The President of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson, issued the following statement on the passing away of Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin:

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing away of Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

I am profoundly saddened by the sudden passing of my good colleague and friend, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. I offer sincere condolences to his family, to the staff of UNFPA, to the Government and people of Nigeria, and to all those around the world touched by this loss.

Over the past year, I followed the total transformation of two women’s lives. Alice, from Malawi, was successfully treated for obstetric fistula at the age of 83, after living with this terrible and treatable condition for 66 years. Jumwa, from Kenya, was treated at the age of 77, after living with fistula for 50 years. I have no words to describe the sense of hope, healing, and restored dignity that this treatment provided, first and foremost to these two women, but also to their loved ones.

UNITED NATIONS, New York–We, at UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, welcome the recent release of 82 more Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram. We call for the urgent release of the remaining girls and all other abductees.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, celebrates the heroic and life-saving work that midwives do every day, often in very trying circumstances. Thanks to midwives, millions of women each year are able to exercise their right to sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning. These services help ensure wanted, healthy pregnancies and safe births.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, regrets the decision by the United States to deny any future funding for its life-saving work the world over. This decision is based on the erroneous claim that UNFPA “supports, or participates in the management of, a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” in China. UNFPA refutes this claim, as all of its work promotes the human rights of individuals and couples to make their own decisions, free of coercion or discrimination. Indeed, United Nations Member States have long described UNFPA’s work in China as a force for good.

Gender equality is a human right. Women are entitled to live in dignity and in freedom from want and fear, without discrimination. Gender equality is also vital to sustainable development, peace and security. It’s not just a women’s issue. It’s an issue for all of humanity.

It irreparably damages girls’ bodies, inflicting excruciating pain. It causes extreme emotional trauma that can last a lifetime.

It increases the risk of deadly complications during pregnancy, labor and childbirth, endangering both mother and child.

It robs girls of their autonomy and violates their human rights.

In the midst of the painstaking efforts to evacuate civilians and rebels from besieged eastern Aleppo, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is concerned about the women, girls and young people who are in urgent need of protection and assistance.

Today, as we commemorate the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we recall its opening words: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. This principle is at the heart of the Programme of Action of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, which guides the work of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. As we join in this year’s theme to “Stand up for Someone’s Rights Today”, I applaud our staff who, working with national partners, are defending the rights of the most marginalized and excluded and bringing to light the discrimination they face.

It is past time to get serious about HIV prevention. We cannot hope to end the AIDS epidemic when every day almost 6,000 people are infected with HIV.

This is 2016 and yet one in three women worldwide still experiences or has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence, usually perpetrated by someone she knows. Moreover, millions of women and girls have been subjected to other forms of violence and harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, which affect an estimated 200 million women and girls, or child marriage, with one in three girls in developing countries being married off before the age of 18.