Statement by H.E. Mr. Mher Margaryan, Chair of the 64th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations at the Event entitled “United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2020”

06 March, 2020

Statement by H.E. Mr. Mher Margaryan, Chair of the 64^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations

at the Event entitled “United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2020”

6 March, 2020

Your Excellency Secretary-General,

Your Excellency Prime Minister of Finland,

Distinguished Delegates, Special Guests, Friends,

As Chair of CSW 64, I want to wholeheartedly congratulate all women and girls on the upcoming International Women’s Day.

The Commission on the Status of Women - as the principal policy-making body of the United Nations for gender equality and the empowerment of women was planning to have a session befitting this anniversary year, with wide participation from senior government officials, representatives of the vibrant civil society community, young people and other stakeholders from around the world.

We are all saddened that due to the global coronavirus disease situation, it has been necessary to scale down this year’s session. On Monday, 9 March, CSW is expected to adopt a Political Declaration that will reaffirm the Beijing Platform for Action and commit to its full, effective and accelerated implementation.

Today to we are here celebrate the promise of Platform for Action, 25 years after its adoption. We reflect on its profound meaning and effect as we applaud the achievements of many women and girls who have been—and who are—changing the course of the world as we speak.

A quarter of a century ago, in Beijing, the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women culminated in the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. A momentous and progressive global agenda, the Platform created a blueprint for Member States to advance women’s rights and empower all women and girls everywhere, a reality without which the world can neither achieve its potential nor meet the tremendous challenges that this century, like all prior ones, inevitably brings.

That 17,000 people from 189 countries gathered in Beijing in 1995 meant the gender equality was on everyone’s radar. The rights of women finally became a global matter, and we thank all the women and men who took part in that achievement.

Gender equality and the human rights of women and girls remain global issue 25 years after some of you in this hall gathered in Beijing - and at the three World Conferences prior to that in Mexico City, Copenhagen and Nairobi.

Our world will never be at peace so long as gender equality and the exchange of basic human rights between men and women are regarded as a privilege and a luxury. That is unnatural.

It is not natural that women are paid less than men for doing the same jobs.

It is not natural that violence against women runs rampant and is even used as a weapon to break down societies.

It is not natural, that in this 21st century, not a single country has achieved full equality.

We also recognize that much of the resistance faced by gender equality advocates 25 years ago still remains and the backlash against women’s rights today has taken on new forms.

Dear friends,

Now is not the time to slow down, now is the time to take leaps!

Each year, we are welcoming more women into the upper levels of political leadership, with the highest rate of 61.25% women in parliament (in Rwanda). Yet, the global average of women MPs remains at 24.9%. (that is almost the percentage of women represented in the Parliament of Armenia).

I take heart from the future generation. To all young women and girls and to my two daughters, 19 and 9 years old, I would like to implore: do not wait for the torch to be passed on to you, but take the lead on your own. You are to accomplish what it has taken the international community over 25 years to accomplish!

I am reminded how across every nation, women and girls are taking center stage, making their voices heard, and changing the world that we live in.

In my own country, Armenia, our recent national experience reaffirms the critical role that women play in public life, as they have been at the forefront of revolutionary transformations, acting as guarantors of peaceful and lasting change.

The questions we need to ask ourselves and each other, as representatives of Member States, United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations, is what needs to change, and how do we ensure that change and the progress that follows is irreversible?

We need to re-examine and rework the system, be cognizant of the patriarchy that created it, and alter it so that the system works for all of us, beginning with women and girls. The change needs to be systematic, institutional, cultural, and global.

This is what we are here to celebrate and to remind ourselves today, that we are the instruments of this evolution and that together we can alter the course for future generations of women and girls to ensure that we all, and the world at large, reaches its full potential.

I know that it is possible, I believe that, together, we can do it.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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