NEW YORK
\nGlobal progress on women\u2019s rights is \u201cvanishing before our eyes,\u201d UN boss Antonio Guterres warned on Monday, saying the increasingly distant goal of gender equality will take another three centuries to achieve.
\n\u201cGender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away,\u201d the United Nations secretary-general said in a General Assembly speech ahead of International Women\u2019s Day on March 8, as he launched two weeks of discussions led by the Commission on the Status of Women.
\n\u201cWomen\u2019s rights are being abused, threatened, and violated around the world,\u201d he added, as he ticked off a litany of crises: maternal mortality, girls ousted from school, caregivers denied work and children forced into early marriage.
\n\u201cProgress won over decades is vanishing before our eyes,\u201d Guterres said. He highlighted the particularly dire conditions in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where \u201cwomen and girls have been erased from public life.\u201d
\nHe did not name other specific countries, but Guterres stressed that \u201cin many places, women\u2019s sexual and reproductive rights are being rolled back (and) in some countries, girls going to school risk kidnapping and assault.\u201d
\nAlso left unmentioned was Iran, which was expelled late last year from the Commission on the Status of Women due to the country\u2019s repression of a female-led revolt since last September.
\nThe Islamic Republic was ousted from the commission on December 14 by a US-led vote of the UN Economic and Social Council, or ECOSOC.
\n\u201cCenturies of patriarchy, discrimination and harmful stereotypes have created a huge gender gap in science and technology,\u201d Guterres said, citing as an example how women represent only three percent of Nobel prize winners in the sectors.
\nHe called for \u201ccollective action\u201d worldwide by governments, civil society and the private sector to provide gender-responsive education, improve skills training and invest more in \u201cbridging the digital gender divide.\u201d
\n\u201cThe patriarchy is fighting back. But so are we,\u201d Guterres added. \u201cThe United Nations stands with women and girls everywhere. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK Global progress on women\u2019s rights is \u201cvanishing before our eyes,\u201d UN boss Antonio Guterres warned on Monday, saying the increasingly distant goal of gender equality will take another three centuries to achieve. \u201cGender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away,\u201d the United Nations secretary-general […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n