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<b>Direct Link to Full 6-Page Political Declaration for CSW 64 – Commission on the Status of Women:</b></p>
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<a href="https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/news%20and%20events/stories/2020/csw64-politicaldeclaration.pdf?la=en&vs=1220" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color:blue">https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/news%20and%20events/stories/2020/csw64-politicaldeclaration.pdf?la=en&vs=1220</span></a></p>
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<img 0?="" width="973" height="794" id="Picture_x0020_1" style="width: 10.1354in; height: 8.2708in; user-select: none;" src="service.svc/s/GetFileAttachment?id=AAMkADA2ODU2ZDBkLWYzNWItNGFhOC04ZmVmLWE0OTJiMmYzZWM5OABGAAAAAABGBw2b0skdSLjxkXc4kboFBwBNFUSRsW3TRIo6RTo9vvdQAAAAAAEPAABNFUSRsW3TRIo6RTo9vvdQAAOGOH9lAAABEgAQAAy1h8xPHPtNnW38k4kQiRQ%3D&X-OWA-CANARY=lvL2b8PQyU2ZlBRttP6FhODBh-VDxdcIOFMrbWSBYutLfoxVuSAkjftwuHPJSeP0fqeRWcef3F0."></p>
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<b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#C00000; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">The Political Declaration Adopted Today of the 64th Commission on the Status of Women – CSW 64,</span></i></b></p>
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<b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#C00000; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">Taking Stock of Women’s Rights on the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration & Platform for Action</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#C00000"></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55"><img 0?="" width="639" height="427" id="Picture_x0020_2" alt="Opening session of the 64th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women on 9 March in New York. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown" style="width: 6.6562in; height: 4.4479in; user-select: none;" src="service.svc/s/GetFileAttachment?id=AAMkADA2ODU2ZDBkLWYzNWItNGFhOC04ZmVmLWE0OTJiMmYzZWM5OABGAAAAAABGBw2b0skdSLjxkXc4kboFBwBNFUSRsW3TRIo6RTo9vvdQAAAAAAEPAABNFUSRsW3TRIo6RTo9vvdQAAOGOH9lAAABEgAQAC8BrpCCwJJLqczhKNeOmi0%3D&X-OWA-CANARY=lvL2b8PQyU2ZlBRttP6FhODBh-VDxdcIOFMrbWSBYutLfoxVuSAkjftwuHPJSeP0fqeRWcef3F0."></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55"></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:9.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Opening of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on 9 March, 2020 in New York. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">9 March 2020, New York</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">—In a <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/news%20and%20events/stories/2020/csw64-politicaldeclaration.pdf?la=en&vs=1220" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#009DDC; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">Political
Declaration adopted today by Member States</span></a> commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, leaders pledged to ramp up efforts to fully implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
still considered the most visionary blueprint on women’s rights.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">The Political Declaration is the main outcome of the 64</span><sup><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">th</span></sup><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55"> session
of the Commission on the Status of Women, the largest annual gathering on gender equality and the empowerment of women at the UN. This year the Commission decided to scale back the session to a one-day procedural meeting with delegations and civil society
representatives based in New York, in light of the COVID-19 situation.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">This year’s session focused entirely on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The review took stock of the status of
women, including in-depth assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said: “25 years after Beijing, we all recognize that progress on women’s rights has not gone far or fast enough. It’s 2020, yet
no country has achieved gender equality and women continue to be squeezed into just one quarter of the space at the tables of power. Today, Member States have reaffirmed the Beijing Platform for Action, the progress and the gaps. Women and girls will hold
them accountable as we work together for true and lasting equality and the full enjoyment of our human rights.”</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">In the Political Declaration, Member States welcomed the progress made towards the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
but expressed concern that overall, progress has not been fast or deep enough. In some areas progress has been uneven, and that structural barriers, discriminatory practices and the feminization of poverty persist.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">As leaders reaffirm their political will for action, they also recognize that new challenges have emerged that require concerted and intensified efforts, including in regard to:</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Realizing the right to education for all women and girls, with attention to areas where they are underrepresented such as STEM;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Ensuring full, equal and meaningful participation, representation and leadership of women at all levels and in all spheres of society;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Ensuring women´s economic empowerment, for instance, access to decent work, equal pay, provision of social security and access to finance;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Tackling the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work of women and girls;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Addressing the disproportionate effect of climate change and natural disasters on women and girls;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Ending all forms of violence and harmful practices against all women and girls;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Protecting women and girls in armed conflict and ensuring women’s participation in peace processes and mediation;</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Realizing the right to health for women and girls, with emphasis on universal health coverage; and</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5A55"><span style="">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55">Addressing hunger and malnutrition among women and girls.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">Leaders also identified specific means for tackling these gaps and challenges. Some of these include eliminating all discriminatory laws; breaking down structural barriers, discriminatory
social norms and gender stereotypes including in the media; matching commitments to gender equality with adequate financing; strengthening institutions to promote gender equality; harnessing the potential of technology and innovation to improve women’s and
girls’ lives; regularly collecting, analyzing and using gender statistics; and strengthening international cooperation to implement commitments to gender equality.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">The Declaration also reaffirms that gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls will make a crucial contribution to progress across all the Sustainable Development
Goals, as we begin the UN Decade of Action.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55">For the 64</span><sup><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#5E5A55; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">th</span></sup><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif; color:#5E5A55"> session,
the UN Secretary-General presented a comprehensive report (<a href="https://undocs.org/E/CN.6/2020/3" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#009DDC; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">E/CN.6/2020/3</span></a>)
that is based on an extensive, participatory stock-taking exercise on women’s rights, combined with global data and analysis. 171 Governments submitted national reports, and hundreds of civil society activists contributed to the national and regional reviews.
Building on the UN Secretary-General’s report, UN Women published the <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/03/womens-rights-in-review" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family:"inherit",serif; color:#009DDC; border:none windowtext 1.0pt; padding:0in">Women’s
rights in Review 25 Years After Beijing Report</span></a>, examining progress and obstacles in women’s rights since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995.</span></p>
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