PRESS RELEASE
PRESIDENT OF ĢƵ GENERAL ASSEMBLY BECOMES INTERNATIONAL GENDER CHAMPION AND REAFFIRMS HIS COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY
ĢƵITED NATIONS, New York, 1 May 2017 – The President of the ĢƵ General Assembly, H.E. Mr Peter Thomson, today joined the growing list of and reaffirmed his commitment to advance gender equality during the 71st Session of the ĢƵ 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 ĢƵ 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 ĢƵ Secretary-General H.E. Mr António Guterres, the Executive Director of ĢƵ 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 ĢƵ agencies, and others have joined the initiative in New York.
As an existing HeforShe Champion and now International Gender Champion, the President of ĢƵ 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:
- The President will strive to achieve gender parity within his own Office, including at senior management levels.
- 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 ĢƵ 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
@ĢƵ_PGA
#INTGenderChampions @INTGenderChamps