“Gender parity must be a part of broader context of holistic and sustainable development rather than purely a means to advancement”, says the Maldives. The statement was made by His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Sareer, Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations while speaking at the 8th Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals.
Ambassador Sareer highlighted that the Maldives has achieved gender parity within the context of Millennium Development Goals but that more remains to be achieved concerning gender equality and women’s empowerment. He stressed that one of the key problems with MDGs was that it aligned a weak mechanism to address the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment, and therefore, called for a stand-alone goal on gender parity and urged all Sustainable Development Goals to be interdependent, cohesive and aspirational.
Ambassador Sareer highlighted Maldives advocacy on gender equality and women’s empowerment through its membership in the Human Rights Council and Executive Board of UN-Women as well as its participation in the UN General Assembly debates on the issue. On the domestic front, the Maldives Government ensures gender mainstreaming across all sectors in particular legislation that incorporates gender sensitive perspectives and ensures equitable access to justice.
Ambassador Sareer concluded his statement by pledging to work closely with all delegations and experts to overcome the problems previously confronted in the MDG implementation, during the transition to an SDG framework.
