The UN said women’s rights have been under 30 years of attack after leaders adopted the equality blueprint.
UN (AP) – Thirty years after world leaders adopted historic blueprints to achieve gender equality, a new UN report says women and girls’ rights have been attacked and gender discrimination remains deeply embedded in the economy and society.
A report on women’s rights and gender equality released by a UN agency on Thursday found that nearly a quarter of governments around the world expressed opposition to women’s rights last year.
Despite some progress, including in the education of girls and access to family planning, UN women say a woman or girl is killed by a partner or family member every 10 minutes and that cases of conflict-related sexual violence have increased by 50% since 2022. The report, published before International Women’s Day on Saturday, also noted that only 87 countries have been led by one woman.
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“Global women’s human rights are under attack,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “We see the mainstream mainstream rather than the mainstream status of misogyny.”
He said the world must firmly “make human rights, equality and empowerment a reality for all women and girls, for all, everywhere.”
The 189 countries participating in the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference adopted a landmark declaration and a 150-page action platform to achieve gender equality, calling for bold action in 12 areas, including combating poverty and gender-based violence and putting women at the highest levels in business, government, government and peace tables.
It also stated for the first time in a UN document that human rights include women’s control and decisions “of matters related to their sexual behavior, including their sexual and reproductive health, without discrimination, coercion and violence”.
In a new commentary, including contributions from 159 countries, UN women said that over the past five years, countries have taken many steps toward gender equality and women’s rights, but that rights still face growing global threats.
The report said that about 88% of countries have passed laws to combat violence against women and has helped victims over the past five years. It said that most countries prohibit workplace discrimination and 44% are improving the quality of education and training for girls and women.
The report says that gender discrimination has been deeply embedded, limiting the gap in women’s rights in terms of power and resources.
“The weakening of democratic institutions is related to strong opposition to gender equality,” UN women said.
It warned that “anti-rightist actors are actively undermining long-term consensus on key women’s rights issues” and are trying to stop or slow down the gains of laws and policies that they cannot back down.
UN women say nearly 25% of countries report strong opposition to gender equality is hindering the implementation of the Beijing platform.
According to the report, only 64% of women have legal rights, and although the percentage of female lawmakers has more than doubled since 1995, three-quarters of lawmakers are still men.
UN women also said that women aged 15 to 24 lag behind other age groups in access to modern family planning; maternal mortality rates have remained almost the same since 2015; 10% of women and girls live in extremely impoverished families.
UN agencies say cases of conflict-related sexual violence have increased by 50% since 2022, while women and girls are victims of 95% of these crimes.
Sima Bahous, executive director of women at the UN, said the agency adopted a roadmap to bring the world closer to the UN’s goal of achieving gender equality by 2030, according to the report’s findings.
It calls for a digital revolution to ensure equal access to technology for all women and girls. Investment in social protection, including universal health care and quality education, to lift them out of poverty; zero violence against girls and women. The roadmap also includes women’s equal decision-making power and financing of “gender-responsive humanitarian assistance” in conflicts and crises.
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Lederer is the chief reporter of AP at the United Nations Women’s Conference held in Beijing in 1995.
