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Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment, Must Become a Lived Reality for Women in All Countries, UN GA Third Committee Told by Head of UN WOMEN +

 

Head of Newly Created 'UN Women' Michele Bachelet Addresses Committee; Also Hears Reports on Violence against Women, Obstetric Fistula, Anti-Discrimination Committee

Addressing Member States for the first time as head of the newly created UN Women, Under-Secretary-General Michelle Bachelet told delegates today that the establishment of the new entity was a message from the General Assembly that more needed to be done to make the empowerment of women a reality.

"The quote that we heard so often at the Summit on the Millennium Development Goals just three weeks ago — that gender equality and women's empowerment are goals in their own right and central to all other goals — must be more than a mantra. It must become a lived reality for women and men and boys and girls in all countries," she said to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), as it began its three-day discussion on the advancement of women.

She acknowledged that the creation of UN Women had been a long journey that brought together four existing entities — the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In that process, three changes had been made that had the potential to deliver important benefits: gender equality was put on par with other development priorities by elevating the leadership of UN Women to Under-Secretary-General; greater coherence among the four entities permitted the bridging of gaps and a stronger voice in the United Nations response system; and a strong UN Women served as an advocate for larger financial investments in gender equality.

"We must reverse decades of accepting minimal resources for work on gender equality," she said, noting that rarely was more than 6 per cent of budgets in any given field dedicated to women's empowerment and gender equality.

While outlining the major tasks on which she would focus over the next three months, she stated that the Secretary-General had determined that $500 million would be required for UN Women's start-up phase — a challenge they intended to meet in 2011 — and that she would be reaching out to Member States to build new partnerships and secure these new resources. Her first priority would be to make UN Women operational by 1 January 2011 and to lay the foundation of a new organization with a new identity and vision. Early focus would be placed on strengthening UN Women's capacity in the field, in order to deliver where need was the greatest and to respond to demands for enhanced support of Member States.

During a question-and-answer session, delegates, such as the representatives of the European Union and India, asked how UN Women planned to coordinate with other United Nations agencies dealing with women, to which Ms. Bachelet replied that strategic planning would be at the heart of UN Women's work in the first months of 2011 and that UN Women would work within the United Nations systems as other agencies, such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), continued addressing issues relating to women's and girls' empowerment.

Cooperation would not only be enhanced at the headquarters level, but the "gap of coordination" would be bridged on the ground, particularly with regard to responding to sexual violence, she said. "One area that has clearly moved to the centre of global and local attention is ending violence against women," she added, calling on the Third Committee to continue its work in that area and on trafficking in women and girls, and pledging UN Women's support at the national level to strengthen the implementation of Member State recommendations.

Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, also addressed the Committee, discussing her first thematic report to the Human Rights Council, which focused on the issue of reparations to women victims of violence. She stated that the due diligence obligation to reparations remained grossly underdeveloped, with little attention devoted to reparations at a substantive and procedural level. Her report also recommended that an independent body responsible for women's rights and gender equality be created with the legal authority to solicit accountability from relevant ministries and agencies.

In the question-and-answer period, when asked by the representative of Swaziland about the role of the family in overcoming gender-based violence and programs to help the family through education or other means, Ms. Manjoo said that they needed to go back to the grass-roots level, as Ms. Bachelet had stated, because, while there had been a huge focus on laws and policies, they had not looked at the "lived realities" of women or addressed implementation gaps or social and economic gaps.

Also speaking today were Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, who presented the report of the Secretary-General on supporting efforts to end obstetric fistula, and Xiaoqiau Zou, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (on behalf of the Chair of the Committee), who each had question-and-answer periods with delegations following their statements.

The representatives from Yemen (on behalf of the Group of 77 and China), Belgium (on behalf of the European Union), Guyana (on behalf of CARICOM), Chile (on behalf of RIO Group), Malawi (on behalf of the African Group), United Republic of Tanzania (on behalf of Southern African Development Communities), Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Egypt, China, Jordan, Sudan, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Bahrain, Israel and Brazil also spoke.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 12 October to continue its consideration of the advancement of women and to hear the introduction of five draft resolutions on social development.