Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over the UN security council on Monday, calling on member states to protect children’s access to education days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran.
The meeting, titled Children, Technology and Education in Conflict, had been scheduled before the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday.
The first lady took her seat at the council’s horseshoe table in New York, was greeted by secretary general António Guterres, shook hands with each of the 15 member state representatives and posed for a group photograph before opening the session.
“The US stands with all of the children throughout the world,” Trump said in her opening remarks. “I hope soon peace will be yours.”
In her speech, the first lady argued that education was fundamental to preventing conflict.
“A nation that makes learning sacred protects its books, its language, its science and its mathematics,” she told council members. “It protects its future.” She also made the case for artificial intelligence to be looked at as the new great equalizer, urging the council to “connect everyone to knowledge through AI, including those in the most remote geographic regions of our world”.
She did not address the war or the reported school strike. The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area, and the US military said it was looking into the reports.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, had earlier called it “deeply shameful and hypocritical” for Washington to convene a meeting on protecting children in conflict while simultaneously launching airstrikes on Iranian cities.
The US holds the council’s rotating monthly presidency for March, and the White House explained the selection of Melania Trump by saying that child welfare is known to be her top issue. The session was the second in three days – on Saturday, an emergency meeting called in response to the outbreak of war grew contentious after Guterres condemned the US-Israeli strikes and Iran’s retaliatory attacks as violations of international law.
Melania Trump’s appearance at the UN also came against a backdrop of significant strain between Washington and the global humanitarian advocacy organization. Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization, Unesco and numerous other UN bodies, and has allowed billions in mandatory dues to go unpaid.
Guterres warned in January that the UN faced “imminent financial collapse”. Meanwhile, Donald Trump had convened the newly minted Board of Peace with dozens of countries for a UN-style meeting in Washington weeks earlier.
Asked whether the first lady’s presence signalled an improvement in US-UN relations, a UN spokesperson told the Associated Press it demonstrated “the importance that the United States feels towards the Security Council and the subject”.
Melania Trump has advocated on child welfare diplomacy, writing to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, last summer ahead of his summit with her husband. She later said the effort had contributed to Ukrainian children – removed to Russia after the 2022 invasion – being reunited with their families.
“Conflict arises from ignorance, but knowledge creates understanding, replacing fear with peace and unity,” Melania Trump concluded in her speech. She then encouraged security council member states to “pledge to safeguard learning in our communities and promote access to heightened education for all”.
She added: “I implore you to build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education.”