Women¡¯s rights are human rights. But in these troubled times, as our world becomes more unpredictable and chaotic, the rights of women and girls are being reduced, restricted and reversed. Empowering women and girls is the only way to protect their rights and make sure they can realize their full potential.
¡ª 51³Ô¹Ï Secretary-General, Ant¨®nio Guterres
Around the world, the 51³Ô¹Ï system stands behind the realization of the rights of rural women, in principle and practice. Upholding these rights is essential to international commitments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Fulfilling the promise of the landmark 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, where the goals include gender equality as well as ending poverty and hunger, achieving decent work for all and combatting climate change, largely depends on empowering rural women and girls.
UN development entities, led by UN Women, back progress towards these objectives through assisting implementation of national and local programmes. These directly engage women and girls in rural areas, supporting their efforts to access all the elements fundamental to their rights and well-being, whether health services or land, financing or climate-smart technologies, among others.
Each year, the UN system champions the rights of rural women on the International Day for Rural Women. The Commission on the Status of Women, the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, has called for tearing down the barriers to rural women and girls. In 2018, it tackled the challenges and opportunities they face as a priority theme.