MIAMI, United States. – Gender equality would take three centuries to materialize, according to warned the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterresat the opening of a meeting of the Commission on the Situation of Women, on the eve of the International Women’s Day.
“The gains made in decades are evaporating before our eyes,” Guterres said, highlighting the situation in Afghanistan, where women and girls have been erased from public life and women’s reproductive and sexual rights are “in decline”.
The situation is no better in other parts of the world, with women facing risks of kidnapping and assault, including by the Police. “The patriarchy fights back, but we will respond,” said Guterres, who assured that the UN remains on the side of women and girls around the world, because it will “never” give up fighting for their fundamental rights.
Social media is also contributing to gender inequality, according to Guterres, as “the stories may be false, but the damage is very real.” Misogynistic misinformation and falsehoods are meant to “silence women and force them out of public life,” he said.
The UN Secretary General also made an urgent call to empower women and improve their situation in the world of work, with an increase in their level of income and education. He also urged political leaders to promote the full participation of women and girls in leadership in science and technology, from governments to boardrooms and classrooms.
The president of the Commission, Mathu Joyini, stressed that “gender discrimination is a systemic problem” that has been integrated both in political, social and economic life, as well as in the technological sector. “Digital technologies are rapidly transforming society, enabling unprecedented advances to improve the social and economic situation of women and girls, but also giving rise to profound new challenges that can perpetuate existing patterns of gender inequalities,” she stressed. she.
The UN meeting is one of the most massive of all those held at the organization’s headquarters and brings together representatives of governments and public bodies as well as the heads of feminist organizations from around the world. Government participation is expected to be high, with delegations led mostly by ministers, and some heads of state and government.
