MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –
Source: Government of Canada – in French 1
Following their historic meeting in Toronto on September 19-20, 2024, the Co-Chairs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Jamaica, the Honourable Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, issued the following statement:
September 20, 2024 – Toronto, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada
Following their historic meeting in Toronto on September 19-20, 2024, the Co-Chairs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Jamaica, the Honourable Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, issued the following statement:
“We gathered in Toronto with women foreign ministers from around the world and reiterated our commitment to breaking down barriers and empowering the next generation of women leaders.
“We are encouraged that women’s political representation around the world has doubled over the past 25 years. However, this still represents only about 1 in 4 parliamentary seats held by a woman.
“We are committed to promoting women’s participation in leadership and decision-making, and to fostering inclusive and safe spaces for women in politics and public life. We are also committed to deliberately encouraging young women everywhere to enter politics and participate in public life.
“We are concerned about the growing hateful and misogynistic discourse online that targets women, particularly in civic spaces. Safe online public spaces are a public good for societies and democracies as a whole, and regulations aimed at preserving safety and truth should not be seen as opposed to transparency, freedom of expression or freedom of the press.
“We therefore agreed to counter gender-based violence online, prevent gender-based disinformation and call on online platforms to take measures to strengthen their accountability.
“We discussed strategies to amplify the voices of women and other marginalized groups, both at the local level and at the highest levels of government.
“We have expressed our deepest concerns about the gross violations of human rights suffered by women and girls in Afghanistan, and we call on the Taliban to restore women and girls’ rights to education and meaningful participation in public life, and to end their draconian measures that have erased decades of progress on women’s rights.
“We discussed the issue of gender imbalance within the United Nations system.
“It is time to appoint a woman as Secretary General.
“We strongly encourage Member States considering a nomination for the position of UN Secretary-General to nominate a woman.
“Noting that there have been only 4 women presidents of the United Nations General Assembly in the last 79 years, we believe that now is also the time to aim for gender parity in this position.
“Making these significant changes is within our reach.
“We engaged with various civil society representatives, who stressed the importance of supporting women’s community organizations and human rights activists in policy development. We agreed to foster environments that are conducive to gender equality and recognized that independent members of civil society are essential catalysts for the success and resilience of democracies.
“The year 2025 will mark the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the 25th anniversary of the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. We cannot take this hard-won progress towards gender equality and inclusion for granted. Our collective efforts will be essential to ensure that women are fully involved in building inclusive societies and a peaceful, sustainable and prosperous future.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.