The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
THE United Nations in Zimbabwe has launched a monthly thematic spotlight rights initiative.
The focus for the month of June is participation of women and girls in decision-making to achieve sustainable development and gender equality.
The launch coincided with the observance of the 75th anniversary of the Declaration for Human Rights, which has also come to be known as the Human Rights 75 Initiative.
In recognition of the Human Rights 75 Initiative, the month of June’s activities will shine a light on the achievements of the Spotlight Initiative, a joint programme to eliminate violence against women and girls.
The initiative has been funded by European Union (EU) and will be implemented by the UN and its partners.
UN Women country representative Ms Fatou Aminata Lo said with statistics revealing that nearly 2,4 billion women globally do not have the same economic rights as men, no meaningful social contract will be possible without the active and equal participation of women and girls.
“Achieving equality between women and men requires a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which women experience discrimination and are denied equality to develop appropriate strategies to eliminate such discrimination,” she said.
Zimbabwe has demonstrated commitment to push for gender equality through domesticating international protocols like the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw).
With the Human Rights 75 Initiative comes another call for Governments, including Zimbabwe, to organise a country dialogue to discuss key human rights issues as well as exchange positive stories.
UN Zimbabwe resident coordinator Mr Edward Kallon said: “One of the key objectives of Human Rights 75 Initiative is to generate pledges that bring about concrete change towards greater enjoyment of human rights, mainly from governments, but also from other actors such as parliaments, national human rights institutions, civil society organisations, international financial institutions, business and young people.”
