Media personality Nomzamo Mbatha recently spoke at the 75th General Assembly where she was invited by the president, Volkan Bozkir.
The UN celebrated the 25th year since the first Womens Conference was held in Beijing, China under the theme “Accelerating the realisation of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls everywhere.
Mbatha delivered a five minute pre-recorder address to the house where she said that the world has a long way to go to achieve gender equality.
“I am proud to be speaking today as a champion of gender equality and a Goodwill ambassador for UNHRC, the UN Refugee Agency.
“Twenty five years ago in Beijing China, the world made a promise, equal rights and opportunities for women and girls.
“Twenty five years later, the Beijing platform of action remains a cornerstone of the UN’s work to uphold the rights of women and girls, including women and girls who have been forced to flee their homes because of violence and conflict or persecution,” said Mbatha.
She went on to say: “Member states reiterated their commitment when they affirmed their global compact on refugees which calls on all stakeholders to empower women and girls in refugee camps as well as host communities.
“But the world still has a far long way to go to achieve gender equality. And to quote the UN secretary general ‘it is the biggest human rights challenge in the world,” she said.
She said at the end of 2019, 79 500 people were forced to flee their homes because of conflict, persecution and violence with more than half of this number being women and girls, many of them at risk of discrimination, violence, child marriage, and lack of access to quality education.
Although Mbatha has done addresses in the past, this one seemed like a proud moment for her. The actress took to her Instagram page to share a clip.
She wrote in the caption: “I had the honour of delivering a speech at this year’s UN General Assembly as part of the High Level event: BEIJING 25.
It is an incredible honour to be a part of something so monumental. As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, human migration is a global crisis that puts woman and girls in danger of so many social ills of society including being used as weapons of war.
“The genocide that is gender-based violence that continues to plague not only South African women but women on the continent as a whole is an urgent crisis.
With the world being in the thick and middle of a pandemic, it threatened a lot of important events to be cancelled.
“However the agenda can never be postponed.
“Equal rights for all women and girls remains a human rights crisis. Beijing +25 is necessary, urgent and a true call to action for all members of society and every sector to make Generation Equality a cornerstone.
IOL
