Gender parity remains distant goal: Rights experts
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Approximately one in three women is subjected to physical or sexual violence, and 800 women and girls continue to die every day from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth, a top independent rights panel meeting heard on Monday.
Addressing the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the UN in Geneva, Andrea Ori from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said that the world is “still far” from achieving the goal of gender parity.
“The global landscape has changed,” she told the CEDAW session, UN News reported.
“We are witnessing a backlash against women’s human rights and gender equality, especially against women’s sexual and reproductive health rights – with an increase in attacks against abortion providers, shrinking civic space for women human rights defenders, and reduced funding.”
Mr. Ori noted that 2025 marks 30 years since the universal adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for ensuring women’s human rights and achieving gender equality around the world.
It remains the case, however, that sexual violence against women and girls continues to be used as a tactic of war in numerous conflicts, the UN human rights official said, while only 26 per cent of parliamentarians in the world are women and only around three in 10 women have managerial roles at work.
-0- PANA MA 4Feb2025
