“Reclaiming the United Nations as a Peace Organisation – Ensuring women’s meaningful participation for peace and strengthening multilateralism”

Ms. Rees, [Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)];
Colleagues and friends,

I am pleased to welcome you to today’s event. Mr. Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, regrets very much that he cannot be with us today. He asked me to deliver the following message on his behalf, and I quote:

“It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Palais des Nations. I would like to thank the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) for organizing this event to discuss women’s meaningful and effective participation in the United Nations processes at both national and international levels. WILPF is known for its unique capacity and expertise in analysing the root causes of conflict through gender lenses and in accompanying feminist movements in their action for peace and justice for all. As Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, I would like to recognize the League’s contribution to the issue of disarmament and demilitarization, and I look forward to it resuming its engagement with the Conference once the appropriate conditions have been created. I thank WILPF for gathering participants from different parts of the world to have this conversation together with various UN entities in Geneva. I would like to specifically thank the UN Women Office for its support.

Since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration over 20 years ago, some progress has been achieved globally on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Nevertheless, this progress is far from sufficient and gender equality remains a persistent challenge for all countries worldwide. This inequality is reflected in institutions, companies, governments and organizations – including our own. One half of humanity is still severely under-represented at the highest levels of international governance. The picture on the screen behind me is worth a thousand words. When this photo was taken in late 2016, the United Nations Security Council, the body charged with maintaining international peace and security, was made up of 14 men and one woman. In the United Nations General Assembly, only three women have served as President in its 71 sessions held since 1946. Only two women have so far served as President of the Economic and Social Council.

Equal participation ensures that women’s voices and perspectives are brought forward, making our collective action more likely to succeed. We know that when women meaningfully participate in peace processes, the chance for sustainable peace increases by 35 percent over 15 years. We know that if countries address the gender gap at work, women can generate enough funds to underpin success across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. But we also know that real change in this field requires greater visibility at the highest levels, leadership by example and concrete actions.

Gender equality and empowerment of women are key priorities for our new Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres. Implementing our 20-year old commitment towards gender parity at the United Nations has proven difficult. At the beginning of 2017, the Secretary-General’s global senior leadership team comprised 29% women and 71% men. This picture is already changing, and you might recall that the SG’s first three appointments to his Senior Management Group were women. The aggregate figures across grade levels at the UN also show that there is an inverse relationship across the system between seniority and women’s representation – the higher the grade, the larger the gap in women’s representation. The most important gaps persist in peace operations. That is why the Secretary-General tasked the Gender Parity Task Force to submit to him a clear roadmap with benchmarks and timeframes to achieve parity across the system, well before 2030.

The Secretary-General has also recently joined the International Gender Champions Initiative, which was born in Geneva in 2015 and is now spreading to other locations. Let me tell you about this initiative as it is very relevant to your discussion. The Gender Champions Initiative is a network of decision-makers who lead by example through concrete actions that bring genuine change both in organizational culture and in programming. All Gender Champions commit to undertake three concrete measurable institutional actions in the calendar year to advance gender equality. One common action is to sign up to the Gender Parity Panel Pledge and aim for more inclusive panels. The additional two commitments can be in the executive management of the organization or in its programmatic work. One of my commitments was, for example to promulgate a gender policy at UNOG, and I fulfilled it last year.

Over 150 Champions – Permanent Representatives, local authorities, heads of international organizations, NGOs, academic institutions and private companies – have now joined the initiative in Geneva. Our first annual report, published last November, showed that the initiative has served as a catalyst not just for over 300 concrete commitments to achieve gender equality in different aspects of our work, but for a new way of working across organizations and institutions.

One and a half years after its launch, the impact of the Champions initiative is already visible, in particular concerning panel discussions. I personally refuse to speak at panels with no women. But as all the Champions have equally committed not to participate in panels if both genders are not represented, the composition of panels in International Geneva is changing. And our data show that whenever Champions have intervened to have the composition of single-sex panels rectified, the organizers have done so in 80 per cent of cases. There is still a way to go, but this is encouraging.

Let me also draw your attention to the report that was recently released jointly by the International Gender Champions and UN-Women. This report focuses on women’s voices in intergovernmental forums. It reviewed existing frameworks and trends on women’s participation in national delegations to meetings of international organizations’ governing bodies and their leadership roles in these meetings. This report is a valuable resource to understand the challenges, examine best practices and advocate for more change. Based on answers from 23 organizations, it outlines recommendations to Member States, international organizations and other senior officials on how to promote gender balance in governing bodies and therefore in decision-making. Specific examples of actions, some quite far-reaching, taken by some organizations in this regard are provided. For instance, delegations to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly are notified that they must include at least one man and one woman when registering or be subject to sanctions. The report is available online, and some hardcopies are made available at the back of the room.

In closing, let me commend WILPF for organizing this discussion here in Geneva. With its unique ecosystem of actors and institutional know-how, Geneva is the operational hub of the international system on peace, human rights, humanitarian action and the Sustainable Development Goals. I wish you productive discussions and look forward to receiving the outcome of your work.”

This is the end of the Director-General’s message.

Thank you.