Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

As we meet today to conclude the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, we meet at a time of global challenges. The role of CSW has never been more vital in highlighting the challenges that women and girls face today and to hold us all accountable for the promises that we have made to them. I hope that we can end this session with a clear signal to women and girls that the international community is listening to their voices and taking action in response.

This year’s priority theme reflects upon the feminization of poverty, and comes at a time when the disproportionate impact of poverty on women and girls is clear, when the important role of institutions in respecting, protecting and fulfilling their human rights is recognised, and the use of a gender perspective to financing has never been more vital. With the adoption of the agreed conclusions today, CSW will make history by making operational recommendations on critical financing issues like financial inclusion, access to financial services, gender-responsive budgeting, the need to take measures to eliminate economic violence and greater attention to the care economy, while anchoring these priorities in the need to address the root causes and challenges of poverty in all its forms and dimensions.

Over the course of our discussions, it has been clear where progress needs to be made. Tackling women’s and girls’ poverty requires tackling gender stereotypes and negative social norms. This work needs to happen at home – by ensuring equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work between women and men and within household – and be complemented by societal measures that allow for the empowerment of women and girls, including quality education, employment, social protection, social and health services.

Sexual and gender -based violence is a scourge on our societies. We welcome that the Agreed Conclusions call for an end to all violence on women and girls, including a call to prevent, detect and address economic violence. Also, climate change and environmental degradation and disasters also affects in particular those in vulnerable situations. We therefore need to pay particular attention to ensure that all women and girls have a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. 

We welcome the emphasis in the conclusions on the need to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation women and girls in diverse situations and conditions in all spheres of public life, and to address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, as well as all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, online and offline. We welcome strong language on adolescents in relation to poverty and that recognise the specific perspectives and needs of younger women and girls.

We fully support the recommendations included in the conclusions to remove structural and systemic barriers for women, strengthen women’s leadership and ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of all women and girls. Women and girls and their organisations play a pivotal role as leaders and agents of change in response to poverty and to ensure the true empowerment of women.

We are also glad to see recognition for the link between poverty and the women, peace and security agenda. This was a priority for our member states and we welcome the clear focus on women’s role as both peacebuilders and agents of peace.

We also welcome that the conclusions recognise the importance of women’s employment, economic independence and empowerment and the need to pay increased attention, including through regulatory measures, to the role and responsibility of the private sector to act in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We have a responsibility to protect the rights of all women and girls to decent work, and to a workplace safe from harassment.

We further welcome the recommendations aimed at strengthening universal access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health care services, to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty for women. The EU remains committed to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and to the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Programme of Action on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICDP) and the outcomes of their review conferences and remains committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), in this context. Having that in mind, the EU reaffirms its commitment to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of the right of every individual to have full control over, and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, free from discrimination, coercion and violence. The EU further stresses the need for universal access to quality and affordable comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information, education, including comprehensive sexuality education and health-care services.

The EU and its member states welcome the attention paid to the role, involvement and full engagement of men and boys. Men and boys are both important agents and beneficiaries of change as well as strategic partners and allies in the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls in this context.

In order to develop a transformative approach that tackles the root causes of gender inequalities, we need to develop further high quality, accessible, timely and reliable sex, age and disability disaggregated data, gender analyses and research to advance legislation, policies and programmes. Here also, the conclusions make concrete recommendations in this regard.

Chair,

We would like to express our deep appreciation to you, the Bureau and all Member States for the constructive discussions in the past two weeks. We are particularly appreciative of UN Women for steering us through the process again. The EU and its Member States will continue to support UN Women in its actions to fully implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the 2030 Agenda, taking note of the efforts of the Generation Equality Forum in this regard.

We are proud of the leading role played by the EU members of the Bureau. We express our full gratitude to Ambassador Yoka Brandt from Netherlands and our colleague Robin de Vogel for their outstanding and exemplary work in facilitating the agreed conclusions, as well as to Mr Marius Burbergs from Latvia. We welcome the positive approach that was taken during the negotiations. In these challenging circumstances, we can be proud of the progress we have made and the outcome we have reached.

Chair,

Eradicating women’s poverty cannot wait. We have a responsibility to each other and to women and girls in our own countries and worldwide - one that we are falling gravely short on. Change in these difficult times requires hard work, unity and determination – and the European Union, for its part, is committed to continuing this fight. Thank you.