FOR OUR CHILDREN - The UN sustainability development goals are designed to build a better world for next generations to come. Mankind has come a long way in a very short time. We are only just becoming self-aware in relation to the harm we are causing and the lack of safety nets for our future. The SDGs are international aims that are designed to repair planet earth to make it fit for purpose in supporting all life in a way that ensures the continued survival of species. These goals address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and injustice. The Goals interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we do our utmost to achieve each Goal and target by 2030.

UN SUSTAINABILITY DEVELOPMENT GOAL 5: GENDER EQUALITY

While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals (including equal access to primary education between girls and boys), women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world.

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Unfortunately, at the current time, 1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15-49 have reported experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period and 49 countries currently have no laws protecting women from domestic violence. Progress is occurring regarding harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), which has declined by 30% in the past decade, but there is still much work to be done to complete eliminate such practices.

Gender equality should work both ways with equal protections for men, where in some more advanced countries such protection has gone the other way with laws that effectively give women the right to send men to prison without proof of any kind, just the say so of a female who may be hell bent of revenge or due to social inadequacies making false allegations, an example of which in the UK is the Sexual Offences Act 2003, implemented by David Blunkett. This Act turns trials in the UK as to allegations of a sexual nature into a witch hunt, where the accused is assumed to be guilty before entering the dock in violation of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

In addition, there is no right of appeal in the United Kingdom and the European Court of Human Rights asserts that there is an effective remedy (as per Article 13) when in fact the Criminal Cases Review Commission (the only way back to the appeal court) also operates a policy of discrimination, selectively referring cases to the appeal court, but not referring other cases of virtually identical nature and circumstances. In some such cases masonic influence may have a bearing. Legal Aid funding cuts give the Crown Prosecution Service the upper hand, while defendants who cannot afford to fund cases privately do not have access to their own experts to challenge forensic evidence, resulting in fraudulently obtained convictions. The playing field should be level in any courtroom whereas in Britain they sometimes go to far as with the invention of concentration camps during the Boer War.

Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. Implementing new legal frameworks regarding female equality in the workplace and the eradication of harmful practices targeted at women is crucial to ending the gender-based discrimination prevalent in many countries around the world.

There must be balances and checks, where in developing countries women receive a poor deal, but in developed countries equality is swinging the other way and men sometimes receive a poor deal.