By Edith M. LEDERER
United Nations (AP) – Thirty years after world leaders have adopted a historic plan to achieve gender equality, a new United Nations report indicates that the rights of women and girls are attacked and that sexes between sexes remains deeply anchored in economies and societies.
The report published Thursday by the United Nations Agency to the Rights of Women and Gender equality revealed that almost a quarter of governments around the world reported a reaction to women’s rights last year.
Despite certain progress, especially on the education of girls and access to family planning, UN women have said that a woman or a girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or a family member and that cases of conflict sexual violence has increased by 50% since 2022. The report, published before International Women’s Day on Saturday, also noted that only 87 countries were led by a woman.
“Globally, women’s human rights are attacked,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a statement. “Instead of managing equal rights, we see the interest of misogyny.”
He said that the world had to remain firm “to make human rights, equality and empowerment a reality for all women and girls, for everyone, everywhere.”
The 189 countries which attended a 1995 conference for Beijing women adopted a historic declaration and a 150-page platform for action to achieve gender equality, calling for daring action in 12 areas, including the fight against poverty and sexist violence and the establishment of women in the main levels in business, government and creation tables.
He also said that for the first time in a United Nations document, human rights include women’s right to control and decide “on issues relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, without discrimination, coercion and violence”.
In the new journal, which includes the contributions of 159 countries, UN women have said that countries have made many gender equality and women’s rights in the past five years, but such rights are still faced with growing threats worldwide.
On the positive side, the report indicates that 88% of countries have adopted laws to combat violence against women and established services to help victims in the past five years. Most countries have prohibited discrimination in the workplace and 44% improve the quality of education and training for girls and women, he said.
However, sex -based discrimination is deeply rooted, with large gaps in power and resources that restore women’s rights, according to the report.
“The weakening of democratic institutions went hand in hand with the backlash on gender equality,” said UN women.
He warned that “the anti-right actors actively knew a long-standing consensus on the key issues of women’s rights” and seek to block or slow down the legal and political gains that they cannot go back.
UN women have said that almost 25% of countries have said that the counterwe to gender equality obstructs the implementation of the Beijing platform.
According to the report, women have only 64% of the legal rights of men, and although the proportion of legislative women has more than doubled since 1995, three -quarters of the legislators are still men.
UN women have also said that women aged 15 to 24 are lagging behind other age groups on access to modern family planning; Maternal mortality ratios have been almost unchanged since 2015; And 10% of women and girls live in extremely poor households.
The United Nations agency said that cases of conflict sexual violence have increased by 50% since 2022 – and that women and girls are 95% of these crimes.
The executive director of UN women, Sima Bahous, said that on the basis of the report’s conclusions, the agency adopted a roadmap to bring the world closer to the United Nations objective to achieve gender equality by 2030.
It requires a digital revolution guaranteeing equal access to technology for all women and girls; investments in social protections, including universal health care and quality education to get them out of poverty; And zero violence against girls and women. The roadmap also includes equality of decision -making power for women and the financing of “gender -sensitive humanitarian aid” in conflicts and crises.
Lederer was the main journalist of the AD at the 1995 United Nations Conference of Women in Beijing.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
