At the opening of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, which took place in New York City at the UN headquarters on Tuesday, September 19, Queen Angelique-Monet Gureje-Thompson, the wife of Oba Dokun Thompson, The Oloni of Eti-Oni, Osun State in Nigeria, hosted a high-level side line event tagged the International Ladies Peace Power Breakfast under the banner of her NGO, New Generation In Action’s AFI World Peace Initiative in partnership with Visions of Peace Initiative and the UN SRC Latin Workshop Society.
The event, which celebrated culture, content, civility, climate, clarity, communications, and community, was held at the UN Delegates Dining Room and was co-chaired by HRH Cheryl Halpern, the founder of Visions of Peace Initiative, former Chair of the US Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and alternate U.N. representative for the United States at the 63rd UN General Assembly appointed by President George W. Bush along with Rosely Saad, President of the UN SRC Latin Workshop Society.
The event was introduced by Kayla Lookinghorse-Smith, an honorary board member of NGIA AFI World Peace Initiative, while Tonya Canady, also an honorary board member, was the host. Saad in her remarks welcomed all to the UN Headquarters and applauded the diversity of the guests and participants.
In her opening address, Halpern stated, “We are currently living in unsettling times that are marked by turbulence and violence. Globally there is rising incivility, hatred, bigotry, and fanaticism. The preponderance of struggles for freedom and justice around the world need to be a clarion call to all of us. As individuals we are challenged as to how to achieve peace within all of our interactive relations, both privately and publicly.”
Ambassador Prof Olufolake Abdulrazaq, First Lady of Kwara State and Chair of the Nigeria Governors’ Wives Forum, delivered the Breakfast Address on the role of the girl child and women in diplomacy and saluted the commitment of the gathering to acknowledge and promote the vital role of women in achieving and sustaining peace in the global space.
She discussed the critical contributions of women to shaping the multilateral system and their indispensable role in diplomacy cannot be over emphasized and the breakfast presented the avenue to acknowledge the impact of women diplomats who have negotiated peace agreements and strengthened international relations — in hope also to inspire the next generation of women to pursue diplomacy as a career path. She reiterated that the participation of women, on equal terms with men and at all levels of decision-making, is essential to the achievement of enviable international relations, sustainable development, peace, and democracy.
Abdulrazaq stated that “while we recognize and celebrate these trailblazers we should as a collective, sustain advocacies on the fact that there are still structural issues that impede the promotion of women to senior roles within their ministries of foreign affairs and draw attention to the persistent underrepresentation of women in senior diplomatic positions, pinpoint challenges that women in diplomacy face and discuss barriers that still need to be removed.”
In her royal greetings, Queen Angelique-Monet Gureje-Thompson welcomed the guests to the United Nations with a traditional medley of Native American and African-American spirituals and stated why an intimate power breakfast was very critical and key to helping address the several issues across the world.
“Today we are all blessed to be able to make positive impact to the world and it is important at this breakfast that everyone freely enjoys themselves and celebrate one another as a new generation of change makers willing and able to put in the work to make this world a better place as like-minded individuals who will also continue to encourage each other.” Queen Angelique-Monet stated further that “in the end, we are all one and what makes us unique is our culture but most importantly what brought everyone together today was love and the fact we want to spread this love across the world.”
Also in attendance at the event were First Ladies of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Imo, Enugu and Abia states in Nigeria.