Topic: 2024-Gender Equality in Rural Areas
Country: Belgium
Delegate Name: Melanie Milam
Gender equality is a fundamental human right and is crucial to sustainable development. Still, globally women and girls in rural areas face challenges that make it hard for them to participate in social, political, and economic ways in society. While gender equality affects all women, those in rural areas face broader issues due to their geological isolation, limited access to education, and ingrained traditional gender roles. In most rural households, women are responsible for taking care of families, cleaning, and performing agricultural duties. Though women are responsible for a large part of what keeps the households running, they often lack land ownership, resources, decision-making power, and access to education. These challenges faced by women contribute to high rates of poverty and less education. Rural areas are home to 43% of the world’s population making the need to address gender equality in rural areas even more urgent. The delegation of Belgium recognized this issue and remains committed to prompting gender equality in rural areas.
Belgium has been an active supporter of the global movement to empower women for decades. Belgium ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligated all signatories to take action to improve the lives of women by eliminating discrimination in all areas. Belgium also supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 5 on fulfilling gender equality, and Goal 1 on ending poverty which particularly affects rural women. Nationally Belgium has passed legislation relating to gender equality. The Gender Equality Act of 2007 ensures equal pay for equal work and gender-based violence. Belgium is continuing to strengthen its laws and initiatives relating to increasing women’s roles in decision-making and equal opportunities in the labor force, These efforts contribute to Belgium’s broader commitment to gender equality.
Belgium recognized the immense importance of gender equality specifically in rural areas; it is for this reason that Belgium is open to creating equal opportunities for rural women and aiding this issue as soon as possible. Helping rural women goes beyond addressing gender disparities and inequality, it unlocks their full potential as economic contributors in society. Belgium strongly advocates for the creation of a social framework that puts first women’s access to education, independence, and technology; while also targeting discriminatory laws. Belgium calls upon all Member States to put forth efforts to end disparities and promote equal rights for rural women. I must ensure that gender equality becomes that reality for rural women everywhere: As no nation can thrive to its full potential when some of its people have been left behind.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1328171/rural-population-worldwide/#:~:text=Over%20the%20past%20three%20 decades,continue%20for%20the%20coming%20 decades.
https://coface-eu.org/challenges-facing-girls-and-women-in-rural-areas/#:~:text=They%20explorer%20 challenges%20for%20girls,to%20education%20and%20 digital%20technology.
https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/commission-on-the-status-of-women
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9607949/#:~:text=The%20limited%20resources%2C%20lack%20of,resources%20(Junwen%2C%202013).
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?CountryID=17 &lang=EN
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter
