Vatican diplomat calls on U.N. to ensure women are not 'left behind'

Friday, Apr. 01, 2016

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — The Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations called on nations March 18 to ensure that women and girls living in vulnerable settings are not “left behind” as the world strives to meet its next set of sustainable development goals by 2030.

“These women should not only be beneficiaries, but above all, they must be empowered to become dignified agents of their own development and important drivers of sustainable development,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza told the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.

Education and adequate health must not be denied to any woman or girl, Archbishop Auza said.

The Catholic Church and its worldwide network of schools, clinics and hospitals, and homes for the elderly and people with special needs, remain committed to promoting quality education and providing health care for women and girls, especially in developing countries and areas of conflict, he said.

In addition, the archbishop said, women and girls continue to experience violence, including rape as a weapon of armed conflicts, trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced abortion, forced marriage and forced conversion to other faiths, and he called for such actions to stop.

Citing the vital roles of women in diplomacy, policymaking, mediation and peacekeeping missions, Archbishop Auza said those efforts “must be translated into action to unleash skills and capacities that allow women to bring order out of chaos, community out of division and peace out of conflict.”

Elderly women must not be forgotten as the world focuses ever more on economic productivity and increasingly abandons family values, the archbishop said. He urged that rather than ignoring the elderly and leaving them to feel unwanted, steps be taken to help them feel welcome and productive through the wisdom they can offer societies.

Women also experience discrimination when motherhood is considered, he said, calling for wider recognition of the valuable role mothers play in raising and educating future generations.