What We Are Up Against: The UN Mission Statement to UN Women at the Opening Session of the UN Women Executive Board by Jonathan Shrier, Acting Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, 10 February 2025

The letter was forwarded to the NGO US Caucus, UN and forwarded to their list serve.

AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you, Madam Executive Director Madam President, pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order, the United States is reviewing the international organizations and other bodies of which we are a member to assess our relationship and determine which organizations align with U.S. interests. ….

Madam President, the US strongly supports protecting women and girls, defending their human rights, and promoting their empowerment. ….

On February 5, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order keeping men out of women’s sports to improve the safety of all females participating in athletic competition. And on January 20, 2025 President Trump issued an Executive Order defending women from gender ideology and restoring biological truth. Indeed, as noted in the EO, “Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.” The US will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men biologically male.

In this regard, Madam Executive Director, as we collectively look ahead to the next Strategic Plan, we urge UN Women to focus on efforts to ensure the equality of women and girls, and insist upon avoiding a focus on radical causes such as DEI and gender ideology, neither of which will improve the functioning of UN Women and both of which are demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls.

It is important to acknowledge the biological reality of sex to support the needs and perspectives of women and girls.

Additionally, DEI and related initiatives such as those rooted in “critical race theory” are immoral and discriminatory and have no place in charting the future of this organization.

Madam President, the US is committed to helping UN organizations realize their full potential. To do so, these organizations must not - as in the past- champion divisive and dangerous cultural causes over the concerns of member states.

N.B [O'Malley] “Biological truth”: Close to 2% of births are intersex; the number is increasing. In the past doctors chose the sex of the child; today parents increasingly wait until puberty for the decision to be made. See research by Anne Fausto-Sterling.

[UPDATE: There has been a successful blocking of “Trump’s Unlawful and Unconstitutional DEI Orders.” Source: AAUP – American Association of UniversityProfessors Updates.]

Susan O’Malley

United Nations Representative

---

Remarkable Woman – Ella Baker

Ella Baker was known as the "godmother of SNCC," the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)," formed in 1960. The granddaughter of a slave, whom she knew when she was a little girl, Ms. Baker worked with Martin Luther King, but encouraged the  young  activists  to independentlyorganize (SNCC) to register Black people to vote in the South. I became her friend with Ellen Cantarow. We spent 9 hours interviewing Ms. Baker for a chapter in Moving the Mountain. I was Director of Research for the film entitled Fundi:  The  Story  of  Ella Baker, Icarus Films, 1981. She is known for saying "strong people don't need strong leaders."

You can learn more about Ella Baker at: https://snccdigital.org/people/ella-baker/