Director-General's remarks at the Special Commemoration of International Women's Day 2025

Intergenerational Dialogue on Beijing +30
For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.

Friday, 7 March 2025 at 1.00 p.m.
Room XIX, Palais des Nations

Organizers: UNOG, the EU Delegation, UN Women.
Co-sponsors: Mexico, Denmark, Kenya, China, Switzerland, Thailand, Guatemala, Spain, CARE International, Plan International, UNICEF, WIPO, FAO, ITU, ILO, WHO, UNCTAD, IOM, UNHCR, UNDP, WMO, ITC, OHCHR, OCHA, UNESCO, UNAIDS, UNIDIR, UNDRR, UNFPA, UNITAR, WTO

Excellences,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this special commemoration of International Women’s Day 2025!

Today we come together for an intergenerational dialogue on Beijing +30: For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.

Let me first thank our co-organizers, the EU delegation and UN Women, for their collaboration in organizing this panel discussion, here at the Palais. And a warm thanks to the many co-sponsors. We are grateful for your support to this event.

It has now been 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted and, as a normative framework, it has tremendously contributed to achieving successes in many areas concerning women’s rights. Since its existence, countries have been able to make determined progress through plans and commitments. Nevertheless, 2025 represents a pivotal year for the women’s rights agenda: facing a multitude of complex challenges in the areas of peace and security, development, environment and technology.  We need to reaffirm our commitment to women’s rights, and accelerate action on equality, as the UN Secretary-General has called for.

He is also demanding that the United Nations leads by example: At UN Geneva in 2024, we achieved gender parity for staff at the professional levels. Through commitments, that were expressed and formalized for action in our Gender Parity Strategy Implementation Plan, this result could be achieved years in advance of the deadline fixed for the UN Secretariat and now for the third year in a row.  The actions set out in the Plan should also help to ensure that UN Geneva continues to promote gender equality and diversity. Developing a more gender-balanced workplace and sustainably changing the work culture is what we are striving for.  

Working with like-minded decision-makers as part of the International Gender Champions network, my goal is that women and men are granted equal opportunities in my organization and beyond. By bringing us together, the network fosters concrete action through public commitments. As gender champions, we support the panel parity pledge, as well as the gender-based violence pledge. Together, gender champions amplify the message and make a noticeable difference in our organizations. Let me thank all my fellow gender champions, women and men, and the network secretariat for their work and support.  

Ladies and gentlemen,

International Women’s Day is also a moment to celebrate the many women who work for a better world. In the past three years, UNOG supported the “17 Faces of Action”, an outstanding exhibition series organized with several Member States and the Association of Swiss Women and Empowerment. In ten countries across the world, this exhibition highlighted the profound contributions of women toward advancing the SDGs. The national exhibitions displayed portraits of these inspiring women coupled with powerful narratives, and we will gather them at the Palais on 19 June 2025 for the reopening of the historic Palais, after renovation.

In addition, also in June, we will have an exhibition “Not a Woman’s Job? Women in multilateralism and diplomacy” to highlight the contribution of women in advancing international cooperation. Let me invite you all for the opening of both exhibitions.

On this International Women’s Day 2025, let us be inspired by the impactful women in the world and in our own lives, and reaffirm our commitment to women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment in the spirit of the Beijing Declaration.

Thank you.