'I AM PROUD IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE UN SYSTEM HAS NEVER HAD MORE WOMEN AT THE USG LEVEL THAN IT HAS TODAY', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Release
SG/SM/6480
WOM/1045
'I AM PROUD IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE UN SYSTEM HAS NEVER HAD MORE WOMEN AT THE USG LEVEL THAN IT HAS TODAY', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL
19980309 In Address to Staff, Kofi Annan Draws Attention To United Nations Training Programmes That Motivate Gender AwarenessFollowing is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement at an event on the occasion of International Women's Day, sponsored by the Group on Equal Rights for Women in the United Nations, at Headquarters today:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
How good to see you all here. I want to thank the Group on Equal Rights for Women in the United Nations for organizing this event. I was glad of the opportunity to come and talk to you on the occasion of International Women's Day, because I feel it is important to show that, amid all the symbols and the celebrations, we mean business.
Today, let us pause for a moment to take stock of where we stand, and to remember where we were a year ago.
When I announced my first appointments after taking office at the beginning of last year, some of you felt there were too few senior women among them. I asked you then to judge me not on those first few weeks in office, but on what my cabinet would look like in the months to come.
What better proof of our progress could I offer you than to introduce to you Louise Frechette, who one week ago took up her duties as the first Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization. Ms. Frechette, whom some of you will know (and even more of you will know of) from her time as Canada's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, brings an impressive degree of experience, expertise, energy and effectiveness to the post.
I know that she, together with other senior women, will lead the way to other similar appointments in the months and years to come; that they will set the stage for a day where gender equality is an axiom, not an aspiration. After I leave you today, I hope Ms. Frechette will be able to stay on and take part in your discussion.
In the past year, we have also welcomed Mary Robinson in one of our most high-profile posts -- High Commissioner for Human Rights; Elisabeth Rehn, who, as Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, joins a category particularly devoid of women; Heidi Tagliavini as Deputy Special Representative for Georgia; and Rafiah Salim, who, as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, will be instrumental in reviewing our entire staff structure, while Angela King works on mainstreaming gender priorities throughout the Organization. I cannot know first-hand what it is like, but I can imagine the difficulties of working in an environment where most of your peers, and certainly almost all of your superiors, are of the opposite gender. I recently heard a female colleague praise her boss and say he was the best supervisor she had ever worked for, because if you "didn't know any better you would think he was a woman".
I do know that despite a slight increase, there is still an alarming lack of women at D-1 and D-2 levels. I know that the pyramid is getting even more pointed as we have fewer and fewer of these posts to offer. I know that a senior woman will often find herself surrounded by a sea of male faces and a chorus of male voices around the conference table. I know that we must achieve the critical mass necessary to end this imbalance. In short, I know that the culture must change. But I also take heart from the fact that while the dearth of women is now to be found at the director's level, the same dearth was to be found at the P-3 and P-4 levels and above just 20 years ago. Today, women are more than holding their own at those levels. The next step on the ladder will follow. I am proud in the knowledge that the United Nations system has never had more women at the Under-Secretary-General level than it has today. I am gratified that we now have training programmes that motivate gender awareness, and family leave programmes that better reconcile work and family responsibilities.
I draw hope from projections that the next decade will provide a window of opportunity to enhance the status of women because more men will retire in the next few years than women.
And I pay tribute to all women on our staff, in particular those in the General Service, who form such an important part of our backbone and who now enjoy greater training opportunities than ever before.
Make no mistake, however: while yes, it is crucial to achieve participation by a greater number of women in all that we do, numbers are not the whole answer. The presence of senior women does not mean that women's issues somehow become "their" responsibility; they are the responsibility of everyone in the system.
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Last October, I wrote to all executive heads of United Nations entities and senior officials in the Secretariat to tell them that the Economic and Social Council had adopted agreed conclusions on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system.
That means integrating a gender perspective into all areas of the United Nations work -- including macroeconomic questions, operational activities for development, poverty eradication, human rights, humanitarian assistance, budgeting and administration, disarmament, peace and security and legal matters.
I said then that this process is the responsibility of all of us, and not just of gender experts in isolated units. I meant it. As I said in the letter: senior managers will be fully accountable for the implementation of the agreed conclusions. Those, to me, are the key words: the responsibility of all of us. It will not be the sole responsibility of Ms. Frechette, or Ms. Salim, or Ms. King, or Ms. Robinson, or any other woman, to keep these issues at the forefront of our agenda.
I say this because if we accept that in any society, gender equality is more than a goal in itself; if we believe that the empowerment of women is a vital means to meeting the challenge of sustainable development; if we argue that the participation of women is a requirement in building good governance; if we insist that the rights of women are a precondition for the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance; if we are convinced of all these things in relation to all the societies we are trying to help in this world -- then how can we fail to apply this conviction to our own society in our own house?
I cannot end this meeting without mentioning two issues that concern women at large in the world today. As you know, violence against women, and the effects of armed conflict on women, are two of the main topics on the agenda of the Commission on the Status of Women as it meets here at Headquarters right now. As I said in my message for this year's International Women's Day, in today's world, those two issues take on particular urgency.
Women and children first used to be a phrase that referred to the seats in the lifeboats of a sinking ship. Now, it seems all too often to refer to the victims of a country in conflict.
In all societies, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture. But let us not forget that among societies in conflict or crisis, women and children are particularly likely to suffer. Although entire communities bear the consequences of armed conflict, women and girls are especially affected because of their status in society and their sex.
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We owe it to women everywhere to make it clear that violence against women is not acceptable in any culture; that women's rights are not something to be given or taken away by a government like a subsidy; that the rights of women and men alike are intrinsic to humanity.
This year, International Women's Day takes on a particular meaning for us all. In this fiftieth anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Women's Day presents us with a dual call to arms; a call to demonstrate that human rights are inherent in all of us and belong to men and women alike.
Let us show the courage and commitment to lead this process from our own doorstep. As the world celebrates this day, let us spread the message that women's rights are the responsibility of all humankind; that combating all forms of violence against women is the duty of all humankind; and that achieving the empowerment of women is the advancement of all humankind.
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