Statement by the Honourable Helena Guergis, P.C., M.P. Canada's Minister of State (Status of Women) at the 54^th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (Beijing+15)

New York

March 2, 2010

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Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates,

As Canada's Minister of State (Status of Women), I thank you very much for providing me this opportunity to speak to the 54^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

As we celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, let me stress Canada's unequivocal and continued commitment to gender equality.  We view gender equality and the empowerment of women not only as a goal in itself, but also as a fundamental step in achieving all the Millennium Development Goals.

The United Nations has an important role to play in accelerating global progress towards achieving gender equality.

Canada welcomes the General Assembly's decision to consolidate four existing United Nations entities by establishing a gender entity under the leadership of an Under Secretary-General. Such an entity will add to the coherence and efficiency of the United Nations work on gender issues, and we expect the whole of the UN system to play an active role in supporting the new entity. 

We would also encourage the development of a mechanism to enhance communication between the Commission and the entity's eventual Executive Board, in order to strengthen the role of the Commission.

I am pleased to deliver this report on the progress being made in Canada. Our Plan to ensure progress toward full gender equality has three pillars of focus. First, supporting women's economic security. Second, ending violence against women. And third, promoting women's involvement in democracy and leadership.

We have already implemented many elements of this Plan and will continue to do so in the months and years ahead.

We have experienced very solid progress in a number of areas, including increasing levels of education, reducing poverty, increasing economic participation and increasing power and decision making.

For example, in 2007 women attained 61 per cent of all university degrees, diplomas and certificates – compared to 55 per cent in 1998.

The high school drop out rate has fallen to 7 per cent, from 9 per cent in 2002.

In 2009, for the first time, Canadian women became the majority in the workforce, at 50.9 per cent, up from 47 per cent in 2004.

Women are starting small businesses at twice the rate of men, and women's average incomes have increased almost 17 per cent since 2002.

Beginning in January 2011, our Government has delivered new regulations which mean self-employed Canadians will have access to four types of federal employment insurance benefits: maternity, parental, sickness and compassionate care. 

This is a major step forward for women and gender equality in Canada.

When it comes to power and decision making, we are making progress there, too. Currently 28.9 per cent of Canada's federal Cabinet is made up of women – the highest percentage ever.

Within our federal government bureaucracy, 38.7 per cent of Deputy Ministers are now women, compared to 25 per cent in 2005. This is an increase of 50 per cent.

Women make up 54.9 per cent of Canada's federal public service, and 43 per cent of executive category positions – up from 33.8 per cent in 2005.

These figures reflect many years of work and the development of positive policies including consistent usage of our gender based Analysis protocols.

Yet there is more work to be done.

There were 38,000 police-reported incidents of family violence in 2009, and 83 per cent of victims were women.

In Canada, we are working to help vulnerable women who are the victims of this terrible crime.

As many of you may be aware, last year Canada hosted an inaugural conference to begin development of an international governance structure for Shelter networks.

The Global Network presents new opportunities for family violence prevention workers from around the world to network, to share proven innovations, and to learn from international experts and each other.

Seventeen countries attended the inaugural conference and I look forward to continuing the work on this file with many of my colleagues here.

The Government of Canada is continuing to work to improve the situation of aboriginal women in Canada. They are more vulnerable to poverty, violence and discrimination.

But helping the victims is not enough.

In Canada, levels of government are working to improve our responses to violence against women, including through prevention and tougher laws that put victims ahead of criminals. 

We also recognize that women and girls continue to experience sexual exploitation.  We will continue our efforts to combat the crime of trafficking in persons, which targets women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation. We have also renewed a Strategy focused on preventing the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.

Canada is committed to making important contributions to women and girls not just at home but also internationally. Our efforts in Afghanistan help enable thousands of girls to go to school in areas where this was previously impossible.

In Haiti, which was showing tangible gains in the areas of security and governance before the earthquake, we are determined to assist in every way possible as the country rebuilds.

Canada recently announced that we will be taking a leadership role in another initiative as well.

Prime Minister Harper said when he addressed world leaders in Davos in January "Every year over 500,000 women die in pregnancy and nearly nine million children die before their fifth birthday.  Often the keys of life are nothing more sophisticated than clean water and basic treatment against infection."

That's why Prime Minister Harper announced that as host of this year's G8 Summit, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's most vulnerable regions as part of its international aid efforts.

In fact, in Haiti alone there are thousands of pregnant women at risk of giving birth in unsafe and unsanitary conditions as a result of this year's earthquake. Clearly our leadership on this initiative cannot come too soon.

Canada is committed to equality for women and men, which is not only a human rights issue but an essential part of ensuring that women contribute fully to the economic, social and democratic life of Canada.

And, speaking both as an elected representative and a woman, I believe that in Canada, support for the advancement of women across our society comes from both women and men.

We become stronger as a nation when women experience every opportunity possible; men play an important role in promoting equality.

Mr. Chair, my Delegation looks forward to this opportunity for our governments to work together and with civil society as part of the Beijing + 15 review process.

With the adoption of recent Security Council resolutions 1820, 1888, and 1889, the upcoming 10th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security will mark a turning point in our efforts to ensure the implementation of our 1995 commitments to address the situation of women in armed conflict.

It is clear that women's participation in establishing sustainable peace and security in their communities is a requirement to ensure their human rights are fully protected. Canada is committed to ensuring that the mechanisms to establish peace and security are responsive to the needs and experiences of women and girls in situations of conflict and post-conflict.

I would like to emphasize that the pursuit of equality and the full participation of women requires the cooperation of a wide variety of players, including non-governmental organizations, the private sector and all levels of government working together.

In many cases, organizations that promote human rights at the national level play an important role in the follow up to progress made at the UNCSW, and they have a valuable contribution to make in our common global effort to address the critical areas of concern described in the Beijing Platform for Action.

I believe we are united in our goal to build a world in which women and girls are safe, healthy, engaged in the democratic process and able to enjoy prosperity and financial security as full participants in the economy. 

Together we can share lessons learned and explore future directions for national and international action to achieve equality for women and girls. 

Thank you.

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