UNITED NATIONS, February 12. /TASS/. Five out of 20 current female presidents will take part in the Women in Power forum of the UN General Assembly, due on March 12, UNGA President Maria Fernanda Espinosa told TASS on Tuesday.
"We are organizing the Women in Power event on March 12. We have sent invitations to all 20 female presidents and we are also inviting young women to take part in the forum," Maria Fernanda Espinosa said.
"Five presidents and a female prime minister have already confirmed their participation. I think that apart from discussion, we will also organize a meeting with journalists," she pledged.
Within this context, Espinosa pointed to active efforts undertaken by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to ensure gender equality. "However, there are certain trajectories in the UN activity that are short on women," she admitted, citing UN peacekeeping missions as an example.
The UN General Assembly president also mentioned statistical data, which says only 24% among the legislators are women, while in the private sector only 24 of 500 major companies have female managers. "Only 20 of 193 countries have female presidents. There is a long way to go yet," she summed up.
Prior to being elected as head of the UN General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa had served as Foreign Minister and as Minister for National Defense of Ecuador. She became the fourth women in the UN history to take up an honorary office of president of the UN General Assembly. After a convincing voting in her favor, Espinosa devoted her victory "to women all over the world who engage in politics".