 |
General Assembly (GA) President Underlines Education of Girls
A senior UN official Thursday stressed the importance of education of girls worldwide, saying that "it helps to build local self-reliance and provides assets for meaningful participation in economic and political life."
The president of the 55th General Assembly (GA) session, Harri Holkeri of Finland, said that "one of issues I personally consider particularly important is education of girls."
The GA president made the statement at a luncheon honoring the 12 woman ambassadors at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Of a total of 189 member states, 12 countries are represented by female ambassadors at the United Nations.
"Education is a significant investment in social capital," he said. "It helps to build local self-reliance and provides assets for meaningful participation in economic and political life."
Holkeri extended a welcome to the interagency initiative to promote girls' education launched at the World Education Forum in Dakar, capital of Senegal, in April this year.
As targets of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, cannot be implemented in isolation, he said, "we need to remember that a gender perspective must be incorporated into all policies and operations of the United Nations."
"Gender equality is essential in all areas of our work, such as housing, employment opportunities, social development and human rights," he said.
In This Section
|