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“Under my leadership, UNFPA will give adolescent girls and young women the attention they deserve” said Dr. Babatounde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), a keynote speaker at the 1^st plenary of the 4^th International Women’s Summit organised as part of the World YWCA Council in Zurich, Switzerland from 12-13 July 2011.

Speaking in front of a captive audience on: Investing in Young Women’s Leadership for Sexual and Reproductive Rights” Dr Osotimehin opened his speech by  emphasising that our population approaches 7 billion and that “every person should be able to enjoy human rights and human dignity”. He continued by affirming that the right to sexual and reproductive health was essential to women’s empowerment, gender equality, and sustainable development, and that although much progress had been made since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, we still have a long way to go to achieve universal access to reproductive health and to realize reproductive rights for all, to achieve gender equality as well as women’s full participation in leadership.

Dr Osotimehin highlighted that “worldwide there are 600 million adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 19, and 500 million of them live in the developing world”. He went on to say “I believe adolescent girls are the unexpected solution to many of the world’s pressing problems, provided we join efforts to unleash their power and potential… empowering girls today means a better tomorrow for all of us”.

In his Call to Action, Dr. Osotimehin called for all to “ensure that young women themselves become agents of change by providing safe spaces where they can discuss issues and ideas, and identify ways to overcome challenges”, adding that is was also essential to reach out to boys and men “being a real man means saying NO to gender-based violence and respecting the rights of women as equals”.

The committed audience was encouraged and inspired by Dr Osotimehin’s words and gave him an most enthusiastic ovation.

Within the context of the Summit, Dr Osotimehin was also on the panel of a well attended press conference, together with Ms Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women, and Ms Mary Robinson, Chair, Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice.

For further information, please contact:

Vivian Hakkak

Director of Communication

World YWCA

Email: Vivian.hakkak@worldywca.org

Tel: 0041 22 929 60 30 – mobile: 0041 78 740 24 22

World YWCA website: www.worldywca.org

WorldCouncil website: www.worldywcacouncil.org

Source: http://www.worldywca.org