UNITED NATIONS, Mar 08 (APP): Thirty years after world leaders adopted a historic blueprint to achieve gender equality, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an International Women’s Day celebration Friday that “women’s rights are under attack,” and announced the launch of “a bold, urgent pledge to defend and advance the rights of all women and girls.”
“We gather today not just to celebrate the International Women’s Day, but to move forward – resilient, united, and unwavering in our pursuit of “equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of humanity,”
he told a colourful gathering in the UN General Assembly hall.
Pakistan was represented at the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, where she received a resounding welcome as the first female to lead an Islamic country.
At the opening of the event, General Assembly President Philemon Yang said, “while we have made undeniable progress, full gender equality remains out of reach. “
The journey is far from over and much remains to be done,” he said.
“And while we celebrate the growing number of women in parliaments, progress remains slow. At the current trajectory gender parity in legislative bodies may not be achieved until 2063.”
Yang said it was “a tragic and enduring reality that women remain disproportionately vulnerable to violence. This state of affairs was fuelled and reinforced by social norms that normalize sexism and misogyny.”
Guterres, in his remarks to the event, said, “we gather today not just to celebrate the International Women’s Day, but to move forward – resilient, united, and unwavering,” and quoting the Beijing Declaration added, in pursuit of “equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of humanity.”
The Secretary-General said, “centuries of discrimination are being exacerbated by new threats. Digital tools, while brimming with promise, are also often silencing women’s voices, amplifying bias, and fuelling harassment. Women’s bodies have become political battlegrounds. And online violence is escalating into real-life violence.”
He said, “we cannot stand by as progress is reversed. We must fight back,” and stressed that “systemic change is possible – with concerted and determined action.”
The Clarion Call sets out four priorities: Unified leadership; action against pushbacks; coordinated impact; and protecting women human rights defenders.
For her part, the Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous said, “the cause of gender equality has never been more urgent, nor the obstacles in our way more apparent, but our determination has never been more unshakable.”
Echoing the Secretary-General’s words, she said, “we must champion women’s rights; we must confront the backlash; we must enhance our efforts to dismantle systemic inequalities; and we must protect women human rights defenders.”
Ms. Bahous said, “real solutions require that women be at the heart of decision making. From Afghanistan to the DRC
(Democratic Republic of Congo); from Palestine, Gaza, to Haiti, to Myanmar, Sudan and beyond, women bear the heaviest burdens of conflict, displacement, hardship and loss.
“Yet we know that when women are at the table, peace is broader, more inclusive and more enduring.”
She said, “we know that when women’s voices are heard equally, societies thrive. We know that when women lead, economies prosper. We know all this, now we must act on it.”
According to UN Women, the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action comes at a time of mounting global crises, from economic instability and the climate emergency to democratic erosion and backlash against gender equality.
It is called the world’s most comprehensive, visionary plan ever created to achieve the equal rights of ALL women and girls.
Agreed by 189 governments in 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Platform centres on 12 areas of action – referred to as “critical areas of concern”. These cover jobs and the economy, political participation, peace, the environment, ending violence against women and more.
Meanwhile, all is set for the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2025.
Pakistan will be represented by a six-member delegation which includes Dr. Nafisa Shah, Zartaj Gul and the National Assembly Deputy Speaker, Syed Ghulam Mustafa.