Queen Rania Delivers Petition Signed by 18 Million People to UN Secretary General, Calling on World Leaders to Act on Education Crisis

September 22, 2010

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department- New York) – Her Majesty Queen Rania joined 12 year old South African schoolgirl Nthabiseng Tshabalala in New York today to hand in an eighteen-million strong petition to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.

The petition, presented as a chalkboard representing the millions of people that had signed up, demanded immediate action from world leaders to deliver education for more than 69 million children currently unable to go to school.

Her Majesty told the attendees: “Over 18 million people around the world have joined the 1GOAL campaign to call on world leaders to ensure every child can go to school.”

As She Handed the UN Secretary General the petition Her Majesty said On behalf of the 18 million signatories: “I present this petition to you, in your role as Secretary General of the United Nations, to convince presidents and prime ministers to prioritize and fund education for all.”

Ban Ki Moon thanked Her Majesty for all her efforts in promoting world education and said: “the role of the UN is to work to make the future of all children in the world better.”

Co-Founded and Co-Chaired by Queen Rania, 1GOAL is an initiative to mobilise support to hold world leaders to these promises for 2015 and is run by the Global Campaign for Education and is part of a large global education initiative. In 2000, 164 world governments came together to create the UN Millennium Development Goals. Two of the eight goals involve ending poverty through providing education for all which ensured that all boys and girls complete primary schooling by 2015. Since then many countries have abolished school fees, spending was increased by $4 billion and an extra 40 million children are now going to school.

Today more than 69 million children are still unable to go to school and 1GOAL and its partners are working to change this.