Only 20 women spoke on behalf of their countries or delegations, out of a total of 192 speakers at the annual United Nations (UN) General Assembly debate.

According to data presented by the office of the President of the General Assembly, and quoted by Lusa, this number is even lower than last year, when 23 women spoke out of a total of 190 speakers, which shows the UN's inability to make progress with one of the "millennium goals", which is to increase the number of women in decision-making bodies.

In total, 88 heads of state and 42 heads of government spoke during the UN high-level week, and the rest of the delegations were led by foreign ministers, deputy ministers or, in some cases, the UN ambassador.

Morocco was one of the six countries that chose to be represented by their ambassadors at the world's most important diplomatic forum.

It was Omar Hilale, Morocco's ambassador to the UN for 15 years, who spoke, the last country to do so at this year's session of the General Assembly.

It was the first time in many years that Morocco had opted for such low representation.

Only five other countries - Vanuatu, Canada, San Marino, Benin and North Korea - chose to be represented by their ambassadors to the UN.

In the case of Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took part in several parallel events last week and maintained an intense contact agenda, while leaving the country's intervention to its ambassador.

On the other hand, the under-representation of women is a recurring problem, mainly due to the lack of women in positions of head of state and government around the world, a situation that the UN has been denouncing for years - although its secretary-general has never been led by a woman.

According to the latest figures from UN Women, only 15 countries in the world have a woman head of state and 16 have a woman head of government. At the current rate, it would take 130 years to achieve gender equality in this area.

The percentage improves slightly at ministerial level: 22.8% of the world's ministers are women, and only 14 countries have managed to achieve ministerial parity, although almost always in portfolios such as "Family" or "Social Affairs".

As for national parliaments, women have managed to exceed a quarter of the total seats: they now represent 26.5% worldwide, compared to 11% in 1995. This increase is largely due to the introduction of quotas for female representation in many countries.