Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, on the 75th anniversary of the UN Charter
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Today we commemorate the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco. It is the text that formalized the fundamental concept of the United Nations, “We, the peoples’.
It set out the determination of those peoples to avoid future wars, and reaffirmed the unifying principles so important to us of fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of the human person, and the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. Through it we undertake ‘to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours’.
The words of the Charter resonate now more strongly than ever before. They reiterate our shared work across all parts of the UN ‘to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’. Today we in UN Women recall and recommit to those aspirations, as we build back better from the consequences of conflict and coronavirus, and engage in concerted efforts for equality and racial justice in all segments of society and in all sectors.