"The Contribution of Latin American Women to Gender Equality in the Charter of the United Nations" - l'initiative du champions de l'égalité des sexes

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

A warm welcome to the Palais des Nations! The Director-General very much regrets that he cannot be here today and sends his best regards. He has asked me to deliver the following remarks on his behalf:

“Ladies and gentlemen:

It is my privilege to pay tribute to the many courageous and visionary Latin American women who from the earliest days of our United Nations have helped steer us towards the right side of history. Thank you Ambassador Azevedo and the Brazilian Mission for bringing us together during Geneva International Women’s week.

We are here to pay tribute to remarkable women like Minerva Bernardino from the Dominican Republic, one of only four women to sign the UN Charter in 1945. At the conference in San Francisco, she made sure the document included the phrase – and I quote – “to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination against race, sex, condition or creed.”

That sentence has lost nothing of its power. But it also sounds – to today’s ears – self-evident. Except that it wasn’t. Back in 1945, it was as contentious as it was courageous.

Reflect for a moment on the myriad characters that came together in that summer of 1945 in San Francisco. Humanitarian idealists rubbed shoulders with imperial theorists. Some sought to mold the UN to square the circle of nationalism and internationalism, others to employ lofty rhetoric concealing its connection to imperial power.

Only 3% of all delegates were women. Examining the invaluable contributions of Latin American women like Ms. Bernardino, or of the Brazilian Bertha Lutz, reveals the tremendous gratitude we owe to them. For it was their influence and strategic interventions that ensured that our United Nations could become what few dared to dream: a place for all, where even the least powerful and most vulnerable, the disenfranchised, could make their voice heard. Not a fig leaf for imperial power, but a forum to bring colonial empires down.

As we celebrate their memory and carry forward their legacy to “leave no one behind” in our work to make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a reality, we also take a frank look at our shortcomings.

It is true that – propelled by the actions of women in Latin America and beyond – we have made great strides towards our collective goal of gender equality. But it is also true that much – much more – remains to be done.

To show just how much, recall the latest calculations by the World Economic Forum, which show that if we continue along current rates of change, we will only achieve gender parity by the year 2234. That’s over two centuries after the deadline for Sustainable Development Goal 5.

The need to accelerate progress applies everywhere – including right here, in the United Nations and the permanent representations.

I just looked up the latest numbers and – as of January – the percent of female Permanent Representatives to the UN is 26% in Geneva, and only 21% in New York. There is clearly too much room still for improvement.

Interestingly, if we take a more granular look at the numbers, we see that here too, Latin American women are in the vanguard – for the percentage of women who are leading Latin American missions in Geneva is 10 percent higher than the average.

Progress is hard, and it only comes if everyone plays their part. Which is why I would like to thank everyone in the room today who has become an International Gender Champion. The success of this initiative – which has grown from Geneva to include New York, Vienna, Nairobi and Bonn – has been inspiring and rewarding. If you haven’t done so already, I strongly encourage you to become a Champion yourself.”

These were the words of the Director-General. Thank you.