National Statement from Sweden - Third Committee Agenda Item 71

Mr. President,

Around the world, numerous human rights violations urgently need our attention.

I would like to focus my statement today on one key area. An area where progress is slow, even regressing. Where we see increasing push-back, in the world at large, and here at the UN.

I am referring to the unmet human rights of billions of women and girls across the world.

Mr. President,

Gender equality is about freedom from discrimination and freedom from violence.

But almost thirty years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were adopted, we are seeing alarming regression on gender equality issues we thought had been resolved years ago:

• In Afghanistan, draconian laws have recently been passed that effectively make women prisoners in their own homes, deepening the pervasive oppression.
• In Iran, the women who took to the streets under the parole “woman, life, freedom’’, continue to be brutally suppressed. Harsh sentences, including capital punishment, have been handed out against the protesters.
• In Ukraine, women and children continue to suffer in Russia’s brutal war and systematic attacks against civilian infrastructure. Forcible transfers and deportations of children, abductions, torture and sexual violence occur on a large scale, and may amount to war crimes.
• The list could be made much longer.

But violations of the human rights of women and girls are not limited to armed conflict, or to the most extreme situations.

Hate and misogyny continue to be common across the world, both online and offline.

• Gender-based and sexual violence is devastatingly frequent. Every year, tens of thousands of women and girls are killed because of their gender. More often than not, the perpetrators are not brought to justice. This year’s resolution on extrajudicial executions, put forward by Sweden and Finland on behalf of the Nordic States, urges action to address this systematic pattern of impunity, by creating an international standard for investigating gender-related killings.
• The political representation of women has slowed down considerably. Reversing this trend is another priority for my government, as is removing the many legal, cultural and practical barriers that still hinders women’s economic empowerment and perpetuates the gender poverty gap.

Mr. President,

The push-back against the human rights of women and girls is enormously costly for the world. Its cost can be measured in lost opportunities, in squandered talents. In widening global inequalities. In worsening public health and educational outcomes. In the growing number of conflicts.

The push-back is rooted in, and linked to, the other negative trends we are facing: authoritarianism, violence and extremism.

This is an enormous and multifaceted topic.

But as we are here, at the Third Committee, let me use my remaining speaking time to zoom in briefly on how this push-back has played out here, on the words and concepts that have become stumbling blocks in so many different contexts:

First: the word ‘’gender’’. Why do we want to use this word? Because for us it is obvious – looking at the world around us – that the barriers to gender equality we are seeing today are socially constructed. They are not biological imperatives. Ideas about what women or men can do, be or have vary from society to society. They can be changed, and they do change over time.

The phrase ‘’multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination’’ is another casualty of the current push-back.  Even though it simply points to the fact that not all women are affected equally by discrimination and violence.

Most concerning of all is the push-back against the key commitment from Beijing: to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

It is hard to think of a more central issue. Ensuring that women can control their own fertility is fundamental - for empowerment and for gender equality.

And important gains have been made: Maternal health has improved. Access to family planning has expanded. A growing array of movements and constituencies are advocating for sexual and reproductive rights.

But as we know from this Committee, there are also many areas where more work is needed. Not least finally rejecting the violence, stigma and discrimination against LGBTIQ-persons and standing up for equal rights and equal dignity for all.

Mr. President,

A few weeks ago our leaders adopted the Pact for the Future. In it, they committed to accelerate efforts to achieve gender equality. To eliminate discrimination and violence against women and girls.

That is wonderful news, because change is needed, urgently and at all levels, if we are to reverse the devastating effects of the push-back of the past decade. 

If the human rights of billions of women and girls across the globe are finally to be truly respected, protected and fulfilled.

As we approach the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, I assure you that Sweden will continue to do everything it can to honour that commitment.

Thank You.