Credit:  by Gary Raynaldo /   President of UN  General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Center) with (left) Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcukam, Executive Director  UN Women,  at press conference on gender equality and women’s leadership for a sustainable world at UN world headquarters in New York Jul. 15, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –   “Gender parity is a matter of justice because it is a demographic issue because we (women) are 50 percent of the world population,”  the President of UN  General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés  said.  Espinosa Garcés, who is fourth woman and the first Latina to ever lead the powerful UN General Assembly, made the remarks at a press conference on gender equality and women’s leadership for a sustainable world at world headquarters in New York Monday Jul. 15, 2019.  The President of the  General Assembly has vowed to make gender equality front and center of her  year-long presidency the began last September 2018.  Espinosa Garcés  was accompanied at the press conference by Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcukam, Executive Director  UN Women. 

“It is our point of views, our experience, our perspective, what we bring  to society as women. This is not a choice, this is an obligation if you want to be a fair, more sustainable,  more democratic societies, we need to be part of the  equation. We need to be represented in the same way we are represented  democratically.”

-UN  General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés. 

DIPLOMATIC TIMES  VIdeo /  President of UN  General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés 

President of UN Women Advocates Use Of Quotas To Increase Gender Parity

“We have seen interventions that can foster the representation of women using special measures and  quotas. And there are countries where that  has  made a difference.  In Tunisia, for example, local government representation moved up to 47 percent (women) in 2018 because of special measures. We have seen in Mexico, that special measures have also enabled the interest and achievement of parity.”

-Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcukam, Executive Director  UN Women.   

Mlambo-Ngcuka served as Deputy President of South Africa from 2005 to 2008, as the first woman to hold the position and at that point the highest ranking woman in the history of South Africa. During her period as deputy president of South Africa, she oversaw programmes to combat poverty and ensure the poor benefit from the advantages of a growing economy

She added: “We have also seen leadership at the front , in that heads of state are able to appoint gender equal cabinets. We have also seen some governments and cabinets passing laws that mandate 50 – 50 representations in parliament.   We have seen in some countries because of the pressures of civil society, activism, such as the USA, you have  seen women’s numbers in Congress increasing because  women organized, lobbied got together, This  is not mission impossible, it can be done. This is a fight we can win.”

Gender parity is a matter of urgency: 

“Under-representation of women in decision making bodies is one of the five critical areas that is a barrier to gender equality, ”   Mlambo-Ngcukam said. “It is not a small matter.  It is one of the issues of the World Economic Forum threatens to see us only achieving gender equality after 200 years. That , I hope, frightens you a lot.  And it makes you want  to work with us and we can put UN Women out of business because we would have achieved  the missions and objectives of UN Women.”

DIPLOMATIC TIMES Video /  Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand speaks at UN press conference gender equality Jul 15, 2019 New York