From Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit to Hansa Jivraj Mehta, the pivotal role played by trailblazing women from India and other developing nations in the UN since its inception was lauded here, as it was highlighted that many women in senior positions across the world body hailed from developing and not the developed countries.
"A little noticed fact has been that while the global North tries to position itself as a leader of gender equality, there have been only three women who have served as the President of the General Assembly. All three have been from the global South," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said here.
Speaking at a special event 'Women and the Origins of the United Nations a Southern Legacy', Akbaruddin said Pandit, the first woman to be elected President of the General Assembly in as early as 1953, was from India.
The other women Presidents of the General Assembly have been Angie Elizabeth Brooks from Liberia in 1969 and Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa from Bahrain in 2006. The next President of the General Assembly will also be a woman candidate, again from the global South, he said.
"There has been no woman from the global North, who has been recommended by any state to assume the responsibility of serving as the President of the General Assembly, in more than seven decades of the UN," he said.
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Akbaruddin noted that even as the Secretary General's efforts to achieve gender parity in the appointments to senior positions in the UN system are welcome and celebrated, "it is also important to know how many of the women in senior positions come from developing countries of the South."
Maria Luiza Viotti, UN Chef de Cabinet, also lauded the significant roles played by women from developing countries like Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Uruguay and Venezuela in UN's early years.
She said even as the world body works for equality today, "we must also remember our history. That means paying tribute to the pioneers from the early years of the struggle."
The event honouring the women of developing countries who defended their rights more than seven decades ago, provided not only long-overdue recognition today, but also served to correct an incomplete historical narrative, which failed to reflect the role of women from countries like Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Viotti said Secretary General Antonio Guterres and she acknowledge the central role of the women from the South in elaboration of the UN founding Charter.
"We are grateful for the efforts of the remarkable women from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Uruguay and Venezuela."
Viotti recalled their push to defend women's rights, and inspire a global shift in recognition, when many of the countries at the 1945 San Francisco Conference, did not even allow women to vote.
Akbaruddin said the event remembers and acknowledges the historic contribution of women, especially from the South, in creating the remarkable multilateral forum of the United Nations. The women were visionary and inspirational leaders, several of them overcoming exceptional odds, in their respective national contexts also, he added.
"The women from India who made significant contribution to the UN's work in the initial years, were leaders who had been active participants in India's independence movement in the preceding years. They were also engaged actively in the nation-building process at the same time," he said.
Highlighting the contribution of the trailblazing women from India, Akbaruddin cited the example of Mehta, a reformer, educator and prolific writer.
Mehta had served as the Indian delegate to the UN Commission on Human Rights and is widely known for ensuring a more gender sensitive language in the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UDHR.
"It is said, but for Mehta's insistence, it could very well have been that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may have been known as the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man," he said.
Mehta was also a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of independent India around the same time.
Another important figure was Lakshmi Menon, the Indian delegate to the UN General Assembly and the Head of the Commission on Status of Women as early as 1949-50.
Akbaruddin said Menon, along with her colleagues from other developing countries, strongly opposed the concept of 'colonial relativism', which sought to deny human rights to people in countries under colonial rule, famously calling it an attempt to justify what cannot be justified'.
The contribution of Begum Shareefah Hamid Ali was also lauded.
Ali started her political career as a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and became the President of the All India Women's Conference in 1935. She joined as a member of the UN Commission on Status of Women in 1947, the year India became independent.
"Each of them successfully challenged the dominant narrative of the time with their vocal criticism of cultural imperialism and stereotyping of Indian women. They helped shape the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and also consolidating equal rights for women as a human right," Akbaruddin said.
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