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Statement by H.E. Mrs. Bouachanh SYHANATH , Vice-President of Lao Women’s Union, at the High-level meeting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women (BEIJING+25).

Thursday, 01 October 2020
Presenter: 
H.E. Mrs. Bouachanh SYHANATH
Location: 
New York

Statement by

H.E. Mrs. Bouachanh SYHANATH

Vice-President of Lao Women’s Union

At the High-level meeting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth

World Conference on Women (BEIJING+25)

01 October 2020

(Please check against delivery)

 

His Excellency Volkan Bozkir, President of the General Assembly,

His Excellency António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Excellncies, Distinguished Delegates,

I am honored for this opportunity to be presented to this important meeting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women under the theme of “Accelerating the realization of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of all Women and Girls”. On behalf of Lao delegations, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to the organizer for providing such a good opportunity for me participating to these meaningful event. The Lao delegation supports the statement delivered by Malaysia on behalf of the ASEAN member states.

Distinguished Delegates

The Lao Government attaches great importance to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We acknowledge that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are integral part to achieving those goals.

The top three outstanding progress Lao PDR has made in the implementation of (BPfA) over the past five years.

  1. The formulation of legal frameworks that provide an overarching architecture for the effective implementation of advancement of women’s rights.
  2. The improved health care and service to serve the medical needs for women, resulting in positive cross-cutting impact across all development sectors.
  3. The better education attainment by women.

Distinguished Delegates,

Despite the achievements, there are also some challenges such as the lack of disaggregated data on sex, the shortage of human and financial resources for implementing BPfA, and the low level of understanding and acceptance of gender equality among the general public, especially those residing in rural and mountainous areas. The evolving forms of human trafficking also make it strong to implement BPfA in the country.

The review concludes that the top five priorities for accelerating the progress for women and girls in Lao PDR for the next five years includes:

  1. Further strengthening the establishment of political participant and representation of women as well as the implementation of the approved laws;
  2. Building women’s entrepreneurship and women’s enterprise;
  3.  Increasing of access to healthcare for mothers and child;
  4. Ensuring quality education including short-term and vocational training programmes; and
  5. Improving unpaid care and domestic work. Apart from these five areas, domestic violence, human trafficking and lack of disaggregated data on gender will also continue to be important areas that Lao PDR attempts to address.

In this regard, we call for enhanced partnership from the development partners and international community to help in the implementation of our priorities for accelerating the progress for women and girls in Lao PDR.

Thank you