By Holy See Mission
Intervention of H.E. Archbishop Francis
A. Chullikatt
Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer
of the Holy See to the United Nations
Eighth Session of the Open Working Group
on the Sustainable Development Goals
“Promoting Equality, including
Social Equity, Gender Equality, and Women’s Empowerment”
New York, 6 February 2014
Mr. Co-Chair,
Sustainable development – based always on its
three essential pillars – cannot be divorced from the need to ensure that development
benefits are enjoyed equally by all members of the human family. A priority of the first order, accordingly,
should be that no human being should be left behind by the global development
process.
At this juncture in human history, statistics
reveal inequalities between and among peoples to be higher than ever. Figures
on economic inequalities emerging from the 2014 World Economic Forum highlight the
realities of poverty, deprivation, marginalization, and suffering to constitute
a great scandal. Inattention to inequalities, even within the Millennium Development
Goals, has entrenched disadvantage and constitutes a call to rectify this
formulation of the post-2015 development framework.
In such a vicious cycle, inequalities manifest
both as causes and effects of the fractionalization of societies. As the Global
Thematic Consultation on the Post-2015 Development Agenda Synthesis Report
notes, while structural factors generating inequalities are wide-ranging – including
elements economic, social, political, cultural, and environmentally based,[1]
their impact is universal. Inequalities exclude human beings from full
participation in the life of their community, denying them the full enjoyment
of their human rights as well as the basic economic opportunities which their inherent
human dignity demands.
Global inequality is no mere sterile economic
or juridical concern but is a fully human crisis threatening society’s common
good as a whole. Pope Francis has identified inequality as the root of social
ills, one which provides a fertile ground for violence, crime, and conflict.[2] The ultimate product of inequality is not
merely poverty and unemployment, crime, social disorder, and despair, but a
progressive destruction of the very fabric of society itself, threatening
wellbeing of all.
Mr. Co-Chair,
In order to be truly inclusive and equitable,
the Post-2015 development framework does well to avoid a siloed approach when
addressing the root causes of inequality, poverty and exclusion. A universal
approach omits no one, and a development agenda based firmly on the three SDG
pillars, should embrace its core purposes: achieving development for the good
of all people, both between and within nations, embodying the promise that all
are entitled without distinction to partake in development’s fruits. Partnerships
must be forged between local and regional governments and civil society,
including religious organizations, to reach those at the utmost fringes of society.
Mr.
Co-Chair,
Women and girls stand prominently among those
whose human dignity has been affronted. This is especially apparent at times
when they are most vulnerable: when they are targeted for sex-selective
abortion; or subject to infanticide and abandonment, unschooled, subjected to female
genital mutilation, forced marriage, and trafficking. The horror of domestic
violence, rape, forced sterilization and abortions threatens women’s health and
lives. Old age finds them alone and poor, without social or economic security. These
wide-spanning issues of inequality require an approach which incorporates and
safeguards women’s equality across the development framework.
Yet it would be naïve to conflate equality with
sameness. The approach to women in the
Sustainable Development Goals must acknowledge and enable women to overcome
barriers to equality without forcing them to abandon what is essential to them.
Women worldwide do not live in isolation, but exist within the context of
relationships which provide meaning, richness, identity, and human love. Their relationships,
especially their role within the family – as mothers, wives, caregivers – have
profound effects on the choices women make and their own prioritization of the rights
which they exercise across their lifespans.
In formulating the Sustainable Development
Goals, the global community must sidestep a simplistic assertion that shortfalls
in women’s economic and public achievements can be remedied only by the negation
of their procreative capacities. A truly rights-based approach to women’s
equality demands that societies and their institutions remove unjust social and
economic barriers that interject a false dichotomy between the relationships that
enhance their lives and their participation and gains across other human rights. Development for women will be truly
sustainable only when it respects and enables women to choose and prioritize
their actions according to equal opportunities within the context of real family
relationships that frame their lives, not in spite of them.
Sustainable Development Goals should provide
the opportunity to confront inequality through the promotion of women’s
engagement on an equal basis in society without disregarding entirely the
family relationships in which women exist. Labor policies should go beyond
facilitating equal job access and ensure reconciliation of paid work with
family responsibilities: through family and maternity policies, and ensuring
that equal salaries, unemployment benefits, and pensions are sufficient for a
sustainable family life. Access to equal education and vocational training must
accompany measures to accommodate family work and care needs. Serious efforts
are needed to support women in their family choices. Civic participation should
be designed to accommodate the participation of all women, including those with
family responsibilities.
Mr. Co-Chair,
Measures to eliminate inequalities within the
Sustainable Development framework must ensure that every member of the human
family partakes in the benefits of international development. Through a truly
inclusive development agenda that places the last among us first, the community
of nations can ensure that a person’s status at birth (indeed, before birth) shall
no longer be permitted to determine the extent to which they can realize the equal
and inalienable rights which derive from their inherent human dignity.
Thank you, Mr. Co-Chair.
[1]
UNICEF and UN Women, 2013. Addressing
Inequalities: Synthesis Report of Global Public Consultation.
[2]
Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Evangelii
gaudium, n. 202.
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