Permanent Mission of India, Geneva

26th Session of the Human Rights Council

(10 - 27 June 2014)

Annual Full Day Panel Discussion on Women Rights

Panel II: Women human rights and the sustainable development agenda

(17 June 2014)

Statement by India

Mr. President,

We thank the Deputy High Commissioner and the distinguished panelists for their valuable presentations on a theme that has cross cutting imperatives.

Mr. President,

If there is one thing on which we have an overwhelming political consensus- which is, we cannot achieve any meaningful development or for that matter sustainable human development, without empowering the better half of humanity.  We have seen this with the Millennium Development Goals, which in spite of its emphasis on gender equality was left wanting in protection and promotion of women rights and we risk repeating the same if we do not get our act right when we adopt a new development agenda post-2015.

Women have a central role to play in sustainable development. We not only need their full and equal participation but also their leadership to realize each and every aspect of sustainable development - be it health, education, water and sanitation, effective utilization of resources or protection of environment.

Mr. President,

We also know what needs to be done – there is no alternative but to adopt a transformative agenda to comprehensively address the root causes of gender inequality and violence against women. We need a renewed focus on people-centred development that prioritizes the eradication of poverty and the elimination of all gender stereotypes.

The new agenda we adopt should value women’s unique, adaptive and innovative potential, and their concrete contributions, paid and unpaid, to their families, societies and economies and should promote economic and political opportunities for women on an equal footing. Integrating gender perspectives into national planning and budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation frameworks and creating an enabling environment for their full participation and leadership in decision making both at the grass-root level as well as in the governing bodies of national and international institutions should be a priority area. One sure way of achieving this is by incorporating gender specific targets for each of the goals and indicators of the post 2015- development agenda.

India remains committed to promoting such an enabling environment for the advancement of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India mandates women reservation in local governing bodies. Today, 1.5 million elected women representatives in local bodies are taking decisions on education, health, community development, local infrastructure, etc., bridging the gender-divide in decision making and at socio-economic level. Since 2005, gender budgeting has been incorporated in the annual union budget and our efforts are directed at gender mainstreaming all our development plans.   

We actively support gender mainstreaming of all the post-2015 development goals and look forward to listen to some constructive proposals from the panel in this regard.

Thank you Mr President.

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