The Commonwealth has joined ministers and civil society leaders from across the globe to make strong commitments on women’s rights and empowerment at the 61st Session of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
The Commonwealth joined ministers and civil society leaders from across the globe to make strong commitments on women’s rights and empowerment at the 61st Session of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
The Commission’s annual two-week meeting in New York is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, and is one of the largest global gatherings of its kind. At the meeting, Mrs Kinahoi-Siamomua, Head of Gender at the Secretariat, reiterated the Commonwealth’s pledge to focus on programmes to improve the lives and prospects of women in its 52 member states.
She said, “Our Commonwealth approach is to see gender equality as a crosscutting factor contributing to our collective goals of social and economic development, democracy, and peace-building.
“We lay particular emphasis on the need to open up access by women to financial services, including in the informal sector of developing economies. There is a strong correlation between increasing the capacity of women to engage in economic enterprise and wider empowerment of women for leadership that will lead to achieving gender equality and sustainable development.”
The Commonwealth Secretariat was among organisations at the Commission that highlighted the importance of respecting identity, mental and physical disability, and sexual orientation as it relates to women’s rights. The discussions encouraged strong recommendations from the Commission, including the implementation of relevant laws, and social and economic policies that effectively address systemic injustice and social inequality.
The Secretariat also contributed to an important intergenerational dialogue, organised by the Commonwealth Youth Gender Network on combatting gender-based violence.
Patricia Scotland, the first ever female Commonwealth Secretary-General, identified gender equality and the protection and empowerment of women and girls as one of her priorities when she took office in April 2016.
This month she announced the launch of the Commonwealth’s Peace in the Home: Ending domestic violence together initiative. The 12-month initiative will focus on a multipronged action plan requested by Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers at their summit in Samoa last September.
Ms Kinahoi-Siamomua said, “the Commonwealth Secretariat has developed appropriate tools such as the judicial bench-books, launched last September to assist judges in the East Africa region to deal effectively in the law courts with cases of violence against women and girls. Similar bench-books will be compiled for all regions of the Commonwealth.”
“The Secretariat also plans to support Commonwealth member states with baseline research to determine the economic and human costs of Violence Against Women and Girls. This work will help determine and facilitate appropriate interventions towards eliminating early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation and cutting.”
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