Without Fulfilling Women’s Rights, Can’t Achieve SDGs: Munir Akram

APP

United Nations: Without achieving the rights of women and girls, we will not achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), stated Ambassador Munir Akram.

Speaking in the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, Munir stated that the COVID pandemic and the historic floods that rocked Pakistan last year have further complicated the difficulties in achieving the SDGs and the development rights of women and girls.

Rural women face particular challenges since between 50 and 80 percent of women in Pakistan are food producers, while 70 percent of the livestock is managed by them in rural areas, he added.

Speaking in a debate on ‘Advancement of Women’, the Pakistani envoy told the UN panel that Pakistan has introduced legal and policy measures to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, saying those steps are essential for achieving SDGs.

Munir emphasised that the international community has established clear norms to advance and guarantee gender equality and the rights of women to employment, political representation, and participation in households, communities and societal affairs.

With the exception of Afghanistan, almost all countries, including Pakistan, have norms established at the official level that are also largely adhered to on a social and personal level, stated Akram.

Nevertheless, despite the normative acceptance, girls and women continue to face disadvantages and, in many cases, exploitation in many countries, particularly in rural areas, he added.

Ambassador Akram questioned how the UN system could assist individual developing countries in transforming recommendations into actual development and ‘quality of life’ outcomes for women and girls, noting that the major and pervasive challenge is the paucity of adequate financing.

We think that a more thorough survey and study can provide general and specific results that could result in a paradigm shift in the advancement of women’s and girls’ rights, Ambassador opined. He proposed gathering information to better understand the difficulties women experience and to develop appropriate policy responses and activities.