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ExBoard - Joint Closing Statement Delivered on Behalf of 25 Delegations - "We expect UNICEF to continue its work......"

Statement shared by Niloufar Pourzand

UNICEF Executive Board – FRS 2025
Joint Closing Statement
7 February 2025

Dear Mr. President,
Dear colleagues,

I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and my own country, Germany..

We live in an increasingly violent and fragmented world and we are experiencing turbulent times. Children suffer due to conflict, climate change and economic challenges, to name a few. This makes UNICEF’s work not only more important, but also more difficult. Especially considering the financing landscape has become increasingly challenging. We need to collectively help you to ensure you can continue to achieve results for children at this critical juncture.

UNICEF has a mandate to safeguard the rights of all children, everywhere – which is rooted in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the CRC). It is key that the CRC and other core human rights documents remain a foundational guide for the UNICEF child rights mandate. We call upon UNICEF to ensure that child rights provide a more explicit overall framing for the next Strategic Plan, and a non- negotiable framework for decision-making during its design and implementation – as is mentioned in the Strategic Plan evaluation.

We also expect UNICEF to continue its work on the Sustainable Development Goals including to promote and work towards the achievement of gender equality on a daily basis. As the Secretary General has said, achieving gender equality and consistently delivering for women and girls is a collective responsibility shared by every entity within the UN System, and a cornerstone of the QCPR and current reform efforts. It requires collaboration and emphasis at every level. Our firm expectation is that UNICEF will continue, in accordance with previous Board decisions, to do all you can to eliminate all forms of discrimination within the organisation, including through combating and preventing racial discrimination and racism, and ensure disability access and inclusion, to promote and protect diversity, equality and inclusion, in all its forms and at all levels.

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with UNICEF on these issues. Thank you.

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