Statement by H.E. Mr. KIMURA Tetsuya, Ambassador, Economic, Social and United Nations Management Affairs, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, a Virtual Conversation at the Ambassadorial Level on the occasion of International Women’s Day Group of Friends on Gender Parity
2021/3/8
I would like to start by thanking the co-chairs for their leadership and expressing my appreciation for the contributions from the President of General Assembly and the Secretary-General.
Japan applauds the amount of progress made in the UN system since 2017. I would also like to emphasize the critical role that UN Women plays in these efforts including the recent launch of the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines that enhance parity in the field.
COVID-19 is exacerbating the insecurity caused by emerging global challenges such as climate change. In recent years we have experienced an increasing number of natural disasters that are having a disproportionate effect on women and girls.
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami struck Japan almost 10 years ago to the day on March 11, 2011. Using our experiences from the disaster, Japan put forward a resolution on gender equality and the empowerment of women in natural disasters during CSW the following year. This resolution stressed the need to ensure equal opportunities for the leadership and participation of women, and, as appropriate, girls in decision-making at all levels regarding disaster risk reduction, response and recovery.
In 2004, one third of Japan’s 47 prefectures had no women serving on their prefectural disaster management councils, with a total of only 2% of seats occupied by women. 15 year later, Japan had reached up to 16% of disaster management council positions being occupied by women. There still remains more work to be done to reach parity, but we find it crucial to strive for parity at the national, local and community levels in order to respond to a future crisis. As the Secretary-General says, gender parity is a moral duty, operational necessity, and the idea must permeate all organizations.
Thank you.
Japan applauds the amount of progress made in the UN system since 2017. I would also like to emphasize the critical role that UN Women plays in these efforts including the recent launch of the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines that enhance parity in the field.
COVID-19 is exacerbating the insecurity caused by emerging global challenges such as climate change. In recent years we have experienced an increasing number of natural disasters that are having a disproportionate effect on women and girls.
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami struck Japan almost 10 years ago to the day on March 11, 2011. Using our experiences from the disaster, Japan put forward a resolution on gender equality and the empowerment of women in natural disasters during CSW the following year. This resolution stressed the need to ensure equal opportunities for the leadership and participation of women, and, as appropriate, girls in decision-making at all levels regarding disaster risk reduction, response and recovery.
In 2004, one third of Japan’s 47 prefectures had no women serving on their prefectural disaster management councils, with a total of only 2% of seats occupied by women. 15 year later, Japan had reached up to 16% of disaster management council positions being occupied by women. There still remains more work to be done to reach parity, but we find it crucial to strive for parity at the national, local and community levels in order to respond to a future crisis. As the Secretary-General says, gender parity is a moral duty, operational necessity, and the idea must permeate all organizations.
Thank you.