UN women’s commission session: Ecosoc chief for new compact for women’s empowerment

UNITED NATIONS: The President of UN Economic and Social Council, Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram, proposed a new Global Compact for Women’s Empowerment aimed at ensuring women’s meaningful participation and elimination of violence against them when the 65th session of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) opened on Monday.

“The international community, I believe needs a new Global Compact for Women’s Empowerment based on an action plan for mainstreaming women’s participation in decision-making in public life and proposing concrete measures to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls,” he said at the session being held virtually for the first time.

In this regard, the ECOSOC chief said the agreed recommendations of the current session should provide concrete recommendations for framing such a global compact.

“We hope that the international community would rise to the challenge and ensure that half of the world’s population is never again ‘left behind’,” the Pakistani envoy added.

The theme of the session “Women’s effective participation in decision-making in public life and elimination of all forms of violence against them” is linked intrinsically with their empowerment in the social, political, economic, cultural and legal spheres, he said.

Despite considerable progress since the 1995 Beijing Conference, Ambassador Akram said that women’s voices often continue to be silenced and their participation in public life obstructed, with discrimination and violence against women remaining pervasive.

The serious and persistent obstacles which impede women’s empowerment include armed conflicts, foreign occupation, terrorism, natural disasters, pandemics, climate change, the feminization of poverty, discrimination and violence and the lack of equal access to health, education, training and employment.

Both developed and developing countries face these challenges in promoting gender equality, Ambassador Akram said. Neither sustainable development, nor a peaceful and just world order, could be achieved so long women continue to be repressed and marginalized.

Ambassador Akram commended the UN Secretary-General for bringing about parity within the United Nations system.