Myanmar representative highlights women’s leadership at UN debate

Myanmar’s representative told the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on 6 October that women and girls were “not passive victims of conflict”. He described women as central to national resilience and interim governance, pointing to their roles in the National Unity Government cabinet and front-line healthcare networks. He spoke of severe military violence alongside that leadership and called for accountability for sexual violence and other atrocity crimes. [1]

Other delegates focused on barriers to participation. Afghanistan’s representative said excluding women from employment and public life threatened development, warning that the country could lose up to 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 health workers by 2030 if current conditions persisted. That was a forecast, not a count of workers already lost. Brazil’s representative called for equal participation, while Canada’s warned about intimidation of women human rights defenders, journalists and political leaders. [1]

The discussion also included reports of gains. Lebanon’s representative said women made up more than half of higher-education students and half of judges in the country. Saudi Arabia’s representative reported record private-sector employment for women and said they held more than 44 per cent of high-level political positions. These were national claims, rather than a measure of a global trend. [1]