ROME, AUGUST 1 – “Gender equality is an Italian priority and a priority of the United Nations: a personal goal of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. By now 50 percent of the United Nations leadership is composed by women. It is a policy that we support in many ways because women and their rights are at the forefront of our action within the United Nations “, the Italian Permanent Representative to the UN Mariangela Zappia said to RaiNews24 at the conclusion of the Conference of the Italian Ambassadors which recently ended in Rome.
“Multilateralism is going through a more complex phase. We are now sailing through more uncharted waters”, said Zappia to Ilario Piagnarelli of Rai: “The United Nations is the place where national interests are pursued and it is perhaps a little more difficult at this stage to find that compromise which is actually what we try to do every day”.
Zappia spoke at this regard on the status of the Security Council reform: “The Security Council is a legacy of the Second World War”, said the Ambassador recalling the proposal supported by Italy within the group Uniting for Consensus: “It should be reformed by enlarging the number of non-permanent members. “It is not enlarging the small club of permanent members that a more democratic and more representative Council is guaranteed. We think instead that it is necessary to widen the number of non-permanent members and maybe make them rotate for longer periods”. (@OnuItalia)