Remarks by the President of the General Assembly,
Mr. Dennis Francis,
at the Observance of the International Women’s Day (IDW)
8 March 2024
[As Delivered]
Your Excellency, Mr. Antonio Manuel Revilla Lagdameo, Chair of the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women,
Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General,
Ms. Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to join you in observing this year’s International Women’s Day.
Allow me to express my sincere appreciation to UN Women for organizing this commemorative event. We meet today, united in our determination to accelerate the pace towards the creation, sooner rather than later, of a gender-equal world.
A world that sees men and women, girls, and boys, enjoying equal access to and benefits of education, at all levels.
A world in which it is an everyday occurrence for women to lead nations and institutions, corporate and public.
A world where gender-based violence is an issue of the past.
As we speak, it is disheartening that women and girls worldwide continue to face all forms of discrimination and abuse; and globally, one in three women have been subjected to violence, generally at the hands of an intimate partner.
I am deeply alarmed by reports of sexual abuse targeting women and girls in Palestine, Ukraine, Haiti and elsewhere, including the Reports of the UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, which indicated that there is credible evidence of rape and sexualized torture committed against women and girls by Hamas during and following the October 7 attacks.
We simply must do much more to stop these atrocities, and, when proven on an evidentiary basis, to punish the perpetrators.
Unhappily, we continue to fall short on many indicators in the context of gender equality.
Gender discrimination and inequality hamper progress across the entirety of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
At the current rate of addressing global poverty, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030. This is both unimpressive and indeed unacceptable, to say the least.
Frankly speaking, it is not rocket science that when the contributions of women, who make up more than half of the world’s population are restricted, there is concurrent global reduction in growth and socio-economic development.
The message is inescapably clear: our collective well-being is intractably and intrinsically tied to our ability to unlock our fullest potential by empowering women and girls.
This is precisely why the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, which is, “Invest in women: accelerate progress”, is so appropriate.
It is a clarion call to action to invest in and to support women and girls and, in so doing, accelerate our collective progress.
This requires rethinking policy and doubling down on programming that benefits those most vulnerable.
It also means addressing the lingering – yet critical – issue of financing for development, which is askew and in short supply.
It is therefore imperative that we:
- Invest in women-led businesses, closing the gender pay gap, and provide access to credit and financial services;
- Support girls’ and women’s education and skills development in the context of lifelong learning;
- Ensure access to reproductive healthcare, address gender-based violence, and promote mental health;
- Cultivate a path to enable women to assume leadership roles;
- Support women’s involvement in politics, and decision-making processes;
- Challenge harmful gender stereotypes, promote gender-sensitive policies, and foster inclusive social norms;
- Harness technology to advance gender equality, such as e-learning platforms and mobile health services; and
- Build alliances between governments, civil society, businesses, and communities to achieve gender equality goals.
As President of the General Assembly – and a committed champion of gender equality, I have prioritized this issue during my tenure and intend to use this Day and the forthcoming session of the Commission on the Status of Women as platforms to highlight critical challenges facing women and girls and to encourage meaningful discussions that will propel us towards achieving gender equality.
Rest assured my commitment to this issue is substantive and extends beyond mere rhetoric to include tangible “change-making” actions.
At the beginning of my Presidency, I appointed Ambassador Keisha McGuire as Special Advisor on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
I also reconstituted the Advisory Board on Gender Equality, which aims to mainstream gender perspectives into the work of the General Assembly.
Further, in demonstrating our commitment to creating a safer and more inclusive work environment for all, we launched a training initiative for Permanent Missions in New York and Geneva in partnership with UN-Women and the President of the Human Rights Council aimed at preventing sexual harassment at the workplace.
Yesterday, a special edition of the PGA’s Gayap Dialogue was held in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Iceland, adopting the Barbershop concept to engage male Permanent Representatives as agents of change in ongoing global efforts to advance gender equality. It was a most successful exercise.
Let me conclude by reassuring you that I will continue to use my role and influence, as President of the General Assembly, to advocate for the full enjoyment of the rights of women and girls.
Gender equality is not merely an ideal we should pursue at our leisure – it is an urgent moral imperative, that should have already been manifested.
With these sentiments in mind, let us seize every opportunity to accelerate progress by investing in our women and girls – so that we can usher in a truly equitable and just world, with women and men joining their respective strengths and powers for enhanced family and community success and indeed, for more expansive and transformative sustainable development.
Happy International Women’s Day!
I thank you.
