Regional capacity development for members of the sub-committees on gender equality and on Gender Justice and the Law

Pursuant to the recommendation of the ESCWA Committee on Women in its seventh session in January 2016 in Muscat, Oman, a Governmental Subcommittee on Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals was established. The Subcommittee comprises the heads/senior representatives of national women’s machineries (NWMs) in member States working on the nationalization (localization) and implementation of SDG 5 on gender equality, as well as other SDGs and targets related to gender. In 2018, membership of the subcommittee was expanded to include all Arab countries, and representation of the gender focal points at the national statistics bureau in member States. The secretariat functions of the Subcommittee fall under the ESCWA mandate and work.

The SDGs cannot be achieved without addressing gender equality in the law and its practice. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development world-wide by 2030, ensuring that no one is left behind. As governments have begun to implement their plans to achieve these goals, it is important to emphasize that development will only be sustainable if its benefits accrue equally to both women and men. Furthermore, without formal legal equality many of the SDG targets will be unattainable, including the gender equality targets of Goal 5.

Based on the above, ESCWA, UN Women, UNFPA, UNDP and LAS worked closely to organize and facilitate the different sessions of the on-line webinar on gender justice and the law designed to better inform members of the subcommittee on gender equality and SDGs on tools to examine and align national legislation with international frameworks, most notably CEDAW, Beijing Platform of Action and SDG target 5.1. The workshop also familiarized members of the subcommittee with the Gender Justice and the Law Dashboard (color-coded chart of the country) that would help countries measure their progress on achieving equality in laws.

The webinar was designed for members of subcommittee on gender equality and SDGs, who represent National Women’s Machineries (NWMs) in the Arab region. Participants discussed missing policies and legislation and explored how to advocate for developing such laws in line with international frameworks. Participants also exchanged knowledge, monitored progress made and introduced ways to address these gaps and apply good practice.

To learn more about the Gender Justice and the Law initiative, please visit the dedicated webpage by clicking on the following link: http://genderjustice.unescwa.org/.

Additional presentations and documents related to the workshop can be found on the Arabic version of the page.