UNITED NATIONS -- One by one, leaders and ministers from over 100 nations admitted that 25 years after the adoption of a road map to achieve equality for women not a single country has reached that goal -- and many warned that instead of progress there is now pushback.
French President Emmanuel Macron put it bluntly, "women's rights are under attack."
Addressing a high-level meeting to commemorate the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing on Thursday, Macron said it's no secret that the 150-page blueprint to realize gender equality approved by 189 nations in the Chinese capital "would have no chance of being adopted" in 2020.
So "this is no time for commemoration or self-congratulation," he warned, because progress achieved by women "is being undermined, even in our democracies."
The Beijing declaration and 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. It also said that women's human rights include the right to control and decide "on matters relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of discrimination, coercion and violence."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has attributed gender inequality to "centuries of discrimination, deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny."
In today's more divided, conservative and still very male-dominated societies, he said, "we have seen around the world a pushback against gender equality and women's rights."
"Now is the time to push back against the pushback," he declared.
Fiji's Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama called it "a sad testament to the human condition" that the world is still struggling to achieve the right of women and girls to live free from violence, go to school, participate fully in decision-making affecting their lives and earn equal pay for work of equal value.
"The second-class status of women is deeply engrained in many societies, and it takes time and effort to root it out," he said.
Guterres said the pandemic has hit women and girls the hardest and warned: "Unless we act now, covid-19 could wipe out a generation of fragile progress towards gender equality."
At Thursday's meeting, there were 167 scheduled speakers, each expected to give a three-minute address. But General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said many prerecorded speeches, because of the pandemic, were longer. The result was that only 115 nations got to speak before the meeting ended.
