Geneva — The creation of an advisory council on gender equality within the Human Rights Council (HRC), at the initiative of the Moroccan presidency of this UN body, is a "historic first," Ambassador Omar Zniber, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the UN in Geneva and current president of the HRC, said on Monday in Geneva.
The advisory council is also a "significant achievement," as announced by the Moroccan presidency since it took over responsibility for leading the work of the HRC, Zniber told MAP on the sidelines of the launch ceremony. The initiative had been "unanimously" welcomed in Geneva by civil society, but also by all the council's players, he added.
The aim of this council is to strengthen the discussions and action of the HRC on gender equality and parity to promote development and the achievement of the objectives of sustainable development, and more broadly to ensure that this issue, which is at the heart of human rights concerns, becomes a reality at the international level," the ambassador emphasized.
Given its composition, this Advisory Council will have a very important role to play, especially since, at the invitation of the Moroccan presidency of the HRC, ten Directors-General of international organizations present in Geneva will be members, as well as representatives of UN member countries, civil society, and Human Rights Council mechanisms working on gender issues, such as the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and other figures.
They will meet periodically to examine suggestions and proposals for strengthening the gender approach in the work of the Human Rights Council and more broadly in the spectrum of activities of international organizations in the multilateral system, with the aim of disseminating these suggestions and recommendations at local level in countries with programs in this field, as is the case in the majority of countries in the world, Zniber explained.
The launch ceremony of this Advisory Council took place at the Palais des Nations in the presence of a host of personalities representing the various UN agencies and international organizations based in Geneva, as well as the diplomatic corps and civil society.
