49RZ14 - Sense of the Ziu: Gender Equality

WHEREAS, while there has been notable progress on gender equality generally over the past several decades there is still a long way to go in ensuring that girls receive equal consideration for their needs and dreams and toward the elimination of iniquitous discrimination and diminution of women's equal right to civic personhood, and

WHEREAS, this continued need for policy focus is represented by gender gaps in government service (women make up just 19% of the world's parliamentarians), labor (women are represented at rates of only two-thirds those of her male counterparts in the global workforce), salary (women make an average salary less than half of their male counterparts), and

WHEREAS, the Office of UN Secretary-General is one of the world's most visible diplomatic and administrative roles and has been used in the past to highlight contemporary issues of global import. The campaign for who will replace the current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, is underway with unprecedented public interviews and presentation of credentials, and

WHEREAS, there are female UNSG candidates of exemplary qualifications both within and outside of the UN system such as UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, Natalia Gherman and Vesna Pusic. The symbolic importance for gender equality, for inclusion of diverse perspectives and for urgently necessary reforms in the election of a woman as UN Secretary-General is self-evident.

Therefore, be it resolved that it is the Sense of the Ziu to encourage the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly to review the qualifications of the current candidates for UN Secretary-General with careful consideration for the fact that the world organization has yet to be led by a woman and the fact that there is still much progress to be made with respect to gender equality.

Noi urent q'estadra så,
Breneir Tzaracomprada (MC-TNC)
Chirbi Scherpa-Carriedo (MC-FreeDems)