IAEA Board of Governors
Agenda item 11: Any other business - International Women's Day
8 March 2024
Statement by Ms Alison Lyne, Alternate Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA
Chair
Australia takes the floor under this item today to mark the important occasion of International Women’s Day, and we fully align with the Group of Friends statement delivered by the distinguished Ambassador of Chile.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme, “Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress", reminds us that we must all continue our work to inspire everyone, everywhere, to understand and value gender equality.
Achieving gender equality and protecting and promoting the human rights of women and girls, in all their diversity, is a priority for Australia, both domestically and internationally.
This is why just yesterday we launched our First National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality.
And today we reaffirm our commitment to achieving gender equality and improving inclusion here at the IAEA, and across all of our multilateral engagement in Vienna.
As a co-founder of the Group of Friends of Women in Nuclear, Australia’s commitment to this agenda at the IAEA is longstanding and unwavering.
We applaud the work of the current co-Chairs of the Group of Friends – Chile, El Salvador and Spain. And we will continue to champion the Group’s collective efforts to support Women in Nuclear, achieve gender equality and increase women’s representation in the IAEA.
Australia welcomes the Director General’s commitment to achieving gender parity by 2025. This is an important goal, and we commend the Agency’s efforts to date, with representation of women in Professional and higher categories now at 44 per cent.
We know that the presence of women alone does not bring about change. And parity will not be sustainable if it is not supported by workplace environments that are diverse and inclusive. We encourage the IAEA to continue to build a workplace culture that challenges discriminatory gender stereotypes, addresses unconscious bias, and values and enables women’s participation and leadership.
Chair
Achieving gender equality accelerates progress for everyone. We cannot hope to reap the full benefits of nuclear science and technology and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without the full inclusion of women in all of the IAEA’s activities.
In this regard, we encourage the IAEA to enhance its work on gender mainstreaming in the Technical Cooperation Program, and to monitor and evaluate its efforts to promote and enhance women’s participation in all aspects of the Agency’s research and training.
Chair
As this year’s International Women’s Day theme reminds us, investing in women accelerates progress for everyone.
Australia is proud to make a tangible investment in the goal of increasing women’s representation and leadership in nuclear fields here at the IAEA. We have provided almost $2 million to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme and are pleased that our contribution is supporting women scholars from Pacific Island Countries.
Chair
Australia will continue to advance gender equality and the human rights of women and girls, in all their diversity.
And we will continue to defend the long-standing gender equality language and policies that Member States have all agreed to include in the Agency’s important work.
If we count her in and invest in women, we can accelerate progress together.
Thank you.