United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week at the Americans for U.N. Population Fund Gala for the Health and Dignity of Women in New York City said that empowering women is essential to achieving peace and security, enhancing quality of life and respecting human rights, Panapress/Afriquenligne reports. Advocates from the U.S. media, financial and political sectors, and women from Niger, Mongolia and Cambodia were honored at the conference for their efforts to advance the health and dignity of women.

"Today, we understand, even better than our founders did, that the empowerment of women is a fundamental condition, if we are to make progress towards the goals for which the United Nations was created,' Ban said. He said that too many women have died during pregnancy and childbirth because they were denied sexual and reproductive health care.

He also noted that too many women had acquired HIV because they could not negotiate condom use and often were subjected to violence. Ban described violence against women as "one of the most systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world." He encouraged Americans for UNFPA to continue their support for the United Nations Population Fund, adding that by doing so, they were "contributing directly to the health and dignity of women in nations all over the world."

The group presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Ted Turner, founder of CNN and chair of the board of directors for the United Nations Foundation. Ban called Turner "one of the staunchest allies of the United Nations and of women around the world" (Panapress/Afriquenligne, 10/4). The other honorees included Wendy Cai Lee, director of the Chinese Services Group at Deloitte & Touche; Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.); Maria Rodale, chair of the board of directors at Rodale; Dorj Munkhuu, a policy leader for women in Mongolia; Salamatou Traoré, an advocate in the movement to curb obstetric fistula in Niger; and Ket Noeun, an advocate against domestic violence and trafficking in Cambodia (Americans for UNFPA release, 10/4).