UN General Assembly
2008

remind us of the progress already made and the long and difficult road ahead, made more difficult by major new global challenges. Today’s world does not tolerate racial discrimination and the time has come to make sex discrimination universally unacceptable too. My Government will continue to promote gender equality internationally. We will do it both through multilateral efforts within the United Nations — most notably in the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) — and in the World Bank. Regrettably, gender equality and women’s empowerment remain elusive goals throughout the world. I urge the United Nations to lead by example. The challenges posed by globalization also offer new opportunities to revitalize the United Nations system and better equip the Organization to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century: better technology, better communications and more efficient management are all available. The United Nations is a long way from being a perfect mechanism, but its role in the international system is indisputable and indispensable. If we settle for a United Nations that sometimes appears to be an abstract objective in itself,