Exhibition "As Marias"

Ambassador Escorel de Moraes,
Ms. Araújo,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

The exhibition we open today is a celebration of Brazilian women. Beyond that it really is a celebration of women around the world, a celebration of their similarities, as well as their diversity. And above all, it is a big NO to stereotypes.

There is a simple good reason why gender parity has such an important place in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, our common road map for humanity. If we don’t manage to make progress for men and women equally, we will simply not be able to achieve the SDGs at all, because we will be leaving half of humankind behind. This is also why here in International Geneva, a large number of international organizations, agencies, Permanent Missions, NGOs and other actors are devoting much of their work to gender.

I would like to thank Ambassador Azevêdo and Ambassador Escorel de Moraes for adding some Brazilian colour to our gender activities here in this city with this exhibition. Thank you also to all colleagues at the Permanent Mission of Brazil for making this inspiring exhibition possible.

As an outspoken Geneva Gender Champion, Ambassador Azevêdo has been carrying forward the good tradition of strong Brazilian women active in multilateral affairs. And so has her Deputy. Not so long ago, in March, we had an event featuring impressive women who had contributed to the drafting of the Charter of the United Nations, the very foundation of our work. One of them was the Brazilian Bertha Lutz, who was among the pioneers in the struggle to commit the new international organization to gender equality. Thanks to her and others, the “equal rights of men and women” were firmly inscribed in the preamble of our Charter.

While we have made some progress over the past 70 years, we still need to take a critical look at our own Organization. The Secretary-General has fully taken on this challenge and has already achieved parity within his senior management and among Resident Coordinators.

Here at UN Geneva, we have put in place a Gender Policy and nominated gender focal points. In May 2018, we launched the anti-sexism campaign. You have probably seen the posters around the building. We want the Palais des Nations to be a sexism-free zone.

This exhibition will inspire us all on how to advance gender parity further and address casual sexism. Thank you all for being part of this.

And thank you all for being here with us today. Please enjoy the exhibition.