New
York, 17 June 2023: Women leaders from
around the world took centre stage at the United
Nations General Assembly calling for women’s land
rights at a music-filled event to mark
Desertification and Drought Day.
Speakers
from countries as diverse as Canada to Chad,
Iceland to Lesotho, shared their experiences and
explained how droughts, land degradation and
desertification are disproportionately impacting
the women and girls in their
communities.
United Nations
Secretary General António Guterres said:
“We depend on land for our survival. Yet, we treat
it like dirt.” He blamed unsustainable farming for
eroding soil 100 times faster than natural
processes can restore them and said 40% of land is
now degraded.
Speaking passionately about
the generations of farmers in his family,
Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th
session of the United Nations General
Assembly, said: “The data could not be
clearer. When women farmers have access to own
land, they grow more and so do their children and
nations. Together, these positive shifts in
women’s empowerment have a ripple effect on
income, and children’s
welfare.”
United Nations Deputy
Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said:
“On this Desertification and Drought Day, our
message is simple: we must finally recognize and
value women as owners, managers of our lands and
of our resources, and we must invest in the fight
against climate change. Women make up the majority
of rural farmers, but less than 15% of
agricultural landholders are women, and their
right to inherit property continues to be denied
under customary and traditional laws in over 100
countries.”
UNCCD Goodwill
Ambassador, Malian artist and singer Inna
Modja, was joined onstage by her daughter
Valentina Conti, aged three, to read out a
powerful call to action, urging world leaders to
remove the legal barriers that prevent women
owning and inheriting land. Together with fellow
UNCCD Goodwill Ambassadors, Senegalese musician
and singer Baaba Maal and Indian producer and
singer Ricky Kej, Ms Modja performed a new song
‘Her Land’.
Hindou Oumarou
Ibrahim, an Indigenous leader from Chad,
delivered a stark warning: “Despite our
innovation, despite the determination of the women
of my community to preserve ecosystems to block
the desert, despite our collective efforts to save
and share water, our land is dying.” She said
women are calling on CEOs, ministers, presidents
and philanthropists to “stop pledging and start
putting cash on the table to help us win the most
important battle of our life”.
Less than a
third of all UN Member States have ever had a
female Head of State or Government. Several of
them participated in the high-level event in New
York in person or virtually.
Tarja
Halonen, former President of Finland and UNCCD
Land Ambassador, said: “Achieving land
degradation neutrality requires everyone’s
efforts. And women and girls are half of the
world’s population. Empowering women and girls is
one of the most impactful thing that we can do to
achieve environmental sustainability and the
health of the land.”
The first-ever female
Prime Minister of Namibia, Saara
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, spoke about what
Namibia is doing to go above and beyond on women’s
land rights. And there were also video messages
from the Prime Minister of Iceland
Katrín Jakobsdóttir and
Vice-President of Spain
Teresa Ribero
Rodríguez.
Sonia
Guajajara, Brazil’s first-ever Minister
of Indigenous Peoples, delivered an impassioned
plea in support of Indigenous women leaders in her
country. Jennifer Littlejohn,
Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Oceans and
International Environmental and Scientific
Affairs, represented the United States,
highlighting its government’s commitment to gender
equity and equality.
The event was jointly
organized by the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD), UN-Women, UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, UN Human Rights and the
UN Development Programme to mark the annual
Desertification and Drought Day, which falls on
June 17th.
UN-Women
Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous said:
“For many people around the world, land represents
power and identity. Women’s control over land is
therefore fundamental to the achievement of gender
equality and also the economic independence of
women… We must break down barriers to women’s
rights to land.”
UNCCD Executive
Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said: “Investing
in women's equal access to land is not just an act
of justice. It is an investment in our future, a
commitment to the prosperity of our planet. It is
an affirmation that we value not only the land
beneath our feet, but the hands that work on
it.”
Other speakers advocating for women’s
land rights were: Alain-Richard
Donwahi, President of UNCCD’s
15th Conference of the Parties, Côte
d’Ivoire, Kehkashan Basu, a
climate activist and UN Human Rights Champion
based in Canada; Rex Molapo,
Co-Founder of Conservation Music Lesotho; and
Solange Bandiaky-Badji,
Coordinator of the Rights and Resources
Initiative.
ENDS
Notes
to editors
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For
hi-res photos of the event please visit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KjnA5jC1apDJEldPWGuujPsAWnhLINo-?usp=sharing
To
watch a recording of the event please visit: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1i/k1ix8i8j1z
‘Her
Land. Her Rights’ policy brief is available here:
https://www.unccd.int/resources/brief/her-land-her-rights-advancing-gender-equality-restore-land-and-build-resilience
Her
Land Call to Action is available here
About
UNCCD
The United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the global
vision and voice for land. We unite governments,
scientists, policymakers, private sector and
communities around a shared vision and global
action to restore and manage the world’s land for
the sustainability of humanity and the planet.
Much more than an international treaty signed by
197 parties, UNCCD is a multilateral commitment to
mitigating today’s impacts of land degradation and
advancing tomorrow’s land stewardship in order to
provide food, water, shelter and economic
opportunity to all people in an equitable and
inclusive manner.
