Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
at the Annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming during the opening of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council
Theme: Thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
Geneva, 24 February 2025
(As Delivered)
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for the opportunity to join you today.
My sincere thanks go to H.E. J¨¹rg Lauber, President of the Human Rights Council, for the kind invitation to address this annual high-level panel.
This year we commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women.
This should ideally be a moment to celebrate 30-years of progress; yet we are forced to confront hard truths.
The truth is so stubborn that it is irreversible and eternal.?
While there has been some progress in areas such as closing the gap on girls¡¯ education, improving health outcomes for women, and the adoption of more gender related laws, we are still a long way off from achieving gender equality and women¡¯s empowerment. We have a moral obligation to promote the empowerment of women, all the time and everywhere.
Globally, women¡¯s rights are under threat or being curtailed outright, reversing years of hard-won progress.
Concurrently, fewer resources are being devoted to support initiatives aimed at advancing gender equality. This affects women¡¯s education, health, and their ability to participate in politics. It also hurts their decision making as concerns matters of pursue economic opportunities. Sometimes we forget that women¡¯s rights are fundamental human rights.
In many societies, the fundamental freedoms of movement, association and speech of women continue to be restrained in various forms. Such restrictions are socially unnecessary and discriminatory.
Today¡¯s commemoration is therefore both timely and urgent. It is a commemoration which celebrates the past, the present, and the future.
We must act with greater resolve to uphold the Beijing Platform for Action in both word and deed and strive with renewed determination to protect the rights of women and girls.
Excellencies,
We would be remiss if we did not recognize successes and areas to build upon.
Today, more countries than ever before have adopted laws to advance gender equality, including to protect women and girls from violence and ensure non-discrimination.
Governments have adopted numerous policies and programmes to address education and training, social protection, and economic empowerment, targeted at women and girls. Women and girls occupy a place of choice in my Presidency of the United Nations General Assembly.
In legislatures globally, the share of women parliamentarians has grown from 11 to 27%.
While this is far from parity, it nevertheless constitutes a good step in our onward march towards gender equality and the empowerment of women.
We have the opportunity now to seize that momentum.
In September last year, Member States reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate efforts to promote women¡¯s rights and achieve gender equality in the Pact for the Future.
The Pact affirms that this is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Through implementation of the Pact for the Future, we can address the obstacles that are holding back our progress. There are some examples:
First, such as the sad reality that women and girls continue to be more harmfully impacted by conflict and wars.
Secondly, that 736 million women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lives.
Third, that an additional 158 million women and girls will be pushed into poverty by 2050 if the current climate change statistics are not reversed.
And fourth, that the digital divide is more pronounced along gender lines, with a 19% gap.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
A few days ago, I was designated as an international gender champion.
This was not meant as an award, but rather as a call to duty.
All of us, particularly those of us in positions of authority, have a responsibility to champion gender equality in all our activities.
We have a responsibility to empower women and girls at every step.
It is a responsibility that I take very seriously, and I have re-established the Advisory Board on Gender Equality, to guide me in these efforts.
The Board will help to ensure that gender equality is integrated in the high-level events and work of the General Assembly, from Non-Communicable Diseases to Social Development, from Youth to Artificial Intelligence.
The Board will also guide my efforts in planning the commemoration of the anniversary of two important milestones in the global agenda for gender equality.
First, the thirtieth anniversary of the fourth world conference on women, which will be commemorated with a High-Level Meeting in September 2025.
And secondly, the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Security Council Resolution 1325, which will offer an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to increase the participation of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and incorporating gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.
Excellencies,
Gender equality is a moral imperative that is essential to humanity¡¯s collective progress.
The Pact for the Future and the Declaration on Future Generations demand the full implementation of international commitments on women¡¯s rights.
The thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action must be more than a commemoration; it must be a call to action for the advancement of the rights of every woman, everywhere.
We must reaffirm our commitment¡ªurgently and unequivocally¡ªto its full realization.
Let this anniversary be a moment of resolve¡ªa turning point where we choose action over rhetoric, commitment over complacency.
Thank you.
Media Contacts
Sharon Birch, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Tel: +1 212 963 0564, M: +1 646 342 5873, Email:?birchs@un.org
Dr. Mariam Shaikh, Adviser/ Social and Digital Media/Media Relations, M: +1 917 3614990, Email:?mariam.shaikh@un.org
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