Dylan Lang
U.S. Adviser for the Third Committee
New York, New York
November 16, 2023
AS DELIVERED
Thank you Chair.
The United States would like to thank South Africa and the members of the South African Development Community who facilitated this text. The resolution remains a critical fixture in the constellation of longstanding consensus resolutions advancing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
While we traditionally co-sponsor this resolution, we regret that the core group chose to open the text in a very narrow way – it was a missed opportunity to not re-open the full text after so many years of technical rollovers. We hope that in two years’ time, the full text will be open and will cover a wide range of issues – this will allow us to go back to co-sponsoring, if we end up with a strong text.
We thank Member States who raised invaluable questions on the inclusion of language for the first time in this resolution that has been controversial in some other contexts. We thank South Africa for its efforts to address these concerns, and we sincerely hope the spirit of cooperation will continue on this and other resolutions advancing gender equality.
With regard to this resolution’s references to international human rights law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education, we refer you to the U.S. general statement which will be posted on the U.S. Mission’s website.
Thank you.
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