Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared on Friday that achieving equality for women is \u201cthe great unfinished business of the 21st century\u201d in a galvanising speech at the UN ahead of International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen women succeed, the world succeeds,\u201d Clinton told representatives of the 193 UN member states in New York. \u201cWhen women and girls thrive, entire societies thrive. Just as women\u2019s rights are human rights, women\u2019s progress is human progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton, who could become the first female president in US history if \u2013 and more likely, when \u2013 she runs in the 2016 election, has long been a leading campaigner of women\u2019s rights and is expected to make the issue a major theme in her potential election campaign.<\/p>\n
Clinton pledged in September last year that she would embark on evaluating gender equality across the globe: a project she promised to complete by 2015, two decades after she gave a rousing speech at a UN women\u2019s conference in Beijing that confirmed her as a champion of women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
On Friday she said that while important progress had been made in gender equality, citing better school attendance, more women in office and reformed legislation, \u201cfor all we have achieved together, this remains the great unfinished business of the 21st century\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the nearly two decades since Beijing, no country in the world has achieved full participation, and women and girls still comprise the majority of the world\u2019s unhealthy, unfed and unpaid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Clinton pressed the UN to act as an example in providing women with equal opportunities, urging a global standard that would allow women worldwide the same right to employment, education, property and identity as their male counterparts.<\/p>\n
She also urged action in tackling violence against women and child brides.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed her concerns, warning that \u201cdiscrimination against women and girls is rampant, and in some cases getting worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also know equality for women is progress for all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Reproductive health key<\/p>\n
Clinton went on to stress the need to safeguard women\u2019s reproductive healthcare, citing a 1994 consensus in Cairo, Egypt, when 194 countries agreed to ensure the provision for women of family planning services, which the accord defined as \u201ccomplete physical, mental and social wellbeing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reproductive healthcare, she said, \u201cmust be the starting point for work today\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we get it right, we can put the world on the path to less poverty and more prosperity, less inequality and more opportunity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
UN Women chief Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka drew a round of applause when she repeated Clinton\u2019s famous 1995 Beijing declaration. \u201cThe 21st century offers an opportunity for a big leap forward \u2013 not baby steps,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done baby steps. Equality between men and women remains an elusive dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe face of poverty is that of a woman,\u201d she said. \u201cThe majority of the world\u2019s poor and illiterate are women and girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mlambo Ngcuka announced a new \u201cHe For She\u201d campaign, which will call on men to join women in campaigning for gender equality.<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend those of you [men and boys] who have spoken out and stand with women and girls, as you know women hold half of the sky. We call on all men also, stand up and hold up half of their part of the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joking afterwards, she said \u201cthis is a celebration, so don\u2019t look so serious\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared on Friday that achieving equality for women is \u201cthe great unfinished business of the 21st century\u201d in a galvanising speech at the UN ahead of International Women\u2019s Day. \u201cWhen women succeed, the world succeeds,\u201d Clinton told representatives of the 193 UN member states in New York. \u201cWhen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050799,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12998.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12998.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12998.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12998.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12998.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12998.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12998"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12998"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}