UN Chief : “Women’s inequality is a global shame”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called women's inequality "stupid" and a cause for global shame on Thursday. He pledged to press governments to end discriminatory laws in the face of a "strong and relentless pushback" against women's rights.
Speaking ahead of the annual meeting of the UN Commission on the ‘Status of Women’ in New York next month, Guterres said that he would seek to end "default male thinking" across the United Nations.
"Just as slavery and colonialism were a stain on previous centuries, women's inequality should shame us all in the 21st century. Because it is not only unacceptable; it is stupid," Guterres said in a speech to The New School in New York.
He said legal protections against rape and domestic violence were being diluted and that in 34 countries ‘rape within marriage’ was still legal.
"There is a strong and relentless pushback against women's rights," Guterres said. "Women's sexual and reproductive rights are under threat from different sides."
The US Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that women have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion but the issue is still divisive in the United States.
"The UN should not put itself in a position of promoting or suggesting a right to abortion, whether it is humanitarian or development work," US Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, said in October.
The United States has received support for its stance from countries including Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Guatemala, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sudan, Uganda, Poland and Hungary.
"I find it pretty strange that the United States is mobilizing so hard on this issue ... because if you look at the bigger picture is the main threat to the world today abortions? Or is it an assertive China? A Russia that is expansionist? Let's just get our focus right here," said a senior European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Guterres further added “Women have equaled and outperformed men in almost every sphere," he said. "It is time to stop trying to change women, and start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential."
He said he achieved gender parity among his senior leadership team - on Jan 1, 90 women and 90 men were in the ranks of full-time senior leadership, two years ahead of the target date he set.
