Social Watch statement

Social Watch Statement through its Host Organization the Third World Institute (which has ECOSOC status) delivered by Natalia Cardona

3 March 2010, New York

Thirty years after the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and 15 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, women all around the world still struggle for gender equality and respect for their human rights and freedoms. Despite certain progress, discrimination against women still prevails in all spheres of public life. The United Nations Member States still have not fully implemented their commitments to gender equality as an essential condition for sustainable economic and social development.  Furthermore, disagreements and tensions among member states and a crisis of unlimited proportions in global geopolitics and global governance have led to the muddling and compromise of basic human rights.