APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South Africa would like to see the United Nations elect its first-ever female secretary general in the global body’s 75-year history, APA learnt on Thursday.
The recommendation was made by South Africa’s parliamentary delegation to the Standing Committee of UN Affairs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)’s 146th Assembly currently meeting in Bahrain.
Chairperson for Committees, Oversight and ICT in South Africa’s National Assembly, Cedric Frolick, who is leading the delegation, said despite the UN’s commitment to women’s rights, actual transformation has been slow.
“The General Assembly of the UN has been pioneering women’s rights as human rights since 1948 through the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognises all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” he said.
But “some 75 years after the adoption of this milestone document, only four women have been elected as UN General Assembly presidents and the male-female ratio for the secretary general stands at nine to zero,” Frolick said.
He added: “In September 2022 when the UN’s high-level meeting of world leaders concluded, among the 190 speakers, there were only 23 women.”
Frolick also told the IPU committee that gender parity was imperative in leadership positions.
Research has proven that the majority of countries with female leadership are making a difference at the national level, as they focused on laws and policies that fostered gender equity and “do much better in terms of Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.
NM/jn/APA