Poland and Romania

“Promoting equality, including social equality, gender equality and women’s empowerment”
Thank you Mr. Co-Chair!
I will speak on behalf of Romania and Poland. The longest version of the statement will be sent to the Secretariat and will be posted on the sustainable development website.
According to the Outcome Document Rio+20 there is a need to achieve economic stability and sustainable economic growth, promotion of social equity and protection of the environment while enhancing gender equality and women’s empowerment and equal opportunities for all. These commitments are underpinned in the almost universally ratified UN treaties which are founded on human rights standards and principles of universality, indivisibility, equality, non-discrimination, participation and accountability. Human rights principles and standards should be used to frame the post-2015 agenda integrating equality, social equity, social justice and fairness.
We should promote the vision of the High Level Panel of the SG “leave no one behind” . The post-2015 agenda should not only aspire to put an end to hunger and extreme poverty but also tackle the causes of exclusion and inequality. It must end discrimination and promote equality between men and women, girls and boys. These are issues of basic social justice. Remedying these fundamental inequalities and injustices is a matter of respect for people’s universal human rights.
A focus should be put on the poorest, the most marginalized and the most vulnerable ones (the majority of whom are women, persons with disabilities, elder people or indigenous).
There is no doubt that inequalities have the impact on development and remained the challenge for the achievement of international agreed development goals, including MDGs and will have to be addressed in the post - 2015 agenda and future SDGs.
A self - standing goal on inequalities could include for example targets on elimination of social discrimination, abolition of discriminatory laws, policies and practices, promotion of social equality, empowerment of excluded groups and reducing gaps between specific disadvantaged groups.
While elaborating the post - 2015 Agenda and SDGs we need also to take into account tailored targets and disaggregated data to address inequalities (data should be disaggregated by age, sex, location ethnicity, income or disability and also by cast or migration) as well as monitoring system and methods for the practical measurement of inequalities.

Mr. Co –chair!
Now let me say a few words on gender equality:
According to the Rio+20 Document gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to sustainable development and should be addressed as the relevant for all countries in the post-2015 agenda and SDGs. A stand-alone goal on gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment should monitor progress in implementation and address remaining gaps after MDGs.

In this regard we would like to highlight the following issues which should be included in a post 2015 Agenda :
• Ending violence against women and girls regardless the age and ability (in particular migrant and refuge women, older women, indigenous, women with disabilities), ensuring for them access to justice, eliminating discriminatory social norms and attitudes.
• Women’s voice, decision making at all levels (including political processes and households) as well as participation in both the public and private spheres.
• Access to decent work, elimination of gender-based discrimination in employment, social protection, health care, quality care for children, full control of assets and incomes, elimination of social discrimination in acquisition of assets such as credits, natural resources or through inheritance.
• Access to quality education at all levels and life-long learning as well as safe and supportive learning environments.
Moreover in our opinion gender – specific targets and indicators should be integrated across other goals and address structural causes of gender-based discrimination for example in poverty eradication, promotion of transparent and good governance, access to high quality life-long education, decent work or health care. The collection, analysis and use of sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics are necessary in order to efficiently implement and report on these targets and indicators.
Achieving gender equality should be a challenge for all people (including men and boys, national and local authorities and other stakeholders). Changes in laws, social norms, institutions and policies are necessary. Gender roles and relations must be transformed by altering the dominant in many spheres and communities notions of masculinity.
Thank you very much Mr. Co - chair.