U.S. First Lady Presides Over Historic UN Security Council Session on Children in Conflict

UN Website

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump chaired a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on children and education in conflict on Monday, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel launched attacks on Iran that prompted a U.N. warning about child safety.

Her remarks centred around the role of education for children in "advancing tolerance and world peace," according to her office.

The meeting, titled “Children, Technology, and Education in ⁠Conflict,” was held on Monday, 2 March.

It was ‌the first time a spouse of any serving world leader has chaired a meeting of the 15-member Security Council, the U.N. body charged with maintaining international peace and security. The plan was announced last week before the launch of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

In a statement to the council, the U.S. First Lady said: "The U.S. stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon peace will be yours."

"Enduring peace will be achieved when knowledge and understanding are fully valued within all our societies. Societies ruled by knowledge and wisdom are therefore more peaceful," she added.

"Now is the time for our generation to elevate our children above ideology through access to wisdom," she said.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said last week that Melania Trump's plan to chair the meeting showed "the importance that the United States ⁠feels towards the Security Council and the subject at hand," referring to the meeting's agenda.

The first lady has stayed out of the public eye for much of Trump's presidencies but has been an advocate for children's causes in the past, including by writing a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2025 calling for the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war.

Source: AFP, Reuters, BBC



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