A group of thirty men in Gaza have succeeded in preventing the early marriage of girls under the age of 18, from 50 different families, thanks to a training programme supported by the UN gender agency, UN Women.
A recap of Monday’s main stories: companies ‘failing’ to address offline harm incited by online hate; gender equality ‘precursor’ to sustaining peace; UN rights chief urges ‘immediate dialogue’ to resolve Chile crisis; African migrants would make perilous Europe journey again; Security Council visits South Sudan.
Saudi women will now be able to apply for passports. Those over 21 will be allowed to travel independently, without permission from their so-called guardians. UN News’s May Yaacoub spoke to UN Women’s Dr. Mouza Al Shehhi and started by asking her what those steps represent for the region.
Without the full participation and leadership of women, “we have no hope” of realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the President of the United Nations General Assembly told gender equality leaders on Monday.
Today's top stories include: boosting profits at work by hiring more women leaders; saving biodiversity to beat climate change; General Assembly condemns UK over Chagos Islands; just a month of funding left for Gaza; celebrating malaria-free Algeria and Argentina; and justice experts dicuss how best to fight hate crime.
Businesses perform better – sometimes by as much as 20 per cent – when they employ more women in top positions, UN labour experts said on Wednesday, warning nonetheless that most still pay lip-service to the idea of gender equality in the boardroom.
“I think it's almost a joke that it will take the world so long to create women empowerment, particularly as we know that there’s an economic upside in empowering women in the range of $28 trillion.”
A South African teenager was at the UN recently to raise her voice for children everywhere, particularly on the issues of education, child labour and gender inequality.
Lathitha Beyile from Soweto read a manifesto she had written which was inspired by children in her country.