15 September 2015 – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that no country to date has achieved full equality between the sexes and urged the 47 members of the Human Rights Council “to do better than our societies” and make a real difference in achieving gender parity.

“Very frequently， we see a preponderance of women experts on panels that discuss issues specific to women and children – as if such issues could not be of deep concern to men，” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in his opening remarks to a panel discussion on gender equality held by the Council in Geneva.

“Conversely， discussions on situations of armed conflict， on counter-terrorism， on sanctions regimes， and on the death penalty almost seem as though they are reserved for men，” he noted.

The High Commissioner said “the lack of gender parity in UN human rights bodies may indeed be symptomatic of the under-representation of women in Member States，” adding that “we need to do better than our societies.”

He spoke of the importance of “visible equality.”

“Girls may stay away from computer technology or engineering because beating the boys in maths is seen as somehow ‘unfeminine，’” he noted， and “girls who grow up seeing only male presidents or ambassadors may develop a belief that power is essentially male.”

He said “quotas and other temporary efforts to achieve parity can help to bring women’s voices into legal and political systems， the corporate boardroom， the workplace and higher education，” leapfrogging a process that might otherwise take generations.

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