Speech: “Let us continue to hold hands with women and their communities because community resilience is critical to building our economies and our future”

[As delivered]

Thank you so much, Ms. Tatiana Molcean, and the Executive Secretariat of UNECE and the Secretariat General. Thank you so much for receiving us and for this meeting.

The Honorable Ministers and officials of our Member States and Governments, Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Union, civil society colleagues, women's rights networks and young people, esteemed colleagues from the United Nations systems, and friends, it feels so great to be back in Geneva.

It is also my first time addressing you in my capacity as the Assistant Secretariat General and Deputy Executive Director for UN Women.

Let me immediately appreciate that, coming into the room as a woman with a disability, I was very happy to see the ramp out there. I felt very comfortable, honored, and very supported as a person with disabilities.

We meet for the first of the five regional meetings in this year of action for the Beijing+30 process. Meeting in Geneva is of particular importance. We are at the core of human rights actions.

Before I start, I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that we meet at a challenging time, not least for this region. These challenges include persistent conflicts, devastating wars, and profound economic instability. In all these instances, women and girls bear the greatest burden.

I want to acknowledge the women peacebuilders across the world who are living the unimaginable daily and yet continue to strive for equality, peace, and justice for themselves, their families, communities, and countries.

To all women and girls in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and everywhere where everyday life is shattered by conflict – I was born in war in my own country. I relate to these experiences.

To the adolescent girls battling violence and misogyny online while they work to leverage digital technology for a more just economy tomorrow. To the women and girls climate activists fighting for environmental sustainability and justice while the world is on fire. And to women human rights defenders across the world – you are an inspiration and beacons of hope and justice. We thank you.

Esteemed delegates, colleagues, we are here because we work to actualize the rights of women and girls everywhere, to advance gender equality and the empowerment of these women and girls.

Rights were affirmed, uplifted, and committed to in the landmark Beijing Platform for Action. In 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women - I was there. The countries of the world came together and pledged to act for a world free of discrimination, a world of equality, a world of justice, and a world of peace.

Women's rights and civil society organizations worked with you, the governments, for over two years to forge a political compact for gender equality, women's empowerment, and rights. This set of normative standards for action for equality and rights in every country that is a member state of the United Nations. Congratulations on that big decision in 1995. It brought the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action into existence. This was historic and visionary.

Together with the Sustainable Development Goals now, the Beijing Platform for Action continues to be a powerful framework calling for rights for every girl and woman to live free from discrimination, violence, and inequality.

As the UN Women Executive Director, Dr. Sima Bahous, said when she officially launched the Beijing process at the General Assembly, the Beijing Platform for Action has inspired us to do so much in the last 30 years.

Next year, therefore, not only marks the Beijing Platform for Action's 30th anniversary but also finds us in the final stage of the Decade of Action for the Agenda for Sustainable Development, running the last mile.

Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen, we meet to acknowledge the significant progress for women and girls achieved since 1995.

Progress has been made in uplifting women and girls out of poverty. In 2024, the percentage of women and girls living in extreme poverty is finally below 10%, countering the worrying trend caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globally, countries have established legal protection to safeguard the rights of women and girls. The Istanbul Convention is one such key landmark decision and treaty from this region, and it has been ratified by 46 countries in the ECE.

In fact, more than 95% of legal measures to address domestic and intimate partner violence were established after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. Resolution 1325 is an important milestone, calling for women's role at the heart of peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

We have also seen great progress in education. Five million more girls are completing each level of education – from primary to upper secondary - than they were in 2015.

We see again progress where women hold one in every four parliamentary seats – a significant rise from a decade ago.

Up to 56 legal reforms have been enacted worldwide.

These improvements are not small. They are not small actions.

And we thank all for the tireless efforts and Member States for putting gender equality and addressing these issues significantly.

There is no doubt that the world is still falling short of the promises of Beijing.

Which means that even if progress has been made, there is still more to be done.

At UN Women, our latest SDG Gender Snapshot tells us that, without rapid and accelerated action, a girl born today will be 39 years old before women hold as many seats in Parliament as men.

She will be 68 years old before child marriage ends.

We call it child marriage, but it is actually rape.

It is sexual exploitation and abuse.

She will be 137 years old before extreme poverty for women and girls is eradicated.

Last year, 612 million women and girls lived amidst the brutal realities of armed conflict, with a shocking 50% increase in conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated against them.

