UNGA at 80 in London: From the First UN General Assembly in 1946 to Women Shaping Our Shared Future

The Setting

A Return to Where It All Started

On 17 January 2026, the United Nations Association UK hosted a conference at Central Hall Westminster to mark the 80th anniversary of the United Nations. The venue was not chosen at random. It was here, on 10 January 1946, that the first session of the UN General Assembly took place, bringing together delegates from 51 nations in the aftermath of the deadliest conflict in human history.

Central Hall Westminster carries layers of meaning that extend beyond ceremony. During the Second World War, the building served as one of London's largest air-raid shelters, offering protection to thousands of civilians as bombs fell on the city above. That a place of wartime refuge became the birthplace of the world's foremost institution for international cooperation is a coincidence rich with symbolic weight. It speaks to the transformation of spaces - and of purpose - that happens when people choose collective action over resignation.

Walking into Central Hall eight decades later, the sense of history was immediate. The conference gathered diplomats, civil society leaders, academics, and advocates to reflect on the UN's trajectory and, more urgently, on the role women have played - and continue to play - in shaping the institution's future.

Peacebuilding

Sanam Naraghi Anderlini and the Architecture of Women, Peace, and Security

Among the speakers who commanded the room, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini stood out for the depth and precision of her contribution. The founder and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Anderlini has spent nearly three decades working at the intersection of peacebuilding, security, and women's rights. Her record is formidable: she was instrumental in drafting UN Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, which formally recognised the essential role of women in peace processes, conflict prevention, and post-conflict reconstruction.

Resolution 1325 was a watershed moment for the international system. Before its adoption, the frameworks governing peace and security largely treated women as passive victims of conflict rather than as active agents of resolution. The resolution changed that framing, establishing that women's participation in peace negotiations is not a matter of goodwill but of strategic necessity. More than two decades later, its principles continue to shape how governments, international organisations, and civil society approach conflict zones worldwide.

Through ICAN, Anderlini leads the Women's Alliance for Security Leadership, a network operating across 40 countries that connects women peacebuilders and amplifies their work at local, national, and international levels. Her approach is distinctive because it refuses to separate the technical from the human. She argues consistently that peacebuilding is not an abstraction - it is built through relationships, through trust, and through the daily, unglamorous labour of holding communities together when systems fail.

Resilience

Maya Ghazal and the Power of Personal Triumph

Maya Ghazal, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, brought a different but equally compelling perspective to the conference. In 2015, Ghazal fled Damascus as the Syrian conflict intensified, joining millions of Syrians forced to leave everything behind. Her journey from displacement to distinction is remarkable: she became the world's first female Syrian commercial pilot from a refugee background, a fact that carries weight not because it is exceptional but because it reveals what becomes possible when barriers are removed.

Ghazal's story resonates because it refuses simplification. She is not merely a success story to be held up as proof that the system works. Her achievements came in spite of structural obstacles that continue to constrain millions of displaced women and girls. What her journey does illustrate is the extraordinary capacity for resilience and ambition that exists within communities too often defined by their vulnerability rather than their potential.

At Central Hall, Ghazal spoke with a directness that cut through the formality of the setting. Her presence was itself a statement: a young refugee woman, standing in the hall where the United Nations was born, using her platform to advocate for those who have not yet found theirs.

Reflection

Why This Matters Now

The 80th anniversary of the United Nations arrives at a moment of profound uncertainty. Multilateral institutions face growing scepticism. Conflicts are multiplying rather than resolving. The principles enshrined in 1946 - collective security, human rights, the peaceful settlement of disputes - are under pressure from every direction.

In this context, the stories of women like Anderlini and Ghazal are not sentimental additions to the record. They are evidence of what leadership looks like when it operates with both conviction and humility. Anderlini's decades of work on women, peace, and security have reshaped international policy. Ghazal's personal journey has redefined what representation means in global advocacy. Together, they demonstrate that the most durable contributions to peace and progress often come from those who have been closest to its absence.

For Women Beyond Borders, the conference at Central Hall Westminster reinforced a founding conviction: that the stories of women who lead, build, and connect across borders are not peripheral to the project of international cooperation. They are central to it. Every woman who challenges a barrier, whether institutional or personal, contributes to the larger architecture of a more just and connected world.

Eighty years on from the first General Assembly, the question is not whether women belong in the rooms where decisions are made. It is whether those rooms can afford to function without them. The evidence, from Resolution 1325 to the cockpit of a commercial aircraft, suggests they cannot.