Gender inequality 'hurts all of us'

Two women in top posts within the United Nations expressed dissatisfaction with progress made toward gender equality in the two decades since the organization convened its first Earth Summit.

"Twenty years ago, the Rio Declaration emphasized that women's full participation is essential to achieving sustainable development. Twenty years later, women continue to face inequality in rights, opportunities and participation," Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women, said on Monday in Rio de Janeiro.

The former president of Chile was speaking at an event tied to the three-day (Wednesday to Friday) UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, to mark the years elapsed since a similar 1992 conference in the same Brazilian city.