Statement on Women Deliver Conference

Statement at Women Deliver Conference by H.E. Mr Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the General Assembly

19 May 2016

 

©OPGA/Christensen

©OPGA/Christensen

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

As President of the UN General Assembly and a politician for almost 50 years, I have spent a lot of the time diagnosing problems and identifying solutions.

But to drive true transformation, you first need a vision.

So today, I want to share with you my vision for the type of world we can create for every woman and every girl by 2030.

It will be a world where ideally we no longer need to call for gender equality.

A world where a young woman in a village in Djibouti has the same opportunities as a young woman in a city in Denmark.

Where no girl grows up in extreme poverty or suffers from malnutrition.

Where health clinics are well equipped to protect mother and baby alike.

Where women and girls have the rights and the options to control and protect their own bodies – their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

It will be a world where norms, policies and attitudes have changed such that unpaid care and house work is both valued and shared.

Where every household is powered by renewable energy so that every girl can do her homework, unhealthy cook-stoves are no more, and our environment flourishes.

Where schools represent a safe environment for girls to learn in; with class sizes that give everyone a chance and a curricula that responds to our 21st century world.

And lastly, it will be a world where justice and equality reign – where gender-based violence and discrimination is no longer tolerated; where women get equal pay for equal work; where their property rights are fully respected and where every step of the ladder in government and business alike, is fully accessible to them.

Ladies and gentlemen, such a world is not a utopia.

It is sketched out in the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is the world that 193 world leaders committed to bring about last September.

And it is within our grasp.

We have the resources and the know-how to make this happen.

But we have to start now.

And we have to find the leaders in government, civil society, the private sector to be the change we need to see.

As President of the UN General Assembly, I will continue to play my part.

For example, I will do all I can to ensure that when you look to the United Nations, you don’t just see an Organization that supports gender equality; you see an organization that embodies gender equality.

And what better way to do that than to break one of the most unacceptable glass ceilings in our world today; to secure, by the end of 2016, the first ever female UN Secretary-General.

What a way to finish the first year of the SDGs; what a way to demonstrate that our shared vision will become a reality.

Thank you.

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