NEW YORK, NY — The United Nations, in recent days, has focused on the 61st Commission on the Status of Women conference at its headquarters in New York City where discussions ranged from “deconstructing the patriarchy” to empowering women in an organization where only three percent of U.N. peacemakers are female.
When U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley addressed the General Assembly on Thursday, she said that the United States wants to help nation-states in their quest to ensure women have the opportunities they need to be educated and enjoy success and safety in the home and the workplace. Haley, noted, however, that many of the nations in question do not meet international human rights standards, and America will challenge them to improve.
“We want to make sure that our governments support girls and support women so that they always feel like they can show the power of their voice and also be free to act accordingly,” Haley said. “We should encourage every country to support these basic rights, and we should help them in any way that we can. But we should also call out any country that is not supporting these basic rights and let them know that we will not stand for it.”
Haley told the story of a Raj Kaur, a young girl who was raised in Punjab, India.
“She had dreams and hopes that she could do and be anything that she wanted to be,” Haley said, adding that the woman beat the odds by finishing law school but was not able to achieve her goal of becoming a judge.
But she was able to see her own daughter — Haley — achieve success.
“She was able to watch her daughter become the first female, first minority governor of South Carolina and today can see me be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,” Haley said. “Every girl should know what that feels like.
“Every mother should feel like they’ve had the opportunity to see their daughter do better than they have before,” Haley said.
Breitbart News attended some of the conference where issues addressed ranged from the U.N. partnering with the World Association of Girl Guides and the Girl Scouts to remarks by the U.N. Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri.
“We need to harness this power of religion to create the new social fact of gender equality and the empowerment of women,” Puri said. “Unfortunately, so far in many societies we have misconstrued religious teaching which justifies the ‘naturalness’ and ‘sacred nature’ of the patriarchy in which men are viewed as superior to women, discriminated against, there is gendered division of labour and roles and gender stereotyping, harmful practices like child marriage, female genital mutilation and violence against women justified in the name of religion.”
“It is time for that to be revisited, it is time for us to re-examine religious teachings and laws, with the aim of generating new narratives about the role of religion and faith in achieving gender equality,” Puri said. “All based on principles such as equality before God, mutual respect, tolerance, and compassion.”
Ironically, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres spoke about the difficulty of advancing rights for women, including at the U.N.
“It is true, I am a man, but we need all men to stand up for women’s empowerment,” Guterres said. “Our world needs more women leaders.
“And our world needs more men standing up for gender equality,” Guterres said.
According to the U.N., when women participate in peace processes, the chance of sustainable peace increases by 35 percent over 15 years.
Guterres asked U.N. member states to move beyond the current level where women make up just 3 percent of U.N. peacekeepers.
“Do not let us off the hook,” Guterres said. “Keep our feet to the fire.”
Haley ended her remarks quoting Margaret Thatcher, a woman she said she greatly admires.
“If you want something said, ask a man,” Thatcher said. “If you want something done, ask a woman.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.