On November 18, 2019 the ASEAN summit of the World Women Organization (WWO) was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Women representatives from ASEAN countries actively participated in the Summit. The ASEAN Summit, hosted by the World Women Organization, is the preparatory meeting for the Celebration of the Beijing Declaration Anniversary 2021 United Nations World Conference on Women. The theme of the summit was Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Five: “Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls.” It attracted over 20 world leaders concerned with empowering women. Together, participants held in-depth discussions on conference preparations as well as the development of the World Women Organization.
Dato Hj Mohd Rashid Hasnon, Chairperson of World Women Organization, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Malaysia and Angela R, Director-General of World Women Organization, supported women around the world by discussing the the development and promotion of the World Women Development Conference to be held in Asia in 2020 and UNWWO’s further development.
The World Women Conference (also known as the “United Nations World Women Conference”) is an important convention for the World Women Organization. Gender issues have always been a priority of the United Nations in terms of society and development. To date, the United Nations has convened four World Conferences on Women. In 1972, at the 24th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the year 1975 was designated as the “International Year of Women,” and the first inter-governmental world summit on women’s issues was held as the First World Conference on Women.
During the Summit, Mr. Tian Chua, Vice President of the Governing Party of Malaysia (PKR), warmly welcomed the representatives from ASEAN countries and interacted cordially with the guests. He commented that Malaysia was the meeting point of Eastern and Western civilizations. He welcomed and encouraged world leaders to have in-depth exchanges and explore opportunities for cooperation and development of women development worldwide with Lady Angela, Director-General of the World Women Organization. The U.S. representative, Ms. Jing Zhao Cesarone commented that equal rights for women is a basic principle of the United Nations. Although 143 countries have promised to include gender equality in their Constitution by 2014, 52 countries have yet to fulfill the promise. Cesarone also pointed out that writing down a commitment to gender equality does not mean that discrimination against women is eliminated. She thanked the World Women Organization for hosting ASEAN Summit. Not only was it an action for the progress of women, it also helped governments form relevant policies and unite women worldwide to promote the development of women’s rights. As an outstanding multinational business leader and international activist, with more than 20 years of experiences in cross-cultural communication, public diplomacy, and US-China cross-border investment, Cesarone founded the Global CSR Foundation to operate a number of UN SDG-related projects, focusing on women’s empowerment, early childhood education and youth leadership.