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Verbatim report of proceedings
Monday, 13 February 2017 - Strasbourg Revised edition

Priorities for the 61th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (short presentation)
MPphoto
 

  Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, rapporteur. – Madam President, I am proud to be here today to give our priorities to the Council for the upcoming session of the United Nations Commission on the status of women. We cannot miss this opportunity to join forces and stand up together for women’s dignity worldwide, to combat stereotypes and any form of discrimination, going beyond rhetoric with concrete actions. Much more needs to be done everywhere to empower women and girls and achieve gender equality. We want to give a voice, especially to the millions of women that are excluded, marginalised, vulnerable women, women with disabilities, migrant and refugee women.

First of all we have to prevent and combat violence against women with a zero-tolerance policy to domestic violence, honour killings, trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation, female genital mutilation, forced marriage. Let us face it, many women and girls are the new slaves of our times. Behind every victim there is a heartbreaking story of a broken life. We therefore call on the Member States to ratify and enforce the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on violence against women.

Second: education. We need to ensure access to school for all girls and keep them safe and empower them, then promote women in the labour market, in particular women’s entrepreneurship; recognise that women are an asset for our economy and growth; eliminate the gender-pay gap and ensure equal pay for equal work and more representation of women in decision-making everywhere.

We need to work towards shared responsibility, a life and work balance between men and women in the care of children, and ensure that women and girls have universal access to health care, including sexual and reproductive health and rights. The UN Commission in March is an important opportunity for Europe to show the world that we are responsible and credible in women and girls’ rights.

We are at the crossroads. As the US seems to be retreating from global responsibility, Europe should step in. As the US seems to withdraw support for multilateralism, Europe should renew its support for the United Nations and international cooperation. As the US seems to be turning its back on women and girls’ health, Europe should show leadership in gender equality and women’s health.

We firmly condemn the recently reinstated global gag rule in its most extreme form yet, expanded to withdraw funding not only from reproductive health services but from an organisation’s entire health budget if they provide information about interruption of pregnancy. This will encompass all the United States’ global health funding from Africa through Asia to Latin America. There is an outcry, a chorus of concern turning to Europe for help, notably from the United Nations, other aid agencies, children’s rights NGOs, research institutes, foundations, charities. We Europeans are not going to abandon the thousands of women and girls depending on those donations.

I welcome the initiative of the Dutch Government to mobilise funds in order to compensate for the US funding and the Belgian initiative to hold a donors’ conference on 2 March. More countries and organisations should join the initiative to save the life of hundreds of thousands of women and girls in developing countries. The gag rule’s consequences are serious. They will affect many programmes: Zika virus, lifesaving services, pre-natal and post-natal assistance to babies and young mothers, women that are raped. It will increase mortality. More women and girls are going to die in birth and complications.

I call on the UN and the Member States to give a clear, united response against this setback, sexism and Trumpism, and let us also support the women’s march and movement in the US.

 
Avis juridique - Politique de confidentialité