A perspective on UN reform, by David Maywald (founder of Celebrating Masculinity and author of The Relentless War on Masculinity)
The United Nations was founded on a simple, profound promise: equal dignity and equal rights for all human beings. The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do not rank lives by sex. They do not divide compassion. They don’t say “leave no one behind — except half the population.”
Yet trust in international institutions is eroding. One of the reasons is that citizens across democracies are questioning whether the UN system has drifted from universal principles toward selective advocacy. In that context, a reform agenda grounded in fairness, transparency and symmetry isn’t radical; it is restorative.
In February 2026, the International Council for Men and Boys (ICMB) outlined three clear, achievable goals for reform. These proposals deserve serious consideration; not as a “men versus women” campaign, but as a credibility test for a system that claims universality.
1. Formal UN Recognition of International Men’s Day
The first goal is straightforward: formal recognition of International Men’s Day (19 November) by the United Nations.
International Men’s Day has been observed globally since 1999, and is marked annually in eighty countries around the world. Yet it remains absent from the UN’s official observance calendar. There are no days celebrating men and boys at all, but the UN designates 13 days focused specifically on women and girls…
Symbolism matters. Institutions signal moral priorities through what they recognise. When one half of humanity has no designated day of recognition while the other half has more than a dozen, it communicates deep asymmetry (whether intended or not).
Recognition would not take anything away from women and girls. It would affirm a simple principle: boys and men have inherent dignity, alongside girls and women; males experience disadvantage in areas such as suicide, workplace fatalities, educational disengagement, and conflict mortality; and their wellbeing contributes directly to family stability and social cohesion.
In public policy, what is not named is often not measured. What is not measured is often not funded. Recognition is a first step toward balance.
2. Mandatory Sex-Disaggregated Reporting Across UN Programs and SDGs
The second reform is more substantive: require UN agencies to report male and female outcomes across their programs, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Transparency is a core scientific principle. If international agencies are serious about equality, they should measure outcomes for both sexes in all relevant domains: health, education, poverty, violence, employment, and humanitarian aid.
Currently, disclosure is inconsistent. Many UN communications emphasise further female empowerment while offering limited or no visibility into male disadvantage or male-specific harms. This creates a hugely distorted policy lens.
Evidence-based governance requires symmetrical metrics. For example:
- If girls’ educational attainment and progress in STEM is tracked, so too should boys’ literacy decline, disengagement from education, and failure to complete schooling.
- If maternal mortality is monitored (rightly so), male suicide and workplace death (which is often far higher) should be equally visible.
- If violence prevention is a priority, reporting should include male victims as well as female victims.
This isn’t about competition between the sexes. It is about intellectual integrity and honesty. Data that only flows in one direction is advocacy, not science.
Sex-disaggregated reporting would allow policymakers to identify where each sex is thriving, and where each is struggling. That is how real equality functions: diagnose accurately, intervene proportionately.
3. UN Endorsement of the New York Declaration for Men and Boys
The third goal is endorsement of the New York Declaration for Men and Boys, which commits to 27 actions addressing disparities affecting males.
In 1995, the UN adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to advance women’s rights. Three decades later, no equivalent framework exists for men and boys. The New York Declaration seeks to fill that gap.
It addresses areas such as:
- Educational underachievement
- Mental health and suicide
- Fatherhood and family law
- Victimisation in domestic and sexual violence
- Workplace mortality
- Homelessness
Whether one agrees with every clause is beside the point. The principle is symmetry. If the UN can adopt structured commitments for one sex, it can consider parallel commitments for the other.
Equal recognition strengthens, rather than undermines, women’s rights. Families function best when both mothers and fathers are supported. Communities thrive when both girls and boys are educated. Public health improves when both sexes are treated as stakeholders in their own right.
Why This Matters for Science and Freedom
Australians for Science and Freedom advocates for evidence-based policy, institutional accountability, and freedom from ideological distortion.
These three reforms align directly with those values:
- Recognition affirms universal human dignity.
- Sex-disaggregated reporting restores scientific neutrality.
- Balanced declarations protect against one-directional advocacy.
When international institutions apply standards unevenly, trust collapses. When trust collapses, cooperation collapses. And when cooperation collapses, the world becomes more fragmented and unstable.
Reform is not hostility. Reform is loyalty to founding principles.
A Clear Call to Action
If you believe in genuine equality, here is what you can do:
- Write directly to the United Nations requesting:
- Formal recognition of International Men’s Day (on 19 November each year).
- Mandatory sex-disaggregated reporting across all UN programs and SDG implementation.
- Consideration and endorsement of the New York Declaration for Men and Boys.
- Contact your country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and ask your national delegation to raise these three reforms at the General Assembly. Find your mission’s contact details here: https://embassies.info/permanentmissions/uninnewyork
Institutions change when Member States demand it.
The United Nations says: Leave No One Behind.
In 2026, it has the opportunity to prove that those words apply to everyone.
