Foreign Minister announces progress on gender and environmental issues in Colombia to the United Nations

Colombia's Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Marta Lucía Ramirez announced the country's progress towards gender equality at the 66th meeting of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Situation women. He also explained how the integration of a gender perspective in the fight against climate change has contributed to the preservation of the environment in the country.

In general, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister are convinced that the current administration of President Ivan Duque has made progress in creating a public policy to eliminate gender inequality. Ramirez also recalled that there are specific projects in the United States that open employment and business opportunities for women.

With regard to her relationship with the environment and women, she was convinced that climate change mainly affected this population group, so he noted that the Government ran several strategies to help close the gender gap and protect the environment.

Ramirez highlighted the energy transition strategy led by President Duque. President Duque is already working on several projects aimed at the development of women. He also mentioned that the national government has set itself the goal of planting 180 million trees to create jobs for 11,286 rural women who advocate for environmental problems.

Finally, officials urged all countries to develop policies that would benefit women and the environment.

Although the country has made progress in some areas affecting women, it should be noted that violence against women continues to be a high risk factor. 8 March, the Office of the Ombudsman warned that it had dealt with 3,646 cases of sexual violence in the past year. That is, there were an average of 10 events per day.

“We call on the community to pay attention to the importance of respecting women and girls in all environments, protecting their rights and enabling them to reach their full potential. Particular attention is paid to finding mechanisms to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls. Ombudsman Carlos Camargo.

The figures for this year are also not encouraging: according to a recent report by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Medicine, in January, 6,280 women were assaulted, an increase of 29.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2021 (1438 cases).

Of the total number of acts of violence, 2,914 women were victims of domestic violence and 2,144 of them were assaulted by their partners. On the other hand, 1,611 of these cases coincided with interpersonal violence.

One of the problems is the increase in cases of aggression among children and adolescents. Throughout the world, the Medicina Legal organization reported 306 facts. They also warned that in many of these situations, violence occurs between the ages of 0 and 5 years.

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