{"id":80157,"date":"2020-10-01T21:34:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T18:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/25-years-after-un-womens-meeting-equality-remains-distant\/"},"modified":"2020-10-01T21:34:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T18:34:21","slug":"25-years-after-un-womens-meeting-equality-remains-distant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/25-years-after-un-womens-meeting-equality-remains-distant\/","title":{"rendered":"#25 years after UN women’s meeting, equality remains distant"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#25 years after UN women’s meeting, equality remains distant<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n UNITED NATIONS \u2014 Twenty-five years ago, the world\u2019s nations came together to make sure that half of Earth\u2019s population gained the rights, power and status of the other half. It hasn\u2019t happ<\/a>ened and the UN chief urged people everywhere Thursday to \u201cpush back\u201d against the forces holding up equality for women.<\/p>\n

Addressing the opening session of a high-level meeting to commemorate the landmark 1995 UN women\u2019s conference in Beijing, Secretary-General<\/a> Antonio Guterres said \u201cthis is fundamentally a question of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in today\u2019s more divided, conservative and still very male-dominated world, that power belongs overwhelmingly to men.<\/p>\n

Guterres pointed to the frequent exclusion of women from peace negotiations, climate talks and decision-making roles of all kinds. One in three women experiences some form of violence in her lifetime. And the World Bank estimates \u201cthat it could take 150 years to achieve gender parity in lifetime earned income,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general has attributed gender inequality to \u201ccenturies of discrimination, deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of the UN agency charged with promoting gender equality lamented the \u201cslow, terribly uneven\u201d progress, \u201cpushback\u201d and even regression in reaching the goals in the 150-page platform adopted by the 189 nations that met in China\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

While there has been progress since Beijing, UN Women\u2019s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told The Associated Press on Tuesday that gains have been modest. What\u2019s more, she says, there is sometimes \u201can exaggeration and an illusion of much bigger progress than there has been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mlambo-Ngcuka said there has been significant \u201cpushback\u201d on reproductive rights, explaining that groups once on the fringes are now in the mainstream and developed countries from the \u201cglobal north are also being part of pushback,\u201d including the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the US regresses, it is a big deal, not just for the US but for many people who are influenced by trends in the US,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the European Union, Mlambo-Ngcuka said, there are countries that want to pull out of The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women or are refusing to ratify it. \u201cYou would not have expected that to happen within the EU,\u201d she said. And in Africa and Asia, she said, there are governments \u201cthat have not felt any pressure\u201d to move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our energy has had to go to stop this pushback, not to work for the advancement of women,\u201d Mlambo-Ngcuka said. \u201cAnd then came COVID and that has made the situation worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretary-General Guterres said \u201cIn recent times, we have seen around the world a pushback against gender equality and women\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cmilestone\u201d Beijing conference made clear that \u201cwomen\u2019s rights are central to equality and justice everywhere\u201d \u2014 and \u201cthat they are denied, obstructed and ignored \u2014 everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time to push back against the pushback,\u201d Guterres declared.<\/p>\n

He said the coronavirus pandemic has hit women and girls the hardest and warned again: \u201cUnless we act now, COVID-19 could wipe out a generation of fragile progress towards gender equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was crucial because it adopted a road map to gender equality. It was the largest-ever formal gathering of women, though hundreds of men were among the 17,000 participants at the official meeting that adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Some 30,000 people, the vast majority women, attended a parallel NGO forum outside the capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Beijing Declaration is still the equivalent of the United Nations Charter for women,\u201d UN Women\u2019s Mlambo-Ngcuka said. \u201cIt\u2019s the one thing we have that was adopted by the largest number of member states.\u201d<\/p>\n

The platform called for bold action in 12 areas for women and girls, including combating poverty and gender-based violence, ensuring all girls get an education and putting women at top levels of business and government, as well as at peacemaking tables.<\/p>\n

It also said, for the first time in a UN document, that women\u2019s human rights include the right to control and decide \u201con matters relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of discrimination, coercion and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

French President Emannuel Macron told Thursday\u2019s meeting that it was no time for commemoration.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere, women\u2019s rights are under attack, as are human rights, from which they are inseparable,\u201d he said. \u201cProgress achieved by great efforts is being undermined even in our democracies, starting with the freedom for women to control their own bodies and in particular the right to abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s President Xi Jinping, speaking as host of the conference, called for redoubled efforts \u201cto promote gender equality and advance the global cause of women\u2019s development.\u201d He said China will donate another $10 million to UN Women in the next five years and he proposed that world leaders hold another meeting on gender equality and the empowerment of women in 2025.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, 170 nations are expected to speak including over 50 world leaders, among them French President Emmanuel Macron and Mexican President Andres Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, who had been scheduled to host \u201cGeneration Equality\u201d forums this year for thousands of civil society representatives and activists. Those were postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The summit will not be adopting any document. That happened in March when the Commission on the Status of Women, the main UN body promoting women\u2019s rights, reaffirmed the 1995 Beijing declaration and platform and pledged to step up implementation.<\/p>\n

Mlambo-Ngcuka did point to some advances in the last 10 years including 131 countries that enacted legislation to advance gender equality. The UN has also helped change and amend 25 constitutions in 25 years to entrench gender equality and \u201cthat is a big deal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At the 1995 Beijing conference, then US first lady Hillary Clinton galvanized participants with a rousing speech featuring words that have become a mantra for the global women\u2019s movement: \u201cHuman rights are women\u2019s rights \u2014 and women\u2019s rights are human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a lot of work to do,\u201d Clinton said in a virtual discussion on the 25th anniversary of the Beijing conference at the Georgetown Institute For Women, Peace and Security.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I discouraged? No. I\u2019m disappointed we haven\u2019t gone even farther in 25 years. I\u2019m worried about the pushback and the backlash that we see from authoritarian leaders, in particular, who are trying to turn the clock back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that just energizes me more to speak out, to work with others, to defend those who are on the front lines,\u201d Clinton said. \u201cMy thinking has also evolved. I\u2019m certainly going to continue to call for women\u2019s rights. But more important to me now is enabling women to have the power to claim their rights.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#25 years after UN women’s meeting, equality remains distant” UNITED NATIONS \u2014 Twenty-five years ago, the world\u2019s nations came together to make sure that half of Earth\u2019s population gained the rights, power and status of the other half. It hasn\u2019t happened and the UN chief urged people everywhere Thursday to \u201cpush back\u201d against the forces…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/AP_20068535203913-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[73789,71693,71678,71291,70850,71609],"class_list":["post-80157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-1-20","tag-discrimination","tag-gender-equality","tag-inequality","tag-united-nations","tag-womens-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}