No country has ended discrimination against women after vowing to achieve gender equality at a Beijing conference over two decades ago, the UN under-secretary-general in charge of the issue said Thursday.
ST PETERSBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2018) No country has ended discrimination against women after vowing to achieve gender equality at a Beijing conference over two decades ago, the UN under-secretary-general in charge of the issue said Thursday.
"Gathered in Beijing in 1995, we determined to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the world. At this point of time we don't have a single country in the world that has obtained gender equality," Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Speaking at the opening of the Eurasian Women's Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the senior UN official said this did not mean that no progress had been made and pointed to "many critical challenges" that remained.
Gender equality was identified as one of 17 UN sustainable development goals to be achieved by the 2030 deadline. This year's progress report concluded in June that, while some forms of discrimination against women and girls was declining, gender inequality continued to hold them back.
Rates of child marriage among girls and violence against women remained high in 2017, with an estimated 650 million today married in childhood. The gender inequality in hourly wages was likewise pervasive after data from 45 countries showed the median pay gap to be at 12.5 percent. Women also found to spend roughly three times as many hours in unpaid domestic and care work as men.
