*[Enwl-eng] Press Release: Global call to action on women’s land rights

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Press Release: Global call to action on women’s land rights

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                              PRESS RELEASE

                              For immediate release

                              Global call to action on women’s land rights

                              United Nations General Assembly event to mark 
Desertification and Drought Day brings together leaders to advance gender 
equality and land restoration goals






                              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
                              For interviews or media enquiries, please 
email unccd at portland-communications.com
                              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.









































            United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification · UNCCD · 
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn, Germany · Bonn 53113 · Germany




      From: UNCCD Secretariat
      Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2023 10:56 AM
      Subject: Press Release: Global call to action on women’s land rights


      Press Release: Global call to action on women’s land rights

 
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