SANTA MARGHERITA LIGURE, AUGUST 26 – “The G20 has to make any possible effort to ensure that Afghan women retain their own freedom and rights” even under the Taliban, the Italian PM Mario Draghi said while opening the first ever G20 Conference on Women Empowerment organised under the Italian presidency: “We must not delude ourselves, Afghan girls and women are on the brink of losing freedom and dignity and of returning to their dismal state of two decades ago. They will risk once again becoming second-class citizens, victims of violence and systematic discrimination, merely for the fact of being women”.
The G20 Conference on Women Empowerment has been attended by the ministers for equal opportunities and by international delegates. The G20 countries must “protect the rights of women everywhere in the world, especially where they are threatened”, said Draghi. As for today Conference on Women, “Italy is fully committed to the fight against gender inequalities and we believe that the G20 can play a key role in supporting women around the world”, he added: “Any loss of female talent is a loss for all of us”, he added.
The Minister for Equal Opportunities and chair of the meeting, Elena Bonetti, said that “it’s time to accelerate” on the road to women’s emancipation. The pandemic also contributed to a dramatic increase in cases of violence against women, exacerbating a phenomenon that will remain difficult to face unless genuine equality is established. “We have the opportunity, and also the responsibility as I believe, to engage in a joint effort to create a global gender equality agenda, which includes and involves public institutional actors, of the private sector and civil society on measurable objectives”, said Bonetti. (@giorgiodelgallo)
