Ciné-ONU Movie Screening - Suffragette

Dear Executive Director Mlambo-Ngcuka,
Ms. Claire Somerville [Moderator],
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen:

A warm welcome to you all, to another Ciné ONU screening here in this beautiful Human Rights and Alliance of Civilization Room, which is most fitting for the important topic of gender equality and women’s rights. I would like to thank the Executive Director of UN Women, Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, for joining us here today, and for her leadership, in fostering progress towards gender equality at both the international and national levels. The work by UN Women is a cornerstone of our collective efforts towards an equal, collaborative, and flourishing future. I am very pleased that UN Women opened a Geneva office today, which we just inaugurated a few minutes ago, and look forward to our active collaboration.

The movie we are about to see depicts the struggle of activists, the Suffragettes, for women’s right to vote in the United Kingdom, in the early 1900’s. The British political activist Ms. Emmeline Pankhurst – starred by Meryl Streep in the movie – was a leading figure of the Suffragette movement. According to her, despite the sometimes violent tactics used, they were not fighting because they were law-breakers, but because they wanted to become lawmakers.

This movie underlines the need to break down gender barriers in all spheres of society. And here in Geneva, we have more than a role to play in this. We have a responsibility to act. As the operational hub of the international system, the work done and decisions made here affect everyone around the world. We must ensure, that they benefit women and men equally, by including women at all stages of multilateral cooperation.

This is why the Permanent Representative of the United States of America, the NGO Women@TheTable and myself launched the International Geneva Gender Champions Initiative in 2015, which is the co-organizer of tonight’s event. This network brings together more than 110 heads of Permanent Missions, International Organizations and civil society organizations including business companies. All of us commit to increasing gender parity on panel discussions in Geneva, and to two more concrete and specific steps to promote gender equality in our organization or programmatic work.

Unfortunately, the struggle for gender equality that this evening’s film portrays is still very much relevant in many domains of public life – a century after the reality described in the movie. It shows that our work to achieve gender equality will only carry weight if all of us, managers and staff here at UNOG, in International Geneva, and indeed men and women everywhere, understand the need for gender equality, embrace it, and implement it in our daily lives.

With this, let me now give the floor to the Executive Director of UN Women Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Thank you very much.