Item 4 - Key trends on gender equality across ECE region 21 October 1130-1300. Norway (21.10.2024)

STATEMENT

Beijing +30 Regional Review Meeting 21-22 October 2024.

Item 4 - Key trends on gender equality across ECE region

21 October 1130-1300.


Statement delivered by Ambassador Mr. Tormod C. ENDRESEN, Permanent Representative of Norway. 

 

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        21 October 2024

 

  • Our goal for 2030 is ambitious: to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere. While there has been progress, the world is off track to achieve SDG 5. With only six years left, we must dramatically scale up our commitments and investments.
  • Many pressing issues discussed in Beijing 30 years ago remain unresolved. We even see backlash. Authoritarian regimes and conservative, religiously motivated alliances are mobilising against gender equality, particularly against sexual and reproductive health and rights.
  • We must unite against attempts to restrict the rights of women and LGBT+ persons. I encourage everyone to stand up against those who has labelled gender equality as a threat to family values, culture and tradition.
  • Gender equality is a human right. And our most valuable investment.
  • In Norway, the employment rate is nearly as high for women as for men. The rise in women’s workforce participation has been decisive for Norway’s development into a prosperous economy. Over the past 40-50 years it has contributed approximately 15-20% to the growth in GDP per capita.
  • Norway’s long-term strategy has been to invest in social welfare schemes that enable work-life balance, for both women and men.
  • One key welfare scheme is the parental leave, providing parents with the right to circa one year of paid leave. Norway was the first country in the world to introduce a father’s quota in 1993. Today parental leave is divided into three parts – 15 weeks for the mother, 15 weeks for the father, and 16 weeks that the parents can split as they choose.
  • Fathers taking an active role in caring for children and household, has resulted in a distinct, positive change in the understanding of men's role as caretakers, bringing us closer to eliminating stereotypes.
  • Norway has also invested in affordable, high-quality day care for children under school age. 93.8 percent of all children aged 1 to 5 years attend kindergarten, and 80 percent of women with children aged 1-2 years are employed.
  • To ensure that all children, regardless of location or background, can access high quality kindergartens, the government reduced the parental maximum fees to a historic low in 2024.
  • No country can afford not to make use of all its human resources. Increasing women's participation in workforce pays off – for the woman, for the family and for the country.

Friends – what was established in Beijing 30 years ago is equally relevant today and must be protected: Women’s rights are human rights. Investing in women and girls is sound economics. Let us build on these lessons to accelerate progress globally during the coming years.

Thank you.