CAMEROON – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on International Women’s Day that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen “a rollback in hard-won advances in women’s rights” even as calls for women's empowerment echoed around the globe, from Myanmar and Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The U.N. chief paid tribute to women leaders whose countries have suffered fewer deaths during the pandemic, to the 70% of frontline health and care workers who are women — “many from racially and ethnically marginalized groups" — and to women’s organizations that have provided local services and information on COVID-19.