Mr. President:
On behalf of the Government and people of Cuba, I welcome you and the distinguished personalities participating in the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Cuba has reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women in society.
The Cuban State, in line with its project of social justice, has focused on eliminating all forms of discrimination through the implementation of a series of public policies, programs and strategies that guarantee equal rights and opportunities.
The Constitution of the Republic extends and guarantees the protection of the rights of all citizens, especially women and girls.
In its articles, it highlights the objectives of guaranteeing effective equality in the enjoyment and exercise of rights to live a life free of violence, to obtain greater levels of equity and social justice, and to guarantee the full dignity of people and their integral development.
The enactment of Presidential Decree No. 198 National Program for the Advancement of Women, constitutes the cornerstone in the development of policies in favor of women and gives continuity to the advancement and development of gender equality in the country.
As part of the entire legislative update process, Cuba prioritized the integration of the gender perspective in the new rules, in order to comply with the constitutional mandate of protecting women from violence. This is so endorsed by the approval of the Integral Strategy for Prevention and Attention to Gender Violence and in the Family Scenario, endorses this, by making State agencies and institutions responsible for its implementation and compliance with the Action Plan.
Among the most important dimensions that have conditioned women's transformations are universal and free access to education and health, the right to decent work, decision-making, and the respect and guarantee of their sexual and reproductive rights.
In the 30 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women, Cuban women have gone from 35.4% to 66% of the country's technical and professional workforce. In 1995, women held 5.9% of decision-making positions; by 2022, they held 48.5%. Progress in parliament is particularly significant: Cuban women have gone from 27.4% of seats in parliament to 55.7% in the current legislature, placing Cuba second among the only six countries that have achieved gender parity in their national parliaments.
They represent the 54% of the workforce in science, innovation and technology, the 70% in public health and social welfare, and the 68% in education.
They have made an important contribution to science, which has been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Institute for Statistics for having achieved gender parity in science, along with six other countries. Likewise, the World Intellectual Property Organization has announced that Cuba is the leader with 53% of female inventors, according to a list of 74 nations.
Female workers enjoy the benefits provided for in the Labor Code; a Maternity and Family Responsibility Act that protects their labor relations and guarantees economic benefits during the first year of life of their children, a right that extends up to 15 months and has been updated three times in the last five years.
Mr. President:
Despite the difficult socio-economic conditions imposed on the country by the U.S. government blockade, Cuba has achieved remarkable results on the path to gender equality, evidenced in the lives of millions of Cuban women.
Gender equality is not only an issue of defending the legitimate rights of a sector of the population, it is an indispensable condition for achieving sustainable development with social justice.
Thank you