AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First, the United States would like to thank the Netherlands and France for co-facilitating this resolution. We greatly appreciate their leadership to produce the first Third Committee resolution on the important and timely topic of sexual harassment.

In the spirit of cooperation, today, the United States puts forward two amendments aimed at maintaining consensus. As we have stated all session, we oppose the sexual and reproductive health language contained in the proposal. These amendments are common sense solutions to problems that many delegations across many regional groups share. These amendments clarify text where possible, and seek to remove language that has no relevance to the theme of sexual harassment.

The first amendment for Operative Paragraph 8, Part D preserves the reference to sexual and reproductive health while clarifying that Member States have authority over their national and local education curricula. The content of education in our classrooms, especially on a topic as important and sensitive as sexual and reproductive health, should not be decided by the UN – it should be decided by our governments at the national or local level. By adding this short phrase, we preserve sovereignty while maintaining inclusion of the term. Accordingly, we ask our colleagues to support this edit.

The second amendment for Operative Paragraph 11 proposes deleting the entirety of the paragraph. The language of OP 11 is inconsistent with the theme of the resolution, which is sexual harassment.

The United States asks that all delegations take these edits on their face value and on their merits. It is our intention to improve the text by providing amendments that give a little bit to both sides of the issue. For these reasons, we ask our colleagues to vote in favor of both amendments.

Thank you.

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