11 March 2015
Addressing the UN today, Minister of State for New Communities, Culture & Equality, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin T.D., highlighted the progress achieved in the last 20 years on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Minister headed the Irish delegation attending the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive blueprint for advancing women’s rights adopted in 1995.
Throughout the three days in New York, the Minister chaired and participated as panellist speaker in discussions on expanding the influence of Arab women; advocacy and networking strategies for legislative reform to end trafficking; women’s participation in politics and the role of parliaments in advancing gender equality. The Minister also participated in a Ministerial Roundtable on investing in gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Delivering the national statement on behalf of Ireland before the session today, the Minister said:
“in Ireland, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action gave significant impetus to a period of sustained public focus on gender equality. We introduced laws to prohibit discrimination on gender and other grounds, and we continue to provide the infrastructure to support this. We have established new dedicated Government offices to address domestic violence, sexual and gender-based violence and human trafficking. We put in place the Irish National Women’s Strategy to address key themes for empowerment outlined in Beijing and to ensure systemic positive action towards gender equality. And last year, we established a strong Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
Since Beijing, female employment in Ireland has risen by 50% and women now account for over 45% of our workforce. Still, we need to do more to facilitate women in accessing paid employment, for instance through the provision of more good quality, affordable childcare.”
Speaking on the importance of female political participation, the Minister said:
“Further action is also required in the political sphere, where only 16% of the seats in Ireland’s Lower House of Parliament are held by women. In order to address this, we enacted legislation in 2012 linking State funding for political parties to a condition that at least 30% of their candidates are women.”
While much has been achieved at the global level Minister Ó Ríordáin spoke of the slow and uneven gains with gender based violence, the denial of education, and early forced marriage representing serious obstacles to development. The Minister added that:
“Ireland is committed, in our foreign policy and through our development cooperation programme, to the promotion of gender equality, the elimination of violence, and the realization of the human rights of women and girls. As a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the term 2013-2015, Ireland has prioritised efforts to address these concerns. In January 2015, we launched our second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.”
Referring to Ireland’s role as co-facilitator with Kenya of the final intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, the Minister underscored the need for
“a transformative agenda that places gender equality front and centre and where no one is left behind. In addition, this unique year of opportunity must see gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls fully reflected in the outcomes of the Sendai Conference on disaster risk reduction, the Addis Conference on Financing for Development, and December’s Climate Conference.”
Finally, the Minister spoke of how proud Irish people are of their President, Michael D. Higgins, who was recently chosen to be one of ten Champion World Leaders of UN Women’s HeForShe campaign.
ENDS
Note to Editors
The Commission on the Status of Women is the U.N.’s principal global policy making body on gender equality and the advancement of women. The 59th session of the UN Commission for the Status of Women (CSW-59) is to focus on a review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) on its 20th anniversary (Beijing+20) and on opportunities for strengthening gender equality in the post-2015 development agenda. In addition to the official programme, which includes agreement of a political declaration, the session includes an extensive schedule of side events.