Women and Children Affairs Adviser Sharmeen S. Murshid has called for enhanced global cooperation to accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and urged stronger partnerships, increased investments, and renewed commitments to ensure that no woman or girl is left behind.
She made the call while delivering Bangladesh’s national statement at the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) in New York on Thursday.
Adviser Murshid underscored the role of women, who have historically been a part of every national struggle for self-emancipation, democracy and social justice.
"Women, in the forefront of the July uprising, 2024 – an uprising against fascism and injustice – were 65% of the young revolutionaries”, she added.
She also stated that with the fall of the fascist government of Sheikh Hasina, the interim government took over to bring the nation back on the road to democracy, and the gender landscape of Bangladesh changed forever.
She said that committed to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the interim government has initiated a transformative reform agenda to eliminate discrimination, and for the first time, a “Women Affairs Reform Commission” has been established to address the barriers to gender disparity, the elimination of violence against women as a fundamental prerequisite to empowering women.
The interim government has launched Quick Response Teams to reach victims of violence within 24 hours of occurrence.
In her statement, Adviser Murshid underscored the importance of the removal of the reservations of CEDAW articles 13 (a), 16.1 (f) and 16.1 (c).
As part of the CSW69 session, Adviser Murshid participated in the Ministerial Roundtable on “National Mechanisms for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: Recommitting, Resourcing, and Accelerating Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action to Contribute to the Achievement of the SDGs’’ and shared Bangladesh’s experiences and best practices in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action under the leadership of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus.
On the sidelines of CSW69, Adviser Murshid held bilateral meetings with her counterparts from China, Sweden, Mexico and Finland and discussed areas of collaboration on women’s development, gender equality, efforts to combat violence against women and children and the development of a care economy as a social business in Bangladesh.
The adviser is also set to deliver a keynote speech at the high-level side event, jointly organised by Bangladesh, Nepal and Finland on “Investing in Care-A pathway to Economic Growth and Gender Equality” where ministers from Nepal, high-level government representatives from Bangladesh, Nepal and Finland, as well as representatives from UN Women, ILO, ADB and the World Bank, civil society and international organisations will participate.
She will also hold bilateral meetings with Türkiye and Tunisia.
Adviser Murshid is on an official visit to New York and Washington, D.C., to attend the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, being held from March 10 to 21, and to engage with the World Bank on matters related to gender equality, women’s empowerment, investing in social care, partnership on economic inclusion, strengthening social protection and multisectoral approaches to combatting gender-based violence.