Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 29 September 2018

We too: At gathering of nations, women’s voices ring loud

tech vision for the future.
— UNESCO Director Gen-
eral Audrey Azoulay rallied
Arab countries around a
plan to use schools to fight
anti-Semitism.
— Costa Rican Vice Presi-
dent Epsy Campbell Barr,
whose country’s parlia-
ment is half female, pro-
posed action against sexu-
al violence used as a tactic
of terrorists and a weapon
of war.
Two women whose coun-
tries fought bitterly a gen-
eration ago, Croatian
President Kolinda Grabar-
Kitarovic and Serbian Prime
Minister Ana Brnabic, pre-
sented paths to Balkan
peace. Both lead along-
side men and are some-
times dismissed as window-
dressing.
Both strongly defended
their nations and brought
timely messages to New
York. There is work to do.
Africa’s presence at the
U.N. this year was glaringly
U.N. General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa Garces addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General male. Africa’s first female
Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. president, Liberia’s Ellen
Associated Press Johnson Sirleaf, left office
By ANGELA CHARLTON The number of women (and some at the U.N.) ebrate the gains we have this year, leaving a vacu-
Associated Press presidents and prime min- watched an odd and, to made for women domesti- um on the continent with
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In a isters among the U.N.’s 193 many, troubling spectacle cally, while internationally the world’s fastest-growing
pivotal week for women in member states doubled — as U.S. senators questioned other women and girls ex- population.
the United States, the U.N. to 19 — from 2005 to 2016, a man who wants to serve perience a lack of the most And the U.N. has yet to
put forth its own clarion set according to a report re- on the highest court of the basic rights,” she said. put a woman in charge.
of female voices at its an- leased last year by the U.N land and a woman who Ardern drew attention But Secretary-General An-
nual meeting of nations. and the Inter-Parliamenta- says he sexually assaulted for bringing her baby to tonio Guterres has made
And women’s empower- ry Union, an independent her more than three de- the U.N. But she said she a point to name women
ment was only one of their group. Women held about cades ago. wanted to make a broader to top jobs, and this week
rallying cries. 18 percent of the govern- The testimony prompted point: that breastfeeding they, too, made their mark.
At the U.N. General As- ment ministers’ posts and public argument and pri- while leading a govern- Deputy Secretary General
sembly, the first since the 23 percent of parliamen- vate soul-searching over ment should be ordinary, Amina Mohammad greet-
#metoo movement took tary seats worldwide, the the entrenched sexism that not newsworthy. ed U.S. President Donald
root in Fall 2017 and began report found. still underlines relations be- That, in fact, was part of Trump when he arrived at
to amplify women’s voices This year, the U.N. itself set tween men and women in what was so extraordinary the United Nations.
in a new way, some of the the tone, listing women’s the United States. this week: women leading, Espinosa is the first Latin
most powerful words have rights as the No. 1 priority But hearing some of the orating and outlining policy American woman to pre-
come from the mouths of for this year’s General As- addresses delivered here on topics that had abso- side over a U.N. General As-
female leaders, a group sembly. “Violence against at the United Nations, it lutely nothing to do with sembly and only the fourth
whose numbers, influence women persists in all re- was clear: In many places gender. Yet women at the woman to do so in over
and ambitions for the plan- gions. Girls and teenagers beyond American borders, U.N. podium, like women seven decades of U.N. his-
et are on the rise. still lack enough access gender equality remains an leaders everywhere, still tory. The sheer number of
Female leaders presented to information and quality even more distant dream. came under extra scrutiny. men celebrating Espinosa’s
roadmaps for peace in education,” and discrimi- “It seems surprising that in They combined authority leadership of the General
central Africa and the Bal- nation against women de- this modern age we have and compassion, carving Assembly suggests change
kans, challenged govern- presses the global econo- to recommit ourselves to out their space in world af- is in the air.
ments to fight anti-Semi- my, said María Fernanda gender equality, but we fairs: “This is yet another reflec-
tism, exposed the dangers Espinosa Garces, launch- do,” said New Zealand — British Prime Minister The- tion of the fact that, in the
of trade barriers and resist- ing and presiding over the Prime Minister Jacinda Ard- resa May and Lithuanian twenty-first century, global
ed — or espoused — na- weeklong event. ern. “We still have a gender President Dalia Grybuskaite governance is inconceiv-
tionalist rhetoric. Her message came at an pay gap, an over repre- stood up firmly against able without the leadership
One, Serbia’s prime min- exceptional cultural mo- sentation of women in low what they called Russian of women,” said Spanish
ister, called for a “world ment for women across paid work, and domestic aggression. Prime Minister Pedro San-
which is freer, fairer, and the United States. As world violence. And we are not — Estonian President Ker- chez.
which is also, if I am to be leaders converged on the alone.” sti Kaljulaid vaunted her “Now,” he said, “is the time
honest, more fun.” United Nations, Americans “I for one will never cel- country’s exceptional high- for women.”q