Description
“Gender inequality is a question of power. Racism is a question of power. And power is never given, it’s taken,” the Secretary-General said.
Speaking at an event on anti-racism and gender equality at UN Headquarters in New York (28 Oct), António Guterres called on the Organization to practice internally the equality it promotes abroad, warning of a global backlash against women’s rights.
The event, “Honouring our Values at Home: Advancing anti-racism, gender equality and women’s rights in the United Nations,” was organized by the Anti-Racism Office and UN Women. It reviewed progress and remaining challenges in tackling racism and advancing gender parity within the UN.
Guterres recalled that a Secretariat survey in 2020, the year of George Floyd’s murder, found that one in three staff members reported experiencing racial discrimination. “It made clear that condemning racism was not enough. We had to become actively anti-racist,” the UN chief told staff in the ECOSOC Chamber.
According to Guterres, the UN has reached gender parity across all senior leadership, all headquarters and all professional staff, “not by lowering standards but increasing opportunities.” In his view, “parity is not the finish line. Numbers must translate into lived equality, lived rights, lived power.”
“We must push back against the pushback – starting at home,” he said.