President of the National Council for Women, Dr. Maya Morsi, participated in the activities of the eighth ministerial meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment organized by the African Union Commission, via video conference, with the participation of ministers responsible for gender equality and women’s affairs from all member states of the African Union.
The meeting aimed to discuss and adopt expert reports on the official declaration on gender equality in Africa for the year 2023, and the high-level presidential initiative on the role of male leaders in ending violence against women and girls, in addition to the draft regional action plan for Africa and the monitoring and evaluation framework on ending violence against women and girls and the African Preliminary Consultations on the Sixty-eighth Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
During the meeting, Dr. Maya Morsi delivered a speech in which she expressed solidarity with women, girls, and the Palestinian people in light of the worsening conditions that Gaza is going through, and called for the necessity to take into account women’s rights in all discussions and consultations related to the Palestinian issue, and even giving them the highest priority.
The President of the Council directly addressed the United Nations, saying: In the name of every mother, stop the war and demand an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, without restrictions or conditions, for the sake of humanity.
Morsi further called for the continued safe, rapid, and sustainable access to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, in addition to stopping the forced displacement of women and children from their homes and lands at all costs, working to provide special protection for women and children, and ensuring the safety of civilians.
The United Nations called for the establishment of mechanisms to monitor human rights violations, especially those targeting women and children, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
She concluded her speech by confirming her stance on the ongoing situation, saying: We reject, by all means, the idea of displacing the people of Gaza to Sinai. Homelands do not accept bargaining, even if the price is life. There is no life without a homeland, and we only want peace and a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following agreed-upon standards on the basis of Security Council resolutions and international legitimacy.
Dr. Maya also participated in the ministerial meeting organized by the African Union, UN Women, and the African Economic Commission, via the video conference application, on “Consultations in Africa before the sixty-eighth Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), where the meeting aimed to discuss Adopting the common African position of the Commission on the Status of Women68, and reaching agreement on how to organize Africa to speak with one voice in the Commission on the Status of Women.
The meeting came with the participation of ministers responsible for gender equality and women’s affairs from all member states of the African Union and their experts, regional economic communities, civil society organizations, and other relevant stakeholders.
The ministerial meeting was preceded by a two-day meeting of experts, to work on reviewing current research, analyzing policies and practices, providing action-oriented recommendations to combat women’s poverty and the gender financing gap in Africa, and developing normative frameworks that address women’s empowerment and poverty at the institutional level, official policies, norms, and standards by identifying the main challenges and obstacles and agreeing on the key messages and priority actions for the African region.
It is worth noting that the sixty-eighth Committee on the Status of Women (CSW68), scheduled to be held in New York from March 11 to 22, 2024, will discuss the topic of accelerating the achievement of gender equality and empowering all women and girls by confronting poverty and strengthening institutions and financing to do so.
