RC’s Statement on the UNGA High-Level Meeting on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

In 1995, world leaders adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: a transformative agenda for the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights worldwide. 25 years later, in 2020, global progress towards gender equality has been slow, halted and even reversed in some countries.

With only ten years left to achieve Agenda 2030, ambitious and fast actions must be taken to ensure that progress made so far is not lost. Never before have women and girls’ rights been at greater risk than today, as COVID-19 and humanitarian crises continue to threaten and shake advances made in achieving gender equality and the SDGs.

Women are experiencing a war of their own: in 2017, an estimated 137 women were killed by a member of their family every day. Women are also frequently excluded from peace negotiations, climate talks and decision-making.

It is therefore timely and necessary that world leaders meet today at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss “Accelerating the realisation of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. It is there that they will address the pushback that women’s rights and gender equality have faced in recent times, establishing steps towards transformative change.

However, more girls than ever before are in school today; and, 131 countries have enacted 274 legal and regulatory reforms in support of gender equality. Yet women continue to work more hours; earn less and have fewer choices than men; are underrepresented and increasingly vulnerable to domestic and other violence.

The Kingdom of Eswatini passed the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act (SODV) in 2018, endorsed by His Majesty King Mswati III, showing significant progress towards protecting vulnerable women and children. However,  urgent action is needed to enact accompanying bills, working with communities and leaders to promote girl-friendly practices as 1 in 3 Swazi girls experience sexual violence before the age of 18. Violence has far-reaching consequences for families and societies, affecting both physical and mental health. It is clear that we need to fight harder for the rights of women.

Unfortunately, progress towards reaching gender equality is at further risk of being stalled or reversed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Women are on the frontline in the battle against the coronavirus, both as essential workers and at home, accounting for 70 percent of health and social workers globally. Increasingly, carers, who are largely women, are working unpaid as a result of school closures. 60 percent of women also work in the informal economy, placing them at greater risk of falling into poverty due to COVID-19. The pandemic has also exacerbated women and girls’ vulnerability to violence, particularly domestic violence due to worldwide lockdowns.

There has never been a more important and more critical time to protect our mothers, sisters and girls. We cannot achieve Agenda 2030 without realising women’s full rights, which are fundamental to the prosperity of the planet and of every person, everywhere. 

As the United Nations, we reaffirm our commitment to advocating for the equal rights and inherent human dignity of women and men and other purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments; and ensure the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We look forward to fruitful deliberations amongst world leaders, as they seek to accelerate the realisation of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.