‘Let us stand with women fighting for their rights’: UN SG

ISLAMABAD: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday said gender-based discrimination harms everyone – women, girls, men, and boys.

Today marks World Population Day across the globe including Pakistan under the theme “Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities”.

In his message, the secretary general said that leaders are falling behind in efforts to build a peaceful and prosperous world for all.

He said that halfway to the 2030 deadline, the Sustainable Development Goals are “dangerously off track” and gender equality is almost 300 years away. He said that the progress on maternal health and access to family planning has been “glacial”.

Guterres said that “the world’s population will reach 8 billion in the middle of November – a testament to scientific breakthroughs and improvements in nutrition, public health and sanitation. But as our human family grows larger, it is also growing more divided”.

The secretary-general stressed that advancing gender equality, improving maternal health, and empowering women to make their own reproductive choices are both essential in themselves and central to achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Let us stand with women and girls fighting for their rights. And let us intensify our quest to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for all 8 billion of us” he wrote in his message.