Participation

Portugal went through its democratic transition in 1974. We recognize how important the support and encouragement from external partners was to us. We are ready and available to share that experience now as a sign of our support and solidarity. An important element of that experience was the contribution and full participation, on equal footing, of Portuguese women to the post-revolutionary political process.

As Thailand continues to enhance our participation as a member of the Human Rights Council, we are determined to further contribute to human rights work and to strengthen the rights of vulnerable groups, both at home and abroad. We attach special importance to these vulnerable groups, be they children, women, persons with disabilities or the elderly. One notable example is in the area of women's rights.

Just a few months ago women leaders from all parts of the world met in Vilnius to experiences in enhancing the democracy worldwide. This event, organized by Lithuania as Chair of the Community of Democracies, confirmed my belief that the involvement of women is still very low in addressing common problems and concerns.

Our gender policies and our youth policies in which we have them participate in decision making at all levels is a cornerstone of our new policy.

Since the reform of Fiji's laws to bring them in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, further progress has been achieved.

In this endeavor, special emphasis has been placed on the empowerment of women and their participation in all aspects of national endeavor. A well crafted gender policy is enabling Government to address the concerns of women and girls. We consider the creation of the Gender Entity - UN Women to be an important positive development in the UN's effort to promote women's empowerment.

At the beginning of this Session, we witnessed history of another kind unfolding in this Hall. For the first time, a female president stood at this podium to open the General Debate. I join other world leaders in congratulating Her Excellency Ms. Dilma Rousseff of Brazil for her many achievements.

And we've heard from the President of Brazil about the challenge of empowering women to participate in political decision making.

As a vibrant democracy, we are in the process of accomplishing a historic societal transformation. The challenges our people have dealt with empower and embolden us. We will remain unflinchingly democratic. We will defeat those that seek to terrorize us. We will empower women

To build and develop the capabilities of Omani women, a symposium dedicated to understand their needs was organized and His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, has adopted the recommendation of the symposium and those recommendations were considered as a plan of action for a new phase that will enable women to enjoy many privileges that ensure equality with men in rights and duties.