UAE Has Achieved Gender Balance In All Areas: Sheikha Fatima

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 31st Oct, 2018) H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF), stressed that the UAE, under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has achieved gender balance in all areas, due to the belief of the wise leadership that Emirati women are the partners of men in the country’s development.

In her speech at the launch of a seminar, titled, "Role of Women in Security and Peace: The Emirati and Finnish Experience," Sheikha Fatima said that, since its establishment, the UAE had realised the overall role of women and ensured their empowerment, which resulted in the presence of leading female personalities.

Women in the UAE have attained senior national positions and make up 66 percent of public sector employees and over 77 percent of students, she added while pointing out that women have become soldiers in the Armed Forces and defended their nation with confidence and merit while preserving peace and security for all.

In her speech, which was given on her behalf by Najia Al Mansouri, Head of the International Relations Department of the GWU and Representative of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Women Office, in Abu Dhabi, Sheikha Fatima stressed that the country has supported and is still supporting the efforts to achieve gender balance in the area of international security and peace, and the UAE’s women’s empowerment strategies are based on the belief that men and women have equally important humanitarian roles.

The UAE’s leadership has, therefore, equally supported men and women, which has benefitted the entire community, she further added.

Sheikha Fatima also pointed that the UAE, represented by the GWU and the Ministry of Defence, signed, in September, a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with UN Women, with the aim of building and developing the capabilities of women involved military and peacekeeping duties while explaining that the MoU’s main goal is to promote the role of women in ending conflicts and preserving international peace and security, in line with UN Resolution No. 1325.

Riitta Swan, Ambassador of Finland to the UAE, said that her country has participated in over 40 peacekeeping and crisis management operations since 1956 while adding that Finland is currently the seventh leading European country that participates in peacekeeping operations, which include the participation of many women, has conducted local and international peacekeeping training, and has the largest number of experts in crisis management operations in the European Union, EU. She also expressed her hope that a partnership can be built between her country and the UAE in this area.