Learn more about our UN Reps

As a volunteer organisation, SI recruits Soroptimists who are able to give their time, energy and learning to monitor UN activities across the major UN Centres in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Paris, Rome and Nairobi. SI’s network of permanent representatives ensures that the priorities of SI are shared with decision makers and incorporated into debates, statements and policy wherever possible.  They do this by following annual commissions, special sessions, seminars, NGO meetings and everything in between! Our Representatives are expert networkers, taking every opportunity to share the mission and vision of Soroptimist International!

As often as I can, when invited to speak at a meeting I begin by saying: I am a UN Representative for Soroptimist International, a global organisation working for women and girls. I represent 90,000 voices and 180,000 feet!

Lois Beilin, New York Representative

Introducing.... New York

New York is the headquarters for the UN and so it is here that we have the largest team of representatives: Lois Beilin, Carol Themm, Kathy Mayer, Yoko Komori Olson and our two newest recruits, Bette Levy and Paulette Forbes Igharo. Major annual meetings include the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Commission on Social Development and the Commission on Population and Development. New York is also the HQ for UN Women, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Department of Public Information, which is the information centre for NGOs. 

The General Assembly begins its regular session in September. This is the main deliberative body of the UN. It is composed of representatives of member states, each having one vote. At the beginning of each regular session, the GA holds a general debate expressing the views of the member states. Most of the questions are then referred to one of six committees:

1. Disarmament and International Security
2. Economic and Financial
3. Social, Humanitarian and Cultural
4. Special Political and Decolonisation
5. Administrative and Budgetary
6. Legal

Our SI Representatives follow the debate in the second and third committees. Taking guidance from the Strategic Plan Programme Goals and Objectives, and the work Soroptimists do on the ground, representatives then decide what to concentrate their time and resources on.

Introducing... Geneva

Geneva is the home to many critical UN agencies including the Human Rights Council, UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF. 

To cover these mission-critical agencies, SI is represented by Wilfrida Hendrickx, Sina Stiffler and Paulette Clerc.  Our representatives are also members of various NGO committees including human rights education, the working group on Gender Equality, Traditional Beliefs and Practices, and the NGO Group for the Status of Women.

Introducing... Vienna 

Vienna is the home of UNIDO (UN Industrial Development Organisation), UNODC (UN Office for Drugs and Crime), and the International Narcotics Control Board. This is a particularly important centre for issues surrounding criminal justice, drugs and human trafficking.

Representing SI at these important debates are Roswitha Benesch (also SI UN Liaison for Europe), Dora Vrdlovec and Martina Gredler. Although they are only a team of three, between them they cover the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, Narcotic Drugs, The Family, and the Vienna Alliance on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

Introducing... Paris

Unlike the other centres mentioned so far, in Paris our representatives focus only on UNESCO – the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation. This is a particularly important centre given SI's long term theme: Educate to Lead. Reflecting this focus, we have our second largest team of representatives in Paris: Marie Christine Gries, Madeleine Gorse, Christine Dagain, Dominique Mertz and Rina Dupriet. Between them, they represent SI on nine committees including the Education for All Monitoring Group, the Joint Programmatic Commission (JPC) on youth, the JPC on sustainable development and the JPC on a culture of peace.  

Introducing... Rome

In Rome our representative is Cinzia Palmi and she represents SI at the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Food Programme. Issues covered by the FAO and the WFP include food security, micro credit, the 1 billion hungry campaign and climate change. With the issue of rural women set to hit the headlines in the run up to CSW56, Cinzia's work is particularly important. SI is also grateful for the great support Cinzia has received from the Italian Union.

Introducing... Nairobi

Nairobi is our newest centre and is the home to the UN Environment Programme. The UNEP is particularly concerned with climate change and environmental governance. Like UNESCO, this is currently another single agency centre. Alice Odingo and Rose Mwangi represent SI in this important area. Although they have only been in post since February 2011, they have already attended a number of high level meetings, attended workshops on farming practices and gender issues and joined the Global Major Groups Stakeholder Forum, doubling the number of women represented within this group!

Photos from top: Carol Themm (New York), Kathy Mayer (right - New York) with SIE Federation Programme Director Ulrike Neubert, Yoko Komori-Olson and Lois Beilin (New York), Frida Hendrickx (left - Geneva), Lois Beilin (middle - New York) with Anna Aiken (SIHQ), Sina Stiffler (left - Geneva) with Suba Parthiban (SIE Programme Executive), Dora Vrdlovec (left - Vienna) with President Alice Wells and Reilly Dempsey, Programme Director from SIHQ, Marie Christine (left - Paris), Sina Stiffler (second left - Geneva) and Roswitha Benesch (right - Vienna) with previous rep to the FAO, Else Larsen, Rose Mwangi (right) and Alice Odingo (left - Nairobi)