United Nations: Nigerias former Minister for Environment, Amina Mohammed, has been officially sworn in as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations at the headquarters in New York, media reports said on Wednesday.
She took her oath of office from the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, who appointed her as his deputy in December last year. She, however, returned to wrap up her work as Minister in Nigeria and hand over her portfolio.
Amina after taking oath said that Security Council reform is a priority for the world body.
“Security Council reform is a critical part of what we do in the next few years and somehow we have to balance that if we are to address the (conflict) prevention agenda,” Amina told the media after being sworn in on Tuesday.
She was answering a reporter’s question if she considered reforming the Council to make it more representative a part of her mandate to work for the overall reform of the UN.
“On Security reform, that is something that I will work to support the Secretary-General,” she said.
India has invested heavily in Council reforms and is lobbying for a permanent seat on the body.
The process has failed to make progress in over nearly two decades.
The appointments of Mohammed and of Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil as the Secretary-General’s chief de cabinet and Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea as his special adviser on policy are efforts by Guterres to compensate for this setback to the cause of women and as the first step in his promise to bring about gender parity in the top rungs of the UN.
Asked about US President Donald Trump’s threatened cuts to Washington’s funding of international operations that could hit the UN, Mohammed acknowledged that it was a matter of “great concern”.
But she said: “The important thing that we need to do is to continue to engage with our partners and to show how important it is not to decrease but to increase, and find different ways of doing so.
“I believe that we can find a way of leveraging other resources. Same member states, different ways, different means,” she added
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
