United Nations General Assembly: Third Committee - General Debate on the Advancement of Women

Statement delivered by Adviser, Ms. Madison Edilson

Thank you Chair.

New Zealand would like to thank the Special Rapporteur and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women for their reports.

In our work at the United Nations, the rights of women and girls remain a primary focus for New Zealand. We are proud of our legacy of empowering women and girls. At the same time, New Zealand still has work to do, as we all do, to achieve gender equality and to protect and advance the rights of women and girls in all their diversity.

The benefits of gender equality go far beyond the important rights of individual women and girls, also providing tangible benefits for families and broader society, and boosting trade and economic growth.

This year we celebrated 30 years since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. Global progress in sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing has seen maternal mortality decline by 34%, enabled by better access to skilled and emergency obstetric care. HIV rates have dropped significantly. Unintended pregnancies have declined by 19% and the number of women using contraception has doubled.

These gains were driven by our collective efforts - leadership, political will, social mobilisation, and advocacy - from government, businesses, and NGOs alike. Together, we have an opportunity and, an obligation, to continue this progress.

In that context, New Zealand is deeply concerned about the ongoing challenges to women and girls' rights worldwide. In particular, increasing legislative and political attempts to restrict women and girls' freedoms and undermine fundamental sexual and reproductive health and rights.

This push back, alongside an increase in sexual and gender-based violence, both online and offline, puts at risk hard-won gains and threatens internationally agreed standards and principles.

There is still so much more to do. More work is needed on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, with progress stalled since 2016.

Approximately 800 women die each day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Yet the deaths and grievous injuries sustained by women and girls during pregnancy, childbirth and the prenatal and postnatal periods are not inevitable.

Instead, they are often a direct result of discriminatory laws and practices, harmful gender norms and a lack of functioning health systems and services. We also acknowledge the lack of access to health services in rural and remote areas and the poorest urban areas, and the disproportionate impact that poverty, global economic crises and conflict present for timely access.

States must do more to provide safe, accessible and quality reproductive and maternal health services that meet the needs of women and girls.

These concerns are manifesting at a time when the world is experiencing multiple and intersecting crises. Armed conflict, widespread violence, climate change, environmental degradation and natural disasters are fuelling egregious human rights violations, which in turn exacerbates gender inequalities.

States must also recognise the compounding impacts of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination on the lives of women and girls. This includes women and girls who are indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse, part of the LGBTQIA+ community, displaced, refugees, migrants, living in rural or remote communities, or who have a disability.

New Zealand acknowledges our own work we have to do as a country. For example, our data shows that approximately 1 in 4 women in New Zealand have experienced intimate partner violence during their lifetime, and that the overwhelming majority of sexual assault offences go unreported to Police.

Technological innovation has transformed our society - for the most part, in a positive way. But digital technology has also exacerbated gender-based violence. During and following COVID-19 lockdowns, New Zealand experienced an increase in the number of reports of online harm.

In 2022, New Zealand amended the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 to improve access to justice for victims-survivors of image-based sexual abuse. We also continue work on Te Aorerekura - our first National Strategy and Action Plan for the Elimination of Family Violence and Sexual Violence.

New Zealand will continue its work and looks forward to engaging with others in this session of the Third Committee to deliver positive outcomes for women and girls in all parts of the world.

Thank you.

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