Gender Equality was the focus of a half-day lecture delivered by Former New Zealand Prime Minister, also the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Mrs Helen Clark, yesterday at the Cyber Tower 1 in Ebène in the presence of the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo.
Mrs Helen Clark, stressed on the importance of gender equality to attain economic momentum which according to her has helped many countries across the globe to attain tremendous progress on the socio-economic and political fronts. She dwelt on the best practices that Mauritius can adhere to based on the case studies adopted by several countries including New Zealand to give a boost to women emancipation and empowerment.
In her address, Minister Daureeawoo emphasised the importance of gender equality while highlighting the major strands that Mauritius have achieved over the past years regarding the evolution in gender equality issues for the empowerment and emancipation of women.
She recalled the various amendments brought in the legislations pertaining to the rights of women so as to create parity between the male and female population with Mauritius being the signatories of several international human rights instruments among which the Convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the protocol against violence against women.
According to her, nowadays women participation has undergone a significant increase in both the public and private sectors with women occupying high level positions and are also fairly represented in the National Assembly.
She further underscored that for the first time in history, Mauritius has a woman as President of the Republic and as Speaker of the National Assembly. This, she said is a testimony that Mauritius is on the right path regarding the gender equality agenda. There is still more to be done to promote and give more visibility to women to help them evolve in the various social, economic and political spheres, she added.
She also gave assurance that as Minister of Gender Equality she will ensure that Goal 5 of the sustainable development goal which focuses on gender is being properly implemented and monitored in Mauritius and that we must remain alert of the challenges to be addressed to attain gender equality.