Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the UN Office at Geneva, on Tuesday hailed women's role in fighting the COVID-19 in China and vowed to carry on the spirit of the Beijing conference on women at the UN rights body. 

"At present, China is fighting against COVID-19 in the country. And in this battle, you can see many beautiful and resolute Chinese woman soldiers, who are the role models for women," Chen said at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, a landmark agenda for the empowerment of women.

He pointed out that there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality globally and called for more efforts to protect the rights of women and enhance global cooperation on women's development. 

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council held a high-level panel discussion on Tuesday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the "Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action," adopted at the fourth World Conference on Women held in the Chinese capital in 1995. 

In her keynote speech, Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, described the Beijing World Conference on Women as a historic step forward. 

The conference "was a reminder that women were not requesting any special rights. They were not asking for any concessions, privileges or entitlements ... (what they wanted was) the same rights as men. They were calling for an end of pervasive and centuries-old gender-based discrimination," she said. 

"We are seeing pushbacks and the resurgence of narratives against gender equality based on centuries-long discrimination," she said, stressing that "we will not tear apart the women's rights agenda" and that "we must resist all challenges to the hard-won affirmation of what we know: that women's rights are human rights." 

The 43rd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council was opened in Geneva on Monday and lasts until March 20.