Thank you, June.

I would like to open with a quotation from French activist Denise Fuschs, who heads the European Women's Lobby. "Parity is not a quota. Quotas are for milk cows. Fifty percent is merely the female half of the universe. Parity is rooted more in philosophy than numbers. The idea is that human beings are not abstract. They are men or they are women, so having a 50-50 system is a reflection of the way things really are."

Last September the few women Heads of State (5 out of 150) who attended the Millennium Summit met with the women heads of UN agencies for the first time at the UN Millennium Women's Summit. The women leaders clearly called for the United Nations to fulfill the 50/50 quota of men and women among its staff by the year 2000 or as soon as possible thereafter. They requested Governments to support this effort by appointing female permanent representatives to UN missions and female heads of delegations dealing with major economic, social and security issues. They asked the UN to strengthen the participation of women in peace-keeping operations, including the appointment of women Special Representatives of the Secretary-General. The Group on Equal Rights for Women in the UN has been fighting for these principles for 30 years, and we feel that the pace of change has been far too slow over the past five years.

Here at the UN secretariat we seem to have reached a plateau in our efforts to achieve gender parity in professional posts subject to geographical distribution. We have certainly come a long way since 1971, when the gender distribution of staff was first reported, and women accounted for about 17% of the professional posts. That is the year that the Group on Equal Rights for Women in the UN was founded, and it has been lobbying for women's equal treatment ever since. Now, despite the Secretary-General's reiteration of his goal of 50/50 by the year 2000, and the affirmative action measures that have been in effect since 1993, the percentage of women stands at only 39 %, while those in decision-making posts (D-1 and above) subject to geographical distribution are around 30%. The percentage of women in professional posts has increased on an average by 1 percentage point per year since 1990. Only at the very lowest level of professional posts were we able to achieve gender parity.

The organization has also fallen far short of the goal set by the General Assembly that the appointment and promotion of suitably qualified women would not be less than 50 % of all appointments and promotions. The overall recruitment ratio for women in professional categories and above was 40 % in 2000, with 50% attained only at the lowest level. Promotions for women fell from 45% of the total in 1999 to 43% in 2000.

On top of these mediocre statistics, our Group feels strongly that gender issues have been neglected in the Human Resources Management Reform document (A/55/253). These reform proposals have abandoned the Secretary-General's goal of gender parity. In fact there is only one reference to 'geographical and gender representation' and Annex 1 includes 'gender balance' as one of 9 critical elements in the human resources action plan). Otherwise gender is not mentioned.

We feel strongly that the gender parity goals, and special measures for the achievement of gender equality need to be reaffirmed, particularly in light of the opportunity for raising female representation over the next five years, when it is projected that 155 Directors and 539 professional staff will retire, and that three out of four retirees will be men. We salute Angela King for her efforts to move forward with the Gender Action Plans, which we fully support.

We know there are qualified women out there. Look at the websites that focus on professional women. Look at NGOs in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Look at the number of women at Universities and in professional research institutes. Even Yale now has a majority of female undergraduates. The World Food Programme has found women to distribute food in even the most difficult situations in war-torn countries. But we need to forge partnerships and networks among women and men. We need to work with representatives to the General Assembly, and to engage the UN Resident Coordinators at the national level. We need to network with regional institutions.

We salute all governments who have already appointed women to the top positions at their missions to the United Nations, and we thank them for their support. I would like to cite as an example the Republic of Finland. Finland's female President was Co-Chair of the Millennium Summit with her male counterpart from Namibia. She certainly stands out front and centre in that picture of all those male Heads of State gathered in New York. Finland also has a female Speaker of Parliament and is the only country that has appointed women to positions as both Permanent Representative and Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN. In addition, one of the few female former Special Representatives of the Secretary-General, Ms. Elisabeth Rehn, who served in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is also from Finland. This is the wave of the New Millennium

We call on others to respond to the call for 50/50 in the UN by seeking out your outstanding women, encouraging them to apply for positions in the UN, and appointing them to mission assignments. We also request host country governments where UN offices are located to 'remove impediments to spouse employment in order to enable staff to be more mobile.' Our Work-Life Task force has developed a proposed for a supplemental Host Country Agreement for this purpose.