UN secretary general says women’s rights under threat, gender equality still ‘300 years away’
- UN chief Antonio Guterres gives General Assembly speech ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8
- He warned the increasingly distant goal of gender equality will take another three centuries to achieve
Women’s rights are being “abused, threatened and violated” around the world and gender equality won’t be achieved for 300 years on the current track, the United Nations secretary general warned.
Antonio Guterres told the opening session of the Commission on the Status of Women on Monday – the UN’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality – that progress won over decades is vanishing because “the patriarchy is fighting back”.
The UN chief pointed to Afghanistan where “women and girls have been erased from public life”, and said that in many countries women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being rolled back.
He also said girls going to school risk kidnapping and assault in many places, and he complained that there are police preying on vulnerable women they are supposed to be protecting.
“From Ukraine to the Sahel, crisis and conflict affect women and girls first and worst,” Guterres said ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.
In other setbacks, he said, maternal mortality is rising and Covid-19’s impact is forcing girls into marriage and keeping them out of school, while keeping mothers and carers out of paid work.