A/HRC/45/25 14. Mr. Chen underscored the importance of ensuring that women enjoyed an equal share of the benefits arising from development; improving the protection of women’s rights in a systemic manner, including their rights to education and health; and exposing and addressing the gender gap in social protection. He also noted the importance of strengthening international cooperation on women’s rights. 15. In his concluding remarks, Mr. Chen called upon States to continue to support developing countries in achieving those goals and reiterated that China was willing to cooperate with the international community in efforts to further promote women’s cause around the world. B. Overview of presentations 16. The President of the Human Rights Council introduced the three panellists: the Executive Director of UN-Women, the Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and expert on human rights and gender equality Maglys Arocha Dominguez. 17. The Executive Director of UN-Women noted that the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action had been a milestone for efforts to achieve gender equality. The world was on a positive path towards achieving gender equality, but progress had been slow and unequal and there had been significant pushback. In particular, significant progress had been made worldwide in terms of access by women and girls to health and education. However, there had been unacceptably slow progress on the economic front, with the global gender gap in labour force participation stagnating. Moreover, of those employed, 58 per cent of women worked in the informal sector, which meant that women remained much closer to poverty than prosperity. Violence against women and girls remained a silent and endemic crisis. On a positive note, there were a number of critical cross-cutting measures that could be taken to overcome stagnation and catalyse efforts to accelerate progress towards gender equality. Those included adequate financing through the mobilization of financial resources, removing all discriminatory laws and closing the gap between equality in law and in practice. UN-Women was going to convene the Generation Equality Forum, together with the Governments of France and Mexico, in order to deliver concrete, game-changing results for women and girls and to fulfil the promises made in Beijing. 18. The Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women began by stressing that the ground-breaking Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action had been a strong guiding framework throughout her journey as an advocate for gender equality and peace. She stressed that the Committee had been crucial for making States more accountable, thereby accelerating the implementation of the commitments made in Beijing. Moreover, the legally binding nature of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women made it the strongest mechanism available for promoting and protecting women’s human rights. The Vice-Chair underscored the fact that the Committee, through its constructive dialogues and recommendations, guided States in measuring their progress and identifying areas where efforts needed to be intensified. The Committee was also supporting States to strengthen their accountability for achieving a world free from violence, stigma and stereotype, a world where there were no child marriages, a world where there was equal pay for equal work and a world that established lasting peace and security for all. The Vice-Chair lamented the fact that the women, peace and security agenda had not been included in the six action coalitions, and thus urged the organizers of the Generation Equality Forum to consider including that important agenda. The Vice-Chair noted the global backlash against the gains made for women’s rights and deplored the continued reality of discrimination against women – for example, hundreds of thousands of women died each year from complications in pregnancy and less than a quarter of members of parliament were women. Effective institutions needed to be created and adequate resources needed to be allocated for women to realize their rights. The year 2020 should be the moment for accelerating action on commitments as the world could not afford a regression. 19. Ms. Arocha Dominguez commemorated all the women human rights defenders who had come before and who had contributed to the world conferences on women held in Mexico, Copenhagen and Nairobi, which had set the groundwork for the Beijing 4