Gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of human rights and is an aspiration that benefits all of society, including girls and women. The universal advantages of gender equality have been well-documented, and several international frameworks have affirmed its centrality to human rights and sustainable development. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, for example, unanimously adopted by 189 countries in 1995 and still the strongest global consensus for advancing and protecting girls’ and women’s equality and justice, recognizes that persistent inequalities pose “serious consequences for the well-being of all people.”

Yet, despite the promise of equality, progress towards it has been slow, fragile, incremental, and reversible – and dramatically undermined by the pandemic. In fact, in every region of the world, girls and women are still more likely to be poor, illiterate, hungry, unhealthy, underrepresented in leadership positions, legally constrained, politically marginalized, and endangered by violence.

3 0

2 years ago