A chair’s statement was issued on Monday for the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women, which is being co-hosted by China and UN Women in Beijing on Oct. 13 and 14.
In its role as the host, China presented a summary of the consensus positions in the statement.
Confronted with changes and challenges, countries and stakeholders will, with firm determination and robust actions, resist any form of regression and accelerate the process of women’s all-round development, the statement said.
The statement summarized the participants’ calls for action in 10 key areas.
The participants called for a peaceful, secure living environment to be fostered, and voiced their support for the full, equal participation of women in peace processes.
They stressed fully leveraging the principal role and transformative power of women in development, and empowering women to participate in and lead the pursuit of sustainable development and prosperity.
The statement advocated for the prevention and elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls, noting that particular attention and support should be given to those in vulnerable situations or humanitarian crises. They also said that the potential of youth — especially young women — should be harnessed.
The participants urged support for the United Nations to play a central role in developing broader platforms for cooperation for women around the world.
They called for continuous enhancement of the sense of fulfillment, happiness and security among women through their all-round development, particularly in fields such as poverty reduction, education, health, employment and social security, as well as their equal participation in all levels of decision-making and management.
The statement emphasized the need to improve institutional mechanisms to promote gender equality and all-round development of women, and to strengthen the national mechanisms conducive to raising the status of women across society.
It also called for the implementation of family-friendly and family-support policies and measures to ensure the equal status and rights of women within the family structure, and expressed encouragement for all family members to share household responsibilities.
The statement urged support for women in participating in climate and environmental governance and ecosystem protection, and for the enhancement of the capacity of women to respond to climate change and natural disasters.
The participants urged the promotion of a digital transformation that includes women as full, equal and meaningful participants and leaders. From the beginning of the development of digital and intelligent technologies, bias, discrimination and violence against women, as well as negative stereotypes of women, must be eliminated, they said.
They also called for the expansion of North-South cooperation, South-South cooperation and tripartite cooperation in the development of women, with the aim of responding to common challenges and promoting shared development for women all over the world.
All parties involved commended China’s remarkable achievements in the area, as well as its active contributions to global gender equality. They also expressed hope that the meeting would serve as a new starting point to accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was adopted by the 1995 World Conference on Women, and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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