Don't shut up till you get true equality, says Secretary-General Scotland

23 September 2016
News

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland today urged Commonwealth citizens to hold their governments to commitments made on the internationally ratified Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS).

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland today urged Commonwealth citizens to hold their governments to commitments made on the internationally ratified Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS). 

Responding to a question from a girl at a women’s empowerment event today, about how to get governments to keep their promises on the SDGs, she said: “You keep on talking and you don’t shut up. You put a pin on everyone’s chair until they have to deal with it.”

Urging individual activism on the issues of women’s empowerment and ending violence against girls, she added: “It starts with you, whoever you happen to be, whatever age you happen to be, whatever colour you happen to be and what ever position you happen to hold… there is a vulnerability which is real and that is a breach of human rights and something has to be done about it.”

The Secretary-General, who is the first woman to be selected for the post, cited women’s empowerment and ending violence against women as one of her priorities when she took office in April this year.

Since then, she has held a women’s summit, which produced a four-point action plan focused on women’s economic empowerment, getting more women into leadership, ending violence against women and addressing the disproportionate impact of climate change on women. These were endorsed by women's affairs ministers at their annual meeting last month. 

“The Commonwealth represents one third of the world’s population, about 2.5 billion people, and half of these people are women, so our opportunity to change the paradigm I think is really real. The Commonwealth Charter starts with “we the people”, and we mean all the people,” said the Secretary-General, stressing the fact that no one will be left behind. 

The 53-member intergovernmental organisation has been working on a number of initiatives to help countries work toward the SDG on gender equality, including through advocacy, programmes to protect women’s land rights and a judicial bench book, which will beef-up laws that safeguard women from violence.

Speaking at the event, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canada’s Minister of International Development, also urged for full participation in addressing the challenges facing women and girls. The minister insisted that it cannot be business as usual on the issue.

“Everyone has to play a role in making gender equality a reality. An enormous shift in attitudes and social norms is needed; and if we are to realise equality then we must all work together to make this happen.”

Delegates at the meeting, which was organised by the government of Canada and held at the United Nations General Assembly, called for visible change and results on the Sustainable Development goals. They also echoed the need for total involvement.

As she ended her speech, Secretary-General Scotland reminded her global audience that “each of us have as much power as we choose to take”.

“Nobody holds the keys but us… I always think of Rosa Parks. She wanted to change the world. She was a seamstress. She was poor. She was not as educated and not as powerful. But who changed the southern states of America? It wasn’t actually Martin Luther King… it was Rosa Parks. She walked and Martin Luther King walked with her.”

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland
Gender