PRESS RELEASE: President of the UN General Assembly becomes International Gender Champion

PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT OF UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY BECOMES INTERNATIONAL GENDER CHAMPION AND REAFFIRMS HIS COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 1 May 2017 – The President of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Mr Peter Thomson, today joined the growing list of International Gender Champions and reaffirmed his commitment to advance gender equality during the 71^st Session of the UN General Assembly.

“As a husband of a woman who has been a prominent business leader, as the father of a daughter who has achieved higher academic levels than I ever did, and as the grandfather of three very bright  young girls, I have long seen the logic and merit in gender equality. I will always support the empowerment og women and the ending of discrimination”, said President Thomson.

International Gender Champions (ICG) is a network of senior leaders of the UN Secretariat, funds, programmes and agencies, Member States, local governments, private sector leaders and civil society, striving to achieve gender equality by breaking down gender barriers in a very practical way.

The New York chapter of the ICG, which originally started in Geneva, was launched on 20 March  2017 in presence of UN Secretary-General H.E. Mr António Guterres, the Executive Director of UN Women, H.E. Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Founding Executive Director of the Commission on Gender Equity of the City of New York, Ms Azadeh Khalili, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland, Ambassador Jürg Lauber, the Executive Director of Women@TheTable, Ms Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, Ms Lise Kingo. Six week after the launch, more than 50 Permanent Representatives, heads of UN agencies, and others have joined the initiative in New York.

As an existing HeforShe Champion and now International Gender Champion, the President of UN General Assembly announced the following two concrete commitments, in addition to the Panel Parity Pledge, which is at the core of the Gender Champions initiative:

1. The President will strive to achieve gender parity within his own Office, including at senior management levels.
2. The President will strive to ensure that at least 26 percent of co-chairs and co-facilitators appointed to General Assembly negotiations processes during the 71st Session, are women, despite the fact that only 18 percent of Permanent Representatives to the UN are women.
   

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Media contact

Dan Thomas, Communications Director and Spokesperson of the President of the General Assembly, Tel: +1 917 225 1913 | daniel.thomas@un.org

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