00:00The world is today more gender equal than at any point in history.
00:05Those are the words of Belen Sanz, regional director of UN Women Europe and Central Asia, in an interview with Euronews.
00:13However, according to Sanz, progress is not guaranteed and could even be reversed without sustained action.
00:20And so women really have made a real shift in the world, but we are seeing that there is an alarming rollback,
00:32that discrimination is deepening, that legal protections are weakening and that funding and financing for gender equality is also shrinking.
00:43According to a new UN Women report, parity has been achieved in girls' education, maternal mortality has dropped by a third
00:51and women's representation in parliaments has more than doubled in the past three decades.
00:58But the expert thinks that the European Union needs to remain extremely vigilant against potential setbacks
01:04as Europe is not immune to the global backlash against gender equality.
01:10We have to anchor the policies that the European Union have put in place
01:16and we have to ensure that there is a strong monitoring and resources allocated to the policies approved,
01:23because otherwise there is always a risk of rollback.
01:26Globally, one in four countries reported a backlash in women's rights in 2024.
01:31Sanz warned that the recent global crisis, including COVID-19, the climate emergency and soaring food and fuel prices,
01:38have only intensified the urgency to act.
01:412025 will be a turning point for women's rights, said Sanz.
Comments