Equality Now Press Release

New York, NY – As Minister Ban Ki-Moon is voted in by the General Assembly to replace Kofi Annan as the United Nations Secretary-General, Equality Now calls upon him to use his leadership to promote gender equality and to advance the status of women worldwide. The international women’s rights group has written the Secretary-General elect urging him to consider ways to accelerate the pace of reform and strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to address the failure of governments to implement their repeated stated commitment to gender equality. Equality Now also asked Mr. Ban to encourage more effective implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325, guaranteeing the inclusion of women at all levels of decision-making in peace negotiations.

“We have asked the Secretary-General to call for an end to second class citizenship on the basis of sex,” said Jessica Neuwirth, President of Equality Now, “and urge governments to recognize the fundamental human rights of women to equality before the law. We are also calling on him to advance the status of women in the United Nations secretariat, where despite the public commitment to 50/50 gender equality by the year 2000, less than 17% of the Under-Secretaries General are women.”

In 2005, Equality Now re-launched its campaign, begun in 1996, calling on the Security Council to consider nominating a woman for the top post of Secretary-General. In the 60 years since it was founded, no woman has ever been elected to lead the United Nations. During the campaign, Equality Now highlighted the names of eighteen women from around the world who have relevant qualifications for the post. One of the women highlighted, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberg of Latvia, was nominated by her government near the end of the process, a process which is shrouded in mystery and has been widely criticized for its lack of transparency.

Equality Now urged the Secretary-General elect make it his priority to consider ways to accelerate the advancement of women within the UN Secretariat. “The UN must not wait another 60 years to implement its mandate that guarantees 50/50 gender equality in the United Nations,” says Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director of Equality Now. “We hope the new Secretary-General will do more than his predecessors have and will demonstrate a serious commitment to gender equality. Now would be a good time for him to use the upcoming transition period to take effective action with concrete results to promote and protect the rights of women within the UN and around the world.”

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