March 20, 2016
News
Pakistan determined to empower women, says UN envoy
NEW YORK - Pakistan is determined to achieve gender equality and empower women as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Pakistan's Ambassador to UN Maleeha Lodhi said.
At the 'Strategies to eliminate violence against women' event organised by the Pakistan Mission to the UN during the 60th session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW), Maleeha said Pakistan was keen to achieve all the objectives outlined by the UN in SDG 5.
While highlighting the country's achievements in this regard, the Pakistani envoy maintained that violence against women was a key concern in the country’s overall agenda of gender equality and women's empowerment.
"Physical violence has been described as the most shameful of all human rights violations and one of the most intractable to eliminate," she asserted, conceding that "we have come a long way, but challenges still exist".
The fifth SDG which has nine major targets calls for, among other practices, an end to discrimination and violence against women in public and private spheres, ending child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, recognising unpaid care and domestic work and promoting shared responsibility within the household.
The SDGs are a set of universal goals agreed on after three years of negotiations at the UN General Assembly in September last year. They are an expansion of the Millennium Development Goals agreed on at the beginning of the new century.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk