Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the President, Sheikh Khalifa, has said it is vital to empower women across all sectors and levels if there is to be any progress with human rights protection.
During his speech at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Dr Gargash spoke about the UAE's achievements in protecting human rights and its plans to enhance its efforts under its membership of the council, state news agency Wam reported on Thursday.
He said Emirati women continue to play a leading role in its highly successful Emirates Mars Mission team.
"The UAE is proud of its continuous progress, which shows in all women empowerment indexes, especially as it ranked first across the Arab world in the World Economic Forum's 2021 Global Gender Gap Report," Dr Gargash said.
"A testament to the leading role of Emirati women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, women comprise 80 per cent of the Emirates Mars Mission science team."
Number five of the UN's 17 sustainable development goals seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Achieving basic fundamental rights for women and women's empowerment are regarded as central to all of the goals.
Dr Gargash said the election of the UAE as a member of the Human Rights Council for the third time in its history by the UN General Assembly shows confidence in the country.
He said the UAE will continue to build bridges of dialogue and co-operation with partners and support the work of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Dr Gargash spoke about the establishment of the National Human Rights Institution in August, which will provide information to the authorities on whether national laws are aligned with international treaties and conventions on human rights to which the UAE is a signatory.
He also noted that the UAE is working on drafting its National Human Rights Action Plan later this year.
Dr Gargash expressed the UAE's appreciation of the UN's condemnation of the Houthi militia's terrorist attacks on the Emirates, and the support voiced by more than 120 countries.
He urged the international community to take decisive measures to put an end to such violent acts and work to achieve a ceasefire and a political solution in Yemen.
He said the UAE remains resolute in seeking to achieve peace, prosperity and human rights protection in the Middle East to improve diplomatic relations with other countries in the region.
