UN calls (yet again) for the empowerment of women

The annual high-level segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) opened yesterday with speakers calling for women and girls to be placed at the centre of the global struggle to achieve the social and economic targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This year’s focus “allows us to strengthen the linkages between gender equality, women’s human rights and non-discrimination as a basis for progress in development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals,” said ECOSOC President Hamidon Ali, referring to the eight goals that world leaders have agreed to try to realize before their 2015 deadline.

In his opening address to the meeting, held at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Ali said that while the third goal relates directly to the empowerment of women, “all MDGs are dependant upon women having a greater say in their own development.”

I hope I don't sound too cynical but I've lost count of the number of stories I've posted on WVON about the UN calling for women's empowerment. It's just a pity that they don't ever actually do anything about it. 

If you can bear to read another one, the full story is on UN news.