After ‘Remarkable Year’ for Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, ... http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/gashc4008.doc.htm 10 October 2011 General Assembly GA/SHC/4008 Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York Sixty-sixth General Assembly Third Committee 9th & 10 th Meetings (AM & PM) AFTER ‘REMARKABLE YEAR’ FOR GENDER EQUALITY, WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT, MOMENTUM MUST BE TURNED INTO TANGIBLE GAINS FOR WOMEN, GIRLS EVERYWHERE, THIRD COMMITTEE TOLD UN-Women’s Deputy Executive Director: ‘We Are Moving in the Right Direction’; Special Rapporteur on Violence, Chair of Anti-Discrimination Committee Also Speak Following a remarkable year in the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment that was marked by the establishment of UN-Women and the launch of the Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, it was now time to turn the momentum generated in 2010 into clear, tangible gains for women and girls everywhere, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today. Speaking at the start of the Committee’s three-day discussion on the advancement of women, Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships Bureau of UN-Women, said those landmark events had strengthened global resolve to close the persistent gaps between commitments and women’s daily realities, between women’s rights in the law and their enjoyment of those rights in practice, and between existing empowerment policies and women’s actual well-being and security. “We have many good indications that we are moving in the right directions,” she stressed, noting that, during the General Assembly’s annual debate last month, world leaders had signed on to a joint statement on advancing women’s political participation and UN-Women was committed to translating it into concrete results. “UN-Women stands beside women around the world who are demanding that their voice be heard and they have equal participation in decision-making.” Outlining UN-Women’s work, she said progress had been made in its institutional consolidation, including the alignment of staff resources. As attention turned to boosting its field presence, significant efforts were being made to position UN-Women as a catalyst for change. At the same time, however, the women-focused entity continued to struggle to identify the funding required for its full start up. “One year after its establishment, UN-Women is seriously under-resourced, hampering our ability to deliver on the expectations of stakeholders,” she said, appealing for support from Member States in order to deliver prompt, concrete results. Pressed by the Kenyan delegation, on behalf of the African Group, to detail what its leadership was doing to secure the needed funds, Ms. Puri said it was not only approaching traditional donors, but asking them to prioritize UN-Women for the next two years as it built up its foundational capacity. Appeals were also being made to non-traditional and emerging country donors, as well as the private sector and foundations. She further encouraged Member States to prioritize gender equality and women’s empowerment in their bilateral aid negotiations since this would allow for aid to be made available at the country level. 1 of 20 10/11/2011 11:21 AM After ‘Remarkable Year’ for Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, ... http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/gashc4008.doc.htm Presenting two reports of the Secretary-General on migrant women workers and women in rural areas, she also stressed that specific and targeted policy responses must be crafted both to empower those two groups of women and to prevent discrimination against them. States and United Nations entities had been active in setting up measures to empower rural women and women migrant workers, but there was a dearth of knowledge on the impact of such initiatives. Further, current approaches were both general and ad hoc, which meant they lacked the targeted and systematic nature needed to make a dramatic difference in the lives of those women. Outlining her first written report to the General Assembly under the terms of resolution 65/187, Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, said it was clear that the investigation, prosecution, protection and redress measures for women victims of violence directly affected the prevalence rates of such violence. To prevent future violence, States should address structural discrimination and ensure women’s empowerment, while committing the same efforts and resources to addressing violence against women that they committed to curbing other forms of violence. States also needed to consider the specificities of violence against women in order to recognize the diverse kinds of oppression faced by women. Stressing that violence against women was not the root problem, she said it occurred because other forms of discrimination were allowed to flourish. Indeed, if a woman experienced violence at home and was then denied security and protection by the legal system, she was encountering multiple forms of violence. In that context, efforts to end all forms of violence against women must consider how structures of discrimination and inequality perpetuated and exacerbated a victim’s realties. “Interventions that seek to only ameliorate the abuse, and which do not factor in women’s realities, are not challenging the fundamental gender inequalities and discrimination that contribute to the abuse in the first place,” she said, calling for a holistic approach to eliminating all forms of violence against all women that addressed inequality and discrimination among women, as well as between women and men. She also described for the Committee the results of the visits she made to Algeria, Zambia and the United States this year as part of her mandate. Silvia Pimentel, Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, presented the Secretary-General’s report on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Noting that 187 States were now party to that international instrument, she said it was now just seven Parties short of universal ratification and called on those seven States — Iran, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tonga and the United States — to undertake the necessary domestic procedures to ratify or accede expeditiously, thereby joining the global consensus that women’s rights were human rights. During the ensuing debate, delegations called for States and the United Nations system to do more to protect the rights of women to participate on equal terms during all phases of political transitions, as well as during peace negotiations. Several speakers also drew a direct a connections between women’s economic advancement and their empowerment. Norway’s representative stressed that gender equality could not be a side-activity or extra programme, but had to be mainstreamed into all development processes. Arguing the corollary on behalf of the Arab Group, Qatar’s representative stressed that any development strategy that did not address the advancement of women was destined to fail. Speaking on behalf of the African Group, Kenya’s representative called for more efforts to be directed towards the empowerment of rural women. “The role of rural women in Africa is central to social and economic development. It is, therefore, difficult to achieve societal transformation without their productive participation,” he said. Also offering comments today were the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development for Nigeria and the Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children of the United Republic of Tanzania (on behalf of the Southern African Development Community). 2 of 20 10/11/2011 11:21 AM After ‘Remarkable Year’ for Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, ... http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/gashc4008.doc.htm The representatives of Argentina (also on behalf of the Group of 77 and China), Guyana (on behalf of Caribbean Community), Malaysia (on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Chile (also on behalf of the Rio Group), Liechtenstein, Senegal, United States, Thailand, Nicaragua, China, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, Russian Federation, Libya, Japan, Cuba, Israel and the Netherlands also spoke. Also participating in today’s question and answer sessions were representatives of Kenya (on behalf of the African Group), Algeria, Zambia, Australia, the United States, Liechtenstein, Niger, the European Union, Cameroon, Benin, Sierra Leone, Costa Rica, Sweden (on behalf of Nordic countries) and Timor-Leste. The Third Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 11 October, to hear the introduction of draft resolutions related to social development and to continue its discussion of the advancement of women. Background The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met today to begin its general discussion on the advancement of women. The Committee had before it the report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (document A/66/38 Supplement No. 38), which summarizes that body’s work. It covers the forty-sixth session, held from 12 to 30 July 2010 at United Nations Headquarters, as well as its forty- seventh and forty-eighth sessions, held from 4 to 22 October 2010 and from 17 January to 4 February 2011 in Geneva. The Secretary-General’s report on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All