Faye Minton
Gender Equality is “300 years away”, while global progress in women’s rights is “vanishing before our eyes,” said United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
On Wednesday, Guterres announced the fears for the future of women’s rights – based on the UN Women’s Research – in a speech to the Commission on the Status of Women.
Guterres said: ‘Women’s rights are being abused, threatened and violated around the world.”
“Women and girls have been erased from public life.”
Lack of access to education, child marriage and maternal mortality rates are a number of ways women and girls are being failed, according to Guterres
He specifically acknowledged the Taliban’s impact on Afghanistan, where he stated: “women and girls have been erased from public life.”
We will never give up fighting for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world.
The @UN will continue providing practical support and care for women in crisis situations.
Gender equality is central to all our humanitarian & development work.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 7, 2023
The UN has been working tirelessly to aid women and girls in Afghanistan – where reportedly, women have been banned from receiving an education, working, travelling independently, and attending public places like parks and gyms. There has also been a significant rise in child marriages.
On a recent visit to the country, Guterres and other key UN representatives expressed to the Taliban that they “we will never give up fighting for” women and girls.
The UN Secretary-General also noted that “crisis and conflict affect women and girls first and worst,” naming Ukraine as an example.
Following Russia’s invasion of the country, UN investigations have found multiple instances of sexual violence against Ukrainian women and girls by Russian soldiers – with a UN report saying girls as young as four were being targeted by Russian troops.
Russian officials deny allegations of their troops committing human rights abuses.
“Global frameworks are not working for the world’s women and girls. They need to change.”
In his speech, Guterres added: “in many places, women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being rolled back.”
It is unclear where the comment was directed, however, the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last year left, leaving abortion legislation in the hand of individual states which resulted in global backlash.
Poland has also similarly faced protests in recent years over its near-total ban on abortions.
The UN chief did not name Iran, despite its expulsion from the Commission on the Status of Women on 14 December 2022. The country has been repressing large-scale protests for women’s rights and freedom since September.
Guterres said: “let’s be clear: global frameworks are not working for the world’s women and girls. They need to change.”
“Centuries of patriarchy, discrimination, and harmful stereotypes.”
Guterres has proposed a global focus on increasing accessibility to quality education for girls and improving income and employment rights for women.
He also suggested encouraging female participation in science and technology.
Guterres said to CNN: “Centuries of patriarchy, discrimination and harmful stereotypes have created a huge gender gap in science and technology,”
Featured image courtesy of Michelle Ding on Unsplash. No changes have been made to this image. Image license found here.
Faye Minton
Faye is a former Empoword Editor in Chief and an MA International Journalism student at Swansea University.