UN Secretary-General António Guterres says gender equality is a fundamental prerequisite for peaceful and sustainable world.
Guterres said this at a town hall meeting on the sideline of the ongoing 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN headquarters in New York.
This is contained in a statement issued by Guterres.
“The challenges we face today, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, the growth and spread of conflicts are largely the result of our male-dominated world and male-dominated culture.’’
He explained that the “perilous state” of world peace could not be separated from “millennia of patriarchy and the suppression of women’s voices”.
According to him, it is the reason why gender equality and parity are fundamental prerequisites for a safer, more peaceful, more sustainable world for all.
The UN chief referred to his “Our Common Agenda Report”, which outlines transformative actions to share power more equally, beginning with repealing all laws that discriminate on grounds of gender.
Secondly, where necessary, special measures and quotas should be imposed that ensure the equal participation of women in all sectors and levels of decision-making, he said.
Investing in women’s economic inclusion and addressing unpaid care work, should be another priority he said, while also focusing on the voices and leadership of young women.
Guterres said every country should have a plan to end all forms of violence against women and girls.
“This must be treated as the emergency that it is backed by the laws, policies and political will needed to achieve this goal.
“Taken together, these five actions have the potential to radically transform societies and create the gender-equal world we need,’’ he said.
The UN chief highlighted growing emergencies from the war in Ukraine to “chaotic coups and conflicts” in multiple countries and the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report
He described the report as “an atlas of human suffering” impacting women and girls ,disproportionately, and an unequal COVID recovery that’s eroding women’s rights.
“These are widespread and interlinked crises that affect us all but not equally,” he said.
With the economy faltering, more women have lost their jobs, he added, and unpaid care work continues to fall on women and girls with “dire consequences for education, economic independence, and intergenerational poverty.”
In spite the ongoing gender-based violence emergency, the UN chief said that women continue to advocate and raise their voices for peace, equality, climate action, sustainable development, and human rights.
“Courageous women are in the streets on every continent, fighting for their rights, and for more peaceful, inclusive, sustainable economies and societies that benefit us all,” he said.
Guterres said that the CSW theme: Achieving gender equality…in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes was “more necessary than ever.”
“It is the greatest sustainable development challenge of our age,” he said, explaining that the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss “pose an enormous threat to progress on women’s rights and gender equality”.
“The climate crisis is a human rights crisis – and a women’s rights crisis,” and climate action must include “investing in women activists, human rights defenders, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)”.
Our Common Agenda is “a feminist agenda, based on equal power, participation and leadership by men and women,” said the UN chief, vowing to prioritise gender equality.
He explained how the report responds to today’s social and economic needs, climate and environmental crises, digital revolution, and gender justice, all of which “is long overdue.”
“Our Common Agenda recommits to the internal reforms needed to make the United Nations a global leader as a gender-equal organisation,” a top UN official said.
To this end, he has asked the Nigerian born Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed to oversee an independent review of the gender architecture of the entire UN family, “to ensure that we are fit for purpose to deliver on gender equality”.
The UN chief raised the alarm over a global decline in civic space, citing an authoritative survey revealing that just three per cent of people around the world live in countries where CSOs could operate in freedom.
“CSOs link governments and people,” he said, describing them as “a vital voice for human rights”.
“When civil society is muzzled, we lose an essential forum for dialogue, the lifeblood of democracy.”
Guterres continued, advocating the “protection and expansion of civic space, where women’s rights organisations, young activists and women environmental and human rights defenders can play their full part,’’ he said.
