“The world where women shine”

Next 3 Dec, 2022 it will kick start and be hosted in Japan the “World Assembly for Women” (WAW!), that’s the Japanese initiative for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and for mainstreaming gender into a new form of capitalism,  pursuing the special focus to realize “a society where women shine”.

This conference will be held for the fifth year since the foundation of this cycle of events, concurrently with the W20, one of the engagement group of G20. Are invited to take part in it Ms Malala Yousafzar, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2014 that is highlightening the importance of the education for girls, advocating that “one book and one pen can change the world”.Moreover it will join the talks the female foreign ministers and youth representatives other than Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This initiative plunges its roots in the framework of the CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, dated 1979, and the UNSC resolution 1325  aiming to implement it through the Japanese National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security  in the achievement of the UN goals, by drafting, monitoring and evaluating brand new initiatives..  

A special attention during these meetings is planned to be given to the LGBT matters, including an insight on the “diversity” issues, making room for lively large platforms of discussion on SDG5 topics. [1]

The government of Japan stresses that it will keep on providing support to the education and economic empowerment for women and girls in the society at large. Working through international agencies, Japan supports women in the vulnerable situations such as victims of SGBV.

In the words of Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary General Executive Director, UN Women[2], UN are honoured to reinforce their partnership with Japan and redouble their efforts and live up their shared commitment at this most crucial times.

UN women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) has three main roles:

·         To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.

·         To help Member States to implement these standards, providing suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and forging effective partnerships with civil society.

·         To lead and coordinate the UN system’s work on gender equality as well as promote accountability, including through regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

UN Women’s priority areas are: (1) Leadership and political participation, (2) Economic empowerment, (3) Ending violence against women, (4) Peace and security, (5) Humanitarian action, (6) Governance and national planning, (7) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and (8) HIV/AIDS.

In 2012, United Kingdom, one of the most influential countries in the revendications of women rights, launched “Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative” (PSVI) to raise awareness and put an end to the violation of women’s human rights in conflicts. Urging the necessity to end impunity for sexual violence in conflict and to boost the efforts of international community,  the“Declaration on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict ” was adopted at the G8 Foreign Minister’s meeting in April 2013. Also, United Kingdom created “Champion’s Network” with cooperating countries and released “A Declaration of Commitment to end Sexual Violence in Conflict” with 114 countries. Japan strongly support PSVI and has funded to the projects conducted by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida attended and delivered speech at the High-level Ministerial Event on Women’s Economic Empowerment for Peacebuilding held at UN building in September 2013. In the event, representatives from about 70 countries participated and a political declaration which mentions about the importance of women’s roles in the peacebuilding process and women’s empowerment was released. By synthetizing, Japan proposes

  • A high-level Ministerial Event on Women’s Economic Empowerment for Peacebuilding
  • A declaration: Women’s Economic Empowerment for Peacebuilding
  • An inhering statement by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida

In the main intentions of the UN, in facts, promoting the active role of women in STEM field contributes to achieve economic growth and to shorten gender disparity, involving creators, entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Although globally, girls’ enrolment in school has gone up within recent decades, in many settings, socio-economic and cultural obstacles such as prioritizing boys’ education, inadequate school sanitation facilities, and school-related gender-based violence prevent female learners from completing or benefiting fully from a high quality STEM education.

Furthermore, the global digital divide disproportionately prevents women and girls from accessing online STEM information and opportunities.

For too long, gender biases and stereotypes have steered women and girls away from science-related fields. Only about 30 per cent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education and even fewer pursue Doctoral degrees or hold leadership positions.

All this suggests, data in hand, how the society at large is still dominated by a prevailing men role presence and how much a sensitive contribution in raising awareness, not only by ONG, and propelling institutional interventions at all levels, from Member States to local partners, would be pivotal and unavoidable by concrete actions, investing budgets and involving key actors. By this initiative, Japan is demonstrating not to want to be a remote island in the matter of a possible progress and empowerment for women and girls, but acting as a springboard, a re-launch point, stimulating and encompassing talks and tangible resources by a proactive international commitment, in order to reach a realistic equality of gender in the mind and the heart of people, by emboldening the target of the realization of a peaceful and stable society and by guaranteeing a better future for the Planet.

 

 


[1] http://www.mofa.go.jp/fp/pc/page23e_000181.html

[2] “Japanese initiative for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment”, Youtube

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