United Nations, October 8 (RHC) Cuba's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ana Silvia Rodríguez, reported on Monday about her country's progress on gender equality and the Government's commitment to continue working on the issue.

Speaking at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, the diplomat stressed that in order to advance towards gender equality and the empowerment of women, a fairer and more equitable international order is needed to erradicate poverty and hunger, to put an end to armed conflicts, to privilige human beings over capital and to preserve the environment.

Rodriguez said that Cuba, which shows tangible results in the advancement and empowerment of women and girls, was the first to sign and the second to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

She added that the island´s recently approved Constitution maintains and reaffirms the principle of equality and non-discrimination, and ensures women the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, and protects them from violence in any of its manifestations and spaces by creating institutional and legal mechanisms for it, said the diplomat.

All of this, she added, reinforces the Cuban State's commitment to the principle of gender equality.

In Cuba, she continued, the presence of women in the National Assembly of People's Power amounts to 53.22 percent: it is the second parliament in the world with the highest female participation.

Furthermore, universal and free education is a strategic foundation to promote the participation and empowerment of women and girls, as well as to advance in the eradication of prejudices and all types of discrimination and violence, she stressed.