Declaration reaffirms sexual and reproductive rights of all women and endorses sex education for adolescents.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has approved a UN document promoting equality for women.

The final declaration reaffirms the sexual and reproductive rights of all women and endorses sex education for adolescents.

However, the Commission remains concerned that the UN’s progress towards its goal of gender equality and the empowerment of women continues to be “slow and uneven”.

The Commission also maintains that “the feminisation of poverty persists” and that equality for women is essential for sustained economic development to be achieved.

The 45-member Commission called for equality, empowerment and human rights for women to be a major element of new UN development goals being adopted next year.

The 24-page final declaration document, which was approved on 22 March, calls for “universally accessible and available quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, information and education”.

This should include “safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, prevention programmes for adolescent pregnancy … [and] safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law”.

Women’s rights activist Mervat Tallawy, the Egyptian delegate to the Commission, welcomed the final document and said it reaffirmed all the gains women have made since the 1994 UN population conference in Cairo and the 1995 UN women’s conference in Beijing.

“We will never give in to the prevailing web of conservatism again women in all regions of the world,” Tallawy said.

She added: “I am speaking for all the women of the world. We will continue to struggle for our rights.”

The final vote on the document had been delayed by Russia, who tried to insert a reference to sovereignty – an attempt that failed.

Conservative nations were able to block any reference to different kinds of family structure and to problems that women face because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

The US representative to the Commission, Terri Robl, praised the final conclusions and applauded the Commission’s “commitment to fighting discrimination and prejudice, which for too long has denied many women and girls the ability to contribute to economic growth and development.”

She was disappointed, however, that the Commission “did not explicitly acknowledge the vulnerabilities confronting women and adolescents as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The Commission also asked for an end to early and forced marriage, as well as female genital mutilation.

Regarding sex education, the document calls on parties to develop and implement education programmes for human sexuality “based on full and accurate information, for all adolescents and youth … with the appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians.”

Qatar, Malta, the Holy See and Pakistan were among those who expressed reservations about these directions on sex education.

But Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy at the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), said: “The commission recognised that sustainable and meaningful development must address the root causes of gender inequality, which deny women and girls an education, the right to make decisions about their bodies and childbearing, to decent employment and equal pay, and to live free of violence.”

“We have achieved what we came to do against great odds and the determined attempts by the Holy See and a few conservative countries to once again turn back the clock on women’s rights.”