Joly, women foreign ministers say it’s time a woman leads the United Nations

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says it’s time for a woman to lead the United Nations, a call echoed by 14 other female foreign ministers Friday.

“Within the UN system, it is time for the next secretary-general to be a woman,” she told reporters in Toronto.

“The UN has been existing for more than 75 years, so it is more than time.”

States will nominate the UN’s tenth secretary-general for a term starting in 2027. Women have only served in the role of deputy secretary-general, including Canadian diplomat Louise Fréchette.

The ministers also say there should be gender parity in the role of the president of the UN General Assembly — out of 72 terms only four women have held the position.

Joly co-hosted women foreign ministers in Toronto alongside her Jamaican counterpart Kamina Johnson Smith, following a similar gathering in 2018. The two-day meeting included ministers from Ghana, Indonesia, Nepal and Romania. It came ahead of high-level visits at the UN General Assembly next week in New York City.

The ministers exchanged ideas on how countries can promote more gender equity in public life, and how to tackle issues that prevent women from seeking office. They honed in on “gendered disinformation” and the need to hold social-media platforms to account.

“We are concerned with the growing hate and misogynistic discourse found online targeting women, particularly in civic spaces,” reads a joint statement issued Friday.

“The safety of online public spaces is a public good for societies and democracies as a whole, such that regulations to preserve safety and truth should not be seen as anti-transparency or anti-freedom of speech or the press.”

The statement comes as the Liberals try advancing online-harms legislation. The government says its bill aims to crack down on hate speech, though critics say it risks hampering free expression.

Joly noted that all ministers at the table had faced misogyny firsthand. “Having experienced this sharpens our commitment to advancing gender equality and empowering women leaders globally,” she said.

“We’re all aware of the global pushback against women and our human rights, and the increased threats faced by those who dare stand up and advocate.”

The statement also urges the Taliban to reverse “draconian measures which have erased decades of progress” for women’s rights in Afghanistan since they retook control of the country three years ago. The statement did not use the language of “gender apartheid” that has been growing among advocates in describing the situation in Afghanistan.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press