President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, participated and addressed a side-event organised by the President of Lithuania and the Council of World Women Leaders, on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly 2018 entitled ‘Economic Growth through Women’s Empowerment.’
The President spoke about the urgent need to achieve gender equality, and reiterated that gender equality is a human right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which celebrates its 70th Anniversary this year.
“The very first human right that there is, is that we are all born free and equal, and we are not equal. We have to do something, because we have been speaking in the same manner for many decades now,” the President said, adding that equality is not a matter of obscuring the differences between genders, it is only a matter of getting the respectful space that both women and men deserve.
President Coleiro Preca said that as we are nearing the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “we should do something that shows that we are celebrating this anniversary with something tangible, even more stronger, than maybe what we have committed to before.”
The event was also addressed by Mr António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ms Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Former President of Chile, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of Croatia, Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia, and Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania.