN chief added.
Speaking in French, Guterres reiterated, “Accelerating gender equality by tackling poverty requires women’s full representation and leadership of financial institutions.”
He explained, “More than eight out of 10 finance ministers are men. More than nine out of 10 central bank governors are men. Overwhelmingly male-dominated financial institutions need to dismantle the structural barriers that are blocking women from leadership roles.”
Youth Representative Stacey Mdala also spoke at the General Assembly. She is a data Scientist from Malawi.
She urged “each and every one of us to make a deliberate efforts in supporting us young people to continuing our diversities, protecting us against all forms of discrimination and harassment because we want to be heard.”
Mdala also urged leaders to “invest in women and girls, women and girls in engineering, in science, in math.”
“We want equity in allocation of these resources. And we want equality in all these opportunities. Last empower young women and girls. Let us be their allies or not opponents. Let us support them and not precede them,” she conclude.
Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Bahous, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, she also call for the immediate and safe delivery of humanitarian aid across Gaza, the release of all hostages, an end to occupation and for a return to a path of peace, a peace that is just and comprehensive and that is inclusive of the crucial voices and leadership of women.”
“This is our only hope for the future we want,” she said.
Bahous also said, “More than 100 million women and girls could be lifted out of poverty. If government prioritized education health care, fair and equal wages and expanded social benefits. Closing gender gaps and employment could boost gross domestic product per capita by 20 percent across all regions. The return on investment in gender equality is a guaranteed win for any society and economy.”
The 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment, takes place this year from 11 - 22 March in New York.
The priority theme is “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”.
