The Senator read out a message of greetings to guests and participants in the summit from Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko.
The Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the approval of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), has started in Beijing. Sponsored by China and UN Women, the summit’s theme is “One Shared Future: New and Accelerated Process for Women’s All-Round Development.” Its opening ceremony was addressed by President of China Xi Jinping.
Chair of the Eurasian Women’s Forum Council and Russian Senator Galina Karelova, who leads the country’s delegation at the summit, read out a message of greetings from Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko. “The results of the Fourth World Conference, as enshrined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, have outlined the strategic goals and measures for consolidating the social status of women for years ahead; they have also revealed some problem areas that are the main obstacles to progress in this sphere and charted the ways of dealing with them,” the document says.
The message also notes that Russia is among the leaders of the movement for women’s rights. According to Valentina Matvienko, the People’s Republic of China consistently and firmly upholds women’s rights, promotes women’s leadership in the world, and makes every effort to ban gender discrimination as a phenomenon incompatible with the realities of modern society and the spirit of progress.
“Discussions held by participants in the Global Meeting will help assess the outcomes of the efforts to achieve equality between men and women, find answers to new challenges of our time, such as the rapid development of technologies, the grown scale of migration processes, and climatic and environmental change, and study the degree of their influence on the women’s agenda,” the message stresses.
In her remarks, Galina Karelova dwelled on mechanisms for supporting women in Russia and on the results of this support. She stressed that women are becoming increasingly active in politics, the economy, and public life. Speaking about international cooperation, she noted that Russia respects the variety and identity of states and peoples, something that formed the basis for cooperation with women from other countries at various venues, including W20, BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, APEC, and the Eurasian Women’s Forum, as well as within the framework of 32 projects implemented by the Eurasian Women’s Forum Council.
Galina Karelova also mentioned an immense potential of the partnership between women of Russia and China that is advancing successfully in the form of contacts between parliaments, governments, and women’s NGOs.
“This summit will strengthen multilateral cooperation and mutual understanding between our countries. For our part, we are ready to make every effort to promote this,” she emphasised.
The event is attended by representatives of many countries, including heads of state and government, as well as representatives of the United Nations.