Calls declaring GBV national disaster
the society.
“To this end, as EU we will continue to support the women of Eswatini as this means support for a better, fairer and more prosperous country for all,” she said.
Ambassador Choumelova said Afghanistan has turned back the clock on the right to education for half of its population.
She mentioned that Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine was a gross violation of international law and the UN Charter.
In the face of continuing extreme hardship, she said women found courage to stand up for themselves and what was right. She saluted the extraordinary courage and resilience of Ukrainian women who persistently defend their country’s right to exist and freedom.
The diplomat stated that 5 000 Ukrainian women were on the front line and as she spoke tens of thousands more were in the armed forces. “They are fighting an evil war of aggression. We all must continue to stand against GBV and all forms of discrimination of girls and women,” she said.
She also pointed to the fact that the EU was countering sexual and gender-based violence to ensure that those responsible were fully accountable.
“We have used our Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime to impose restrictive measures on nine individuals and three entities in Afghanistan, Russia, South Sudan, Myanmar and Syria in view of their role in committing serious human rights violations,” she said.
COMBAT AND ELIMINATE
She continued: “We will combat and eliminate all forms of violence against girls and women. At the same time, we will continue to work for the equality and empowerment of girls and women.”
She said the EU was committed to creating an environment that enabled women to thrive and bridge the existing gaps in gender equality. “Our Gender Action Plan III is a powerful tool to make this difference,” she declared.
“Which brings me to this year’s International Women’s Day theme ‘DigitAll: Innovation and technology for gender equality.’ She said innovation and technology were important means towards gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. In the EU, she explained that they declared 2023 as the European Year of Skills.
“We will focus more on equipping girls and women with digital skills, thereby closing the existing gender digital divide,” she said.
“Why is this important? The most demanded hard skills which are best rewarded worldwide are in the digital domain: Data science, software development and coding, content creation and artificial intelligence, to name a few.”
She said the gender digital divide prevented women and girls, both in Eswatini and globally, to advance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. She said these fields were still dominated by men; hence the urgent need to close this existing gender digital divide.
She said the time for equal opportunities, including in the digital space, ‘is now’.
In line with the theme for this year’s IWD, she expressed the EU’s commitment to supporting an inclusive digital transition.
Through the EU’s Digital Strategy 2030, she said they sought to ensure women’s equal access to digital technologies, tackling the structural barriers underpinning the global gender digital divide and achieving digital transition that was both fair and inclusive.
EMPOWERING WOMEN
She elucidated that empowering women with innovation and technological skills was good for all – both men and women alike, and societies.
“No country can afford to under-employ half of its talent,” she warned.
“However, while a fairer digital transition presents opportunities for the empowerment of women and girls, it also poses new risks for them.” She said research informed them that 38 per cent of women experienced online abuse and young women, aged 18 to 24, were particularly at risk.
Ambassador Choumelova said 50 per cent of girls admitted to have faced more online harassment than street harassment. She said online violence such as cyberbullying was also one of the leading causes of the gender digital divide globally.