More than 1 billion people live with a disability, and nearly 200 million are between the ages of 10 and 24. Yet young people with disabilities are often invisible in statistics, excluded from education and health services, and discriminated against in their own communities.

Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem on World AIDS Day 2018

To commemorate this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign is calling upon us to stand in solidarity with survivors and survivor advocates and women’s human rights defenders who are working to prevent and end violence against women and girls.

We believe in the power of girls to change this world for the better. Let’s give them the chance.

Today on World Mental Health Day, UNFPA calls for strengthened action to provide services for the mental health of young people.

I congratulate Nobel Peace Prize recipients Dr. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their remarkable efforts to stop rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war and to help survivors.

Executive Director Statement on the Occasion of the International Day of Older Persons - 1 October 2018

This is an important moment for UNFPA. Next year we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, ICPD. The regional review process is already under way. Last month I attended the Third Regional Conference on Population and Development for Latin American and the Caribbean in Lima, Peru – the first in a series of regional review meetings to be held between now and November. I would like to begin by posing two questions that I hope you will think about during our session this morning: First, what does ICPD mean to you and the women and girls in your country? Second, what should the ICPD mean for the next generation, for a 10-year-old girl today poised on the threshold of adolescence? 

Women and girls uprooted by war or disaster are at heightened risk of rape, exploitation and abuse. Yet reaching a refugee camp or other places where humanitarian services are available does not necessarily eliminate these risks.

As United Nations Secretary-General, he stood up for the rights, health and dignity of women and girls.

Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem on International Youth Day 2018 — We want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and make good on our pledge to leave no one behind. We want to build lasting peace. Therefore, young people belong at the centre of our collective efforts.

Today, on Nelson Mandela International Day, I hope that his legacy of equality and dignity will continue to inspire the world community, and will serve to guide future generations in the quest for social justice.