Women’s voices at UN forum few, but growing
8 scheduled to speak Friday; 5 in first 3 days
NEW YORK – With cascading crises casting a pall over the proceedings at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová had this reminder on the first day of debate: “We cannot save our planet if we leave out the vulnerable – the women, the girls, the minorities.”
But gender parity at the world’s preeminent forum of leaders still seems far out of sight. Eight women were set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday. Just five women spoke across the first three days of the summit.
On Friday, three vice presidents and five prime ministers – including Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina and New Zealand’s Jacinda Arden – were set to take the rostrum or give their address in a prerecorded video.
“As the first female president in the history of my country, the burden of expectation to deliver gender equality is heavier on my shoulder,” said Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan. When it comes to such equality, she said, “COVID-19 is threatening to roll back the gains that we have made.”
Hassan was the lone woman to address the General Assembly on Thursday. Despite those 13 women making up less than 10% of speakers over the first four days, the 13 represent an increase from last year, when just nine women spoke over the course of the session. There are also three more female heads of state or heads of government
– 24 – than there were at this point in 2020.
“There can be no democracy, no security and no development without one-half of the humankind,” Estonia President Kersti Kaljulaid said Wednesday.
The theme of vulnerability has been at the forefront during a week haunted by the ever-looming specters of climate change, coronavirus and conflict. Most of the speeches have taken on the tenor of pleas issued at the precipice, batting away the summit’s theme of “building resiliency through hope.”
Vice President Isatou Touray of Gambia, located in the Sahel, highlighted what many African nations have long called another deficit in inclusion: the powerful Security Council itself, which she called “one of the last holdouts of reform.”
“Africa’s quest for greater representation on the Security Council is legitimate, just and overdue,” she told delegates Friday. Africa has no permanent representative on the council.
But some of the most anticipated countries have yet to deliver their addresses to fellow leaders.
North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan are expected to close out the final debate session Monday afternoon. It remains unclear who will represent Afghanistan, where the U.s.-backed government fell last month after American forces withdrew and a resurgent Taliban reclaimed power.
Pakistan and India, which speak Saturday, are historically eager users of the “right of reply” function, which allows diplomats to lob polemics defending their countries in response to speeches from unfriendly nations.