This is against the backdrop of $4.2 trillion spent on military expenditure.

Before we take a closer look at the regional progress and challenges, I want to underline that this region is of great diversity.

It includes countries with vastly diverse cultures and traditions, distinctly different political systems, histories, faiths, and traditions.

Diversity is the essence of humanity, and with that diversity comes the obligation to upholding the human rights of women and girls.

Four of the top five donors, according to OECD DAC, are from this region.

Thank you for your unwavering support for gender equality, women's rights, and women's empowerment.

Women's equal participation and representation in leadership and decision-making are key to unlocking the transformational change we need to achieve.

Yet progress towards gender equality, and gender parity in leadership and decision-making has been slow, and we are still far from the substantive equality, influence, and power we strive for.

Just a few examples.

Women currently serve as heads of state and government in 14, only 14, of the ECE countries.

SDG 5 calls for gender parity in decision-making at all levels.

While we have advanced significantly on women's rights at work, structural barriers, discriminatory laws, policies, and social norms persist, impeding women's full and equal participation in the economy.

Most specifically in the ECE region, women are paid 82 cents for every euro earned by men.

Men are paid two-thirds for part-time positions that are held by women.

The gender pay gap remains real and persistent.

On average, women in this region still perform 2.5 times more unpaid care work than men. The data is telling, and we must continue to go beyond average and step up. Therefore, this review process is very important as we advance gender equality within the framework of the Beijing Platform for Action.

At the end of December last year, almost 4 million people were internally displaced due to the war in Ukraine.

As in most wars, including ongoing conflicts in Lebanon, the majority of those refugees and internally displaced are women and children. The human suffering and humanitarian needs of these women and girls affected by conflict are of grave concern to all of us.

In parallel, the ongoing wars affect the geopolitical considerations of Member States in the ECE region.

The wars must stop.

Some of us still live with the scars of what happened in my own country.

They called us dropouts, but it was the war that dropped some of us.

We were forced out of school.

Over 40 years later, we continue to live with the pain of the violence experienced on our bodies.

Ceasefire must happen now.

I have just returned from visiting the Western Balkans.

Thank you to the governments of Bosnia Herzegovina and North Macedonia for hosting me last week before I travelled here.

I saw the pain of histories shaped through war.

UN Women is present in this region, with our regional office in Istanbul.

The pain we experience is within the ability of our Member States and yourselves to find solutions.

Please, for the little girls I met, for the mothers that I have known, and for the experience some of us have had: do the best you can to end the wars. Let us have a ceasefire. Let us just go to our gardens, grow our vegetables, wake up every day, and our children just go to school, for us to give birth not in a refugee camp or in a displaced camp.

It's possible because it is about decisions.

I implore you.

I urge you.

I ask you, on behalf of the many who cannot talk to you today, to end violence against women.

Just end violence against women.

It's human behaviour.

It's doable.

We can prevent it.

We can heal.

We can rebuild our economies.

We envision, in this Beijing+30 process, an equal, just, and secure world to be at the heart of your efforts because that is what you committed to at Beijing as governments working with multilateral systems with civil society.

As UN Women, we are asking you that, during this one year of the Beijing+ 30 process, we work together with you - our governments - to develop and adopt high-impact actions that can be implemented in your countries, as well as at the regional and global levels, for the implementation of the Platform for Action.

We must continue to support the frontline responders, women's rights organizations, and young people with flexible and sustainable funding.

They are there before the crises.

They are there during crises.

They are there after crises.

Let us continue to hold hands with women and their communities because community resilience is critical to building our economies, and our future, and to building social cohesion.

We urge and recommend the continued strengthening of the multilateral system to uphold the commitments of Beijing.

Once again, we congratulate and thank you for the decision made during the Pact for the Future to revitalize the Commission on the Status of Women, which started as a committee on the status of women in 1946.

You have continued to be courageous and strong.

As UN Women, we are available to support and work with you as you look into the revitalization of the Commission on the Status of Women and adopt, or consider adopting, the political declaration during the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

In conclusion, at this hallmark anniversary, it is not just about commitment. It is about the implementation of well-resourced actions and the only viable measurement of success is the transformation of the lives of women and girls, ensuring we don't have regression on the progress that you have already made.

I want to thank you, and we look forward to supporting you during the next two days.

We are here as the UN to support you as you deliberate and define the priorities for this region in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action.

Again, thank you.