Gender equality growing more distant. Will take 300 years, laments UN Secretary General

Colombo (News 1st) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that gender equality is "vanishing before our eyes" and that it is now "300 years away" according to estimates from UN Women, the organisation that deals with empowerment of women. The report was presented on Monday to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Addressing the Commission on the Status of Women on Monday ahead of International Women's Day, Guterres pointed to many of the world's nations regressing on reproductive rights, maternal mortality, forced early marriages, being deprived of education, 

Guterres named several countries including Afghanistan where he said "women have been erased from public life," and called for urgent collective action worldwide.

"Centuries of patriarchy, discrimination and harmful stereotypes have created a huge gender gap in science and technology. Global frameworks are not working for the world's women and girls. They need to change," Guterres declared.