“Turning commitments into practical reality for women and girls requires investment.”

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H.E. Ambassador Maria Emma Mejia, Chair of the Third Committee, Members of the Bureau, Distinguished Delegates, United Nations Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

This session of the General Assembly takes place during the first full year of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Paris Agreement, which will enter into force in just a few weeks.

It is a crucial opportunity to review our progress and identify and capture new opportunities for accelerating our advancement towards a planet 50-50 by 2030.

The high-level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants on 19 September 2016 gives us a solid basis forward for action that will ensure the rights, and respond to the needs and vulnerabilities of women and girls as they flee conflict and persecution, seeking better lives for themselves and their families and contribute to the well-being of their new communities. UN Women stands ready to engage and support you as you move towards crafting the two compacts in the months ahead.

Women’s economic empowerment remains a key component in our efforts towards planet 50-50.  The Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment presented its interim report on 22 September, and its key messages should be catalytic for the work of this session of the General Assembly, especially in the Second Committee.  As the 2030 Agenda rightly points out, the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in implementation is crucial. 

Everywhere, women continue to struggle for equal pay. Women entrepreneurs, whose small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of so many economies, lack access to finance.

Together with the macroeconomic context, women’s work in the informal sector, domestic work, and unpaid care work remain areas where we need to eliminate discrimination and tackle structural barriers to create a conducive environment for progress.  This includes ratification of ILO Convention C. 189 on Domestic Workers.

We need to act on the broad consensus that economies perform better when all people—women and men—can participate on a basis of equality, have access to full employment and decent work, and to economic resources.

We will benefit from the insights of the Panel as we prepare for the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women which will focus on women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work.   We also need to build on the roadmap adopted by CSW 60 for a gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

This includes a significantly stepped-up effort to collect and use gender statistics.  UN Women’s Flagship Programme Initiative on “Making Every Woman and Girl Count” and the partnership on gender statistics launched on 22 September will demonstrate how this can indeed be achieved. 

Madam Chair,

A legal framework that does not discriminate against women and protects women’s rights is an essential basis for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

As long as laws remain on the books that legitimize and perpetuate discrimination against women and girls, progress will be stalled towards the goals we have set for ourselves for ending poverty and sustainable development that ‘leaves no one behind’.

Action to repeal laws that restrict women’s rights and roles in all areas—politics, economy and society at large—is urgently needed.  Domestic legal frameworks not only must be non-discriminatory, they should actively support accelerated realization of gender equality. Laws must ensure and support women’s participation on an equal basis with men in all aspects of leadership and decision-making, access to all economic and financial resources, property, and their right to live in safety and free from violence, in the home, the work place and in public spaces.

Distinguished delegates,

Women’s and girls’ right to a life free from violence is fundamental.  The three reports we prepared for this session make it clear that there is some progress, but also that much remains to be done. 

Such violence keeps women and girls from realizing their rights, including their right to education and from exercising their economic and political rights. It is a barrier to women and girls’ empowerment.

Such violence has quantifiable costs, to the women and girls themselves, and to society as a whole.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development rightly pays extensive attention to the barriers created by violence against women and girls, including trafficking and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, and sets clear related targets to the achievement of Goal 5, as well as the entire agenda.

The Secretary-General’s report on Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (A/71/219) stresses that weak enforcement of laws remains a persistent challenge to effectively addressing violence against women and girls. A survey on violence prevention in 133 countries showed that only 44 per cent of countries with laws on domestic violence reported that such laws have been enforced.   The existence of discriminatory legislation, particularly family or personal status laws that regulate management of property, or custody of children and divorce, continue to seriously inhibit women’s decision to leave abusive relationships.

The report provides recommendations on how to address these challenges.

The Secretary-General’s report on “Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilations” (A/71/150) makes it clear that the complex character of violence against women and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, requires a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach.

For this reason, the report stresses the need for legislation criminalizing the practice of female genital mutilation; for appropriate support services and comprehensive prevention strategies; as well as for effective coordination of the contributions of all services and actors.

States must ensure they are engaging with all relevant sectors of government to eliminate this practice. This includes the justice, security, health, social services, child protection and education sectors.

And they must have closer coordination and collaboration with different actors, including United Nations entities and civil society.

The third report, on “Trafficking in women and girls” (A/71/223), deserves your increased attention this year. 

With the intensification of migration flows, women and girl migrants are particularly at risk of being trafficked for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and, more recently, forced marriage.

It is vital that countries take a gender-responsive approach in all their efforts to prevent and eliminate trafficking.  The Secretary-General’s report shows that it is equally crucial to ensure coherence between the laws and policies on migration, labour and trafficking to effectively protect women’s and girls’ rights, and respond to their needs.

Chair,

If we are to achieve our goals by 2030, action must be frontloaded so that we can have measurable progress by 2020 for women and girls.

At last year’s “Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action”, which UN Women co-hosted with the People’s Republic of China, 72 Heads of State and Government promised to do just that. 

Now, one year later, 24 countries have provided updates on progress made.

• New national action plans and legislation to end violence against women, have been adopted, and services for survivors of all forms of such violence have been expanded.
• Women’s economic empowerment has been accelerated through support to women’s entrepreneurship and measures targeting gender pay gap.
• Mechanisms to gather gender statistics have been strengthened.
• Women’s better representation in elected bodies has been realized through improved quota provisions.
• The women and peace and security agenda has benefitted from stepped up implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 and related national action plans. 

Turning commitments into practical reality for women and girls requires investment.  Accountability for realizing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls must rightfully rest at the highest level of government.  We look forward to receiving more updates in the days and weeks ahead. 

In closing

All Member States must now be in full implementation mode to fulfil the ambitious promises of the 2030 Agenda and other internationally agreed outcomes.

We are facing difficult challenges, as illustrated by Hurricane Matthew, which caused great loss of life in Haiti; armed conflicts, violent extremism and rising inequalities that lead to insecurity and divisions. We need to work together to build further momentum and increase accountability.

Thank you.