UN-Women Executive Board
First regular session 13-14 February 2023
Mr. President,
Allow me to start by thanking UN-Women’s Executive Director Ms. Sima Bahous for her leadership of UN-Women, and by expressing solidarity with people of Türkiye and Syria following the devastating earthquake.
Latvia assumed membership in the Executive Board this year. Latvia is also an active member of the Commission on the Status of Women, serving on its Bureau. Thus, we are part of the two segments of UN-Women - CSW that shapes global standards for achieving gender equality, and Executive Board that guides UN-Women in implementing those standards on the ground. Latvia supports UN-Women both with active participation and with financial support through voluntary contributions so that UN-Women can do its important work globally.
All over the world women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of human rights is under increased pressure. In countries such as Afghanistan and Iran we are witnessing devastating effects on women and girls, suppressing the achievements of the past decades. We commend the recent visit of the Executive Director Ms. Sima Bahous to Afghanistan to appraise the situation, underscore UN’s solidarity with the Afghan people and call on Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban authorities to reverse the course on recent decrees oppressing women’s and girls’ rights. Latvia supports UN-Women’s efforts to ensure that women and girls reclaim their space in contributing to the future of Afghanistan. This pressing issue must also be adequately addressed during the forthcoming CSW 67th session next month.
UN-Women’s work is vital in Ukraine, where Russia wages a war of aggression. Since 2015, UN-Women has been scaling-up its presence and programme in Ukraine. It is important that UN works to enhance the protection of women and girls, respond to the humanitarian and crisis situations, improve the socio-economic recovery and political participation of women. We welcome the UN-Women’s engagement with Ukrainian civil society. It is important to listen and take into account the concerns of women affected by the war and to bring their priorities to the forefront of UN’s response.
Latvia is grateful for the invaluable contribution of UN-Women to the realisation of gender equality in the world. We appreciate the UN-Women’s engagement with governments and civil society to design laws, policies and services that truly benefit women and girls. Latvia is putting efforts into achieving these aims – through contributions to UN-Women, through making gender equality one of priorities in development assistance, through strengthening Women, Peace and Security agenda, through Latvian NGOs, like Centre “Marta”, realizing projects in Central Asia to empower women, or “Riga TechGirls”, teaching digital skills to women and girls, and projects in Namibia and Zambia to support women entrepreneurs.
Mr. President, to sum it up, UN-Women can count on Latvia’s full support for its work globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls.
I thank you.