Minister van gendergelijkheid over wereldwijde promotie van vrouwenrechten (en)
The UN Commission on the Status of Women meets every year to highlight gender equality globally. Representing all EU-membership countries Minister for Gender Equality Manu Sareen this week helps open this year’s meeting. Our work to ensure the rights of women in the entire world is more important than ever, The Minister says.
It is the fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which takes place at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York. Members of the UN meet to promote gender equality on the global level. And there is a lot to do. Globally, we are far from ensuring the equal rights and opportunities of women.
This year’s priority theme is "The Empowerment of Rural Women and Their Role in Poverty and Hunger Eradication, Development and Current Challenges".
"In Denmark we still have a gender equality challenge, but compared to many other countries in the world we have come a very long way. Looking at the world today too many girls and women do not have the fundamental rights they are entitled to. The EU should be in the forefront of the battle for ensuring the rights of women. Primarily for the sake of the women but also it is a well-known fact that gender equality goes hand in hand with economic growth and social stability. This battle is more important than ever", Minister for Gender Equality Manu Sareen says.
An important objective of the EU is preserving and strengthening the international agreements and commitments on gender equality and the empowerment of women. EU will help build cross-regional alliances to counter attempts to weaken agreed language on gender equality and pursues a rights based approach to gender equality, the empowerment of women and elimination of discrimination against women and girls. EU will do the outmost to counter the attempts to undermine international human rights obligations as we have seen the previous years from right wing religious movements, the Vatican State and some Middle East and African countries.
The Minister will also participate as a panelist in a number of side-events, including an EU side-event on the emerging issue “Engaging young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality”.
"The lack of gender equality in society has great consequences. Not just for the individual but for the society as a whole. For example, if women are not represented in power positions of the society, they will not be able to shape the society they live in", Manu Sareen Says.
Facts
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946. The CSW is the key policy-making UN Forum dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. It prepares recommendations and reports to the UN Economic and Social Council on promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields.
The themes of this year’s CSW
Priority theme:
The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges
Review theme:
Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women (agreed conclusions from the fifty-second session)
Emerging issue:
Engaging young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality
Contact
Press coordinator Bodil Liv Holm, Ministry for Gender Equality and Ecclesiastical Affairs
Tel: + 45 22 68 85 69, email: bolh@km.dk