A/HRC/53/39 allegations of violations of the rights of women human rights defenders, gender-based violence and violations of the right to sexual and reproductive health. 2 The Working Group also issued press releases, individually, and jointly with other mandate holders, treaty bodies and regional mechanisms.3 D. Other activities 7. The Working Group held a regional meeting in Bangkok from 18 to 22 July 2022. The experts’ presence in the region represented a unique occasion to strengthen their networks in South-East Asia, including through consultations on the present report. The Working Group met with representatives of regional United Nations entities, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, members of the Asia Pacific Forum and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security of Thailand. It benefited from consultations with civil society organizations on the main challenges faced by women and girls in the region. 8. The experts also undertook numerous other activities, including participation in regional consultations and expert meetings, and engagement with stakeholders in their capacity as Working Group members.4 In particular, the Chair presented an oral report to the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session and addressed the Commission on the Status of Women at its sixty-seventh session. The Working Group began chairing the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on the Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against Women, 5 starting from 1 February 2023, and is actively contributing to enhancing cooperation between global and regional women’s rights mechanisms, including through joint statements and capacity-building for civil society organizations from various regions. II. Thematic analysis: gendered inequalities of poverty: feminist and human rights-based approaches 9. The Working Group expresses its gratitude to all stakeholders for their vital contributions to the preparation of the present report – which included responding to a questionnaire, submitting supporting documentation and participating in regional and thematic consultations. A. Contextual framework 10. Poverty is more than the outcome of a lack of income or wealth. It is the result of a blatant systemic failure leading to a vicious cycle of exclusion and discrimination that violates the civil, cultural, economic, environmental, political and social rights of both present and future generations.6 Women and girls, 49.7 per cent of the global population in 2022,7 are disproportionately represented among the world’s poor. Global projections show that an estimated 388 million women and girls were living in extreme poverty in 2022 (compared with 372 million men and boys), and 83.7 per cent of these women and girls were located in two regions: sub-Saharan Africa (62.8 per cent) and Central and South Asia (20.9 per cent).8 Extreme inequality has also deepened and, since 2020, the richest 1 per cent of the world has seized nearly two thirds of all new wealth, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 per cent of the world’s population. 9 The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 4 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/Communications.aspx. See https://rb.gy/7add. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/Activities.aspx. See https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-women-and-girls/edvaw-platform. E/C.12/2001/10, para. 8. World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results (United Nations publication, 2022), p. 6. UN-Women, UNDP and Pardee Center for International Futures, “Poverty deepens for women and girls, according to latest projections”, 1 February 2023. Oxfam International, Survival of the Richest: How We Must Tax the Super-Rich Now to Fight Inequality (2023). GE.23-06173