UNIS/SGSM/1302
6 March 2023
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements of women and girls across all walks of life, in all corners of the world.
But we also recognize the enormous obstacles they face — from structural injustices, marginalization, and violence, to cascading crises that affect them first and worst, to the denial of their personal autonomy and rights over their bodies and lives.
Gender-based discrimination harms everyone – women, girls, men, and boys.
International Women’s Day is a call to action.
Action to stand with women who are demanding their fundamental rights at great personal cost.
Action to strengthen protection against sexual exploitation and abuse.
And action to accelerate women’s full participation and leadership.
This year’s theme stresses the need for technology and innovation to advance gender equality.
Technology can expand pathways to education and opportunities for women and girls.
But it can also be used to amplify abuse and hatred.
Today, women make up under a third of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and maths.
And when women are under-represented in developing new technologies, discrimination may be baked in from the start.
That is why we must close the digital divide and increase the representation of women and girls in science and technology.
Women’s exclusion from the digital world has shaved an estimated $1 trillion from the GDP of low- and middle-income countries in the last decade — a loss that could grow to $1.5 trillion by 2025 without action.
Investing in women uplifts all people, communities, and countries.
Let us work together – across governments, the private sector and civil society –to build a more inclusive, just, and prosperous world for women, girls, men, and boys everywhere.
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Barbados signed and deposited its instrument of ratification for the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (the “Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships”) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 8 May 2025.
Journalists are invited to cover the 34th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) to be held from 19 to 23 May in Vienna, Austria.
"On this Day of Vesak, I extend my warmest wishes to Buddhists worldwide as they commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha." — António Guterres
"In a world plagued by conflict and division, World Press Freedom Day highlights a fundamental truth: Freedom for people depends on freedom of the press." — António Guterres
