New York City — The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Ladies (CSW67)— the UN’s biggest annual gathering on gender equality, the empowerment of all females and girls and their human rights—effectively closed its two-week extended session right now (six to 17 March) with the acknowledgment of the essential part of technologies and innovation in reaching gender equality. The agreed conclusions adopted by Member States supply a blueprint for all stakeholders, which includes governments, the private sector, civil society and youth to market the complete and equal participation and leadership of females and girls in the design and style, transformation and integration of digital technologies and innovation processes that fulfill the human rights and demands of females and girls.

At the conclusion of the negotiations, UN Ladies Executive Director, Sima Bahous, stated: “This year’s Agreed Conclusions are game-altering and bring forward our vision of a extra equal and connected globe for females and girls in all their diversity. It is our job, as we leave right here right now, to translate them into reality. The ultimate results of these Agreed Conclusions lies beyond their finalization right now, in how we will collectively take them forward. They bring us a vision of a extra equal globe. Let us translate them into reality for all females and girls.”

CSW67 reaffirmed the value of females and girls’ complete, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in science, technologies and innovation, and expressed concern on the restricted progress in closing the gender gap in access to and use of technologies, connectivity, digital literacy and education. It also expressed grave concern about the continuity and interrelation in between offline and on the web violence, harassment and discrimination against females and girls and condemned the improve of such acts.

The Commission referred to as for drastically elevated public and private sector investments to bridge the gender digital divide, extra inclusive innovation eco-systems, and the promotion of protected and gender-responsive technologies and innovation. It also referred to as for inclusive and equitable high quality education in science, technologies, engineering, and mathematics, data and communications technologies and digital literacy to guarantee that all females and girls can thrive in a swiftly altering globe.

Initiatives to market innovation and technological transform, and education in the digital age for reaching gender equality should take into account the following:

• Create digital tools and solutions to address the demands of all females and girls, across sectors and geographies, particularly for their education, overall health, financial empowerment and engagement in public life, and guarantee females and girls have access to digital literacy and expertise all through their life course.

• Mainstream gender in digital policies to get rid of barriers to equal access for all females and girls, which includes these living in poverty, in rural, maritime or remote regions, with disabilities, Indigenous females and girls, migrant females and girls, and older females.

• Foster a policy of zero tolerance for gender-primarily based violence that happens by way of or is amplified by the use of technologies and guarantee that public and private sector entities prioritize its prevention and elimination.

• Mainstream a gender viewpoint in the design and style of emerging technologies and adopt regulations to guarantee they are topic to sufficient safeguards to combat new dangers, gender stereotypes and damaging social norms, information privacy breaches and increase transparency and accountability.

• Market policies and programmes to accomplish gender parity in emerging scientific and technological fields and make supportive workplaces and education settings, which includes by way of gender-responsive education, distance studying options and interdisciplinary approaches combining the teaching of social sciences and scientific fields.

• Create gender-responsive innovation that challenges gender stereotypes and damaging social norms, which includes by way of the improvement of digital content material, awareness campaigns and teaching competencies for constructive engagement on digital technologies that engage, educate, encourage and empowers youth, which includes young males and boys, to come to be agents of transform for gender equality.

The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Ladies took location against the backdrop of continued backlash against women’s rights globally, from elevated violence against females in the public space, to the gender impacts of the earthquakes in Syria and Turkiye, to the day-to-day horror that females and girls face in emergency and crisis settings which includes in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran.

In the very first totally in-individual session following 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSW67 registered extremely higher numbers with extra than 7,000 participants, which includes four heads of state and government and 116 ministers, 205 side events on UN premises, and about 700 NGO parallel events.

For the very first time, the session integrated an interactive youth session with young people today, youth representatives of delegations, civil society and United Nations organizations , engaging in dialogue and giving suggestions on how to guarantee young females and girls are portion of the digital transformation. The Commission also benefited from essential contributions from a wide variety of civil society organizations which includes the leaders and commitment makers of the Action Coalition on Technologies and Innovation for Gender Equality, launched as portion of the Generation Equality Forum. The Action Coalition on Technologies and Innovation for Gender Equality has created a considerable contribution in cementing alliances in between Governments, private sector, civil society and the UN technique and in driving momentum and commitments to advance gender equality by way of technologies and innovation.