25 May 2018: UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Miroslav Lajcak has encouraged UN Member States to nominate female candidates to chair the Assembly’s Main Committees during the 73rd session, and to serve as vice-presidents of the Assembly. The elections will take place on 5 June 2018, along with the election for the UNGA 73 presidency.

In his letter to governments, Lajcak underlines the need to achieve gender parity at all levels of decisionmaking in the UN. In the current 72nd session, he reports, only five out of 21 UNGA vice-presidents are women, and all six Committee chairs are men. A resolution adopted in 2017 (A/RES/71/323) encourages States to seek gender balance in the distribution of the bureau members, chairs of the Main Committees, and vice-presidents of the Assembly.

Lajcak recalls that in early 2018, gender parity was reached “at the most senior levels” of the UN for the first time ever.

Highlighting his role as an International Gender Champion, Lajcak said he is “committed to ensure gender equality in the work of the General Assembly.” Under the International Gender Champion pledge, Lajcak committed to: maintain gender parity in the office of the presidency, including at senior levels; and strive towards gender parity in the selection of co-chairs, moderators and co-facilitators of various UNGA high-level meetings and processes.

Resolution 71/323 also invites Member States to consider presenting women as candidates for the UNGA presidency. On 5 June, the Assembly will elect the president of the 73rd session beginning in September 2018, and both candidates are women: Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake, Permanent Representative of Honduras, and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador. [Letter to Member States] [Gender Champions webpage] [A/RES/71/323] [UNGA Presidency Election webpage] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on UNGA presidency candidates]