On Friday, 2nd July, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously to establish

UN Women

a new major unit to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls. This new unit will be headed by an Under Secretary General reporting direct to Ban Ki Moon. It will bring together the diverse UN units concerned with women’s issues:

UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women)
DAW (Division for the Advancement of Women)
INSTRAN (International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women)
OSAGI (Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women)

Bringing these together and coordinating their work more with gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system should the UN and governments to deliver more effectively on their obligations and many commitments to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.

Particularly notable in the resolution are the paragraphs regarding the importance of civil society participation in the new entity.  The body must have increased operational presence at the country level including engagement with women’s groups and other civil society organizations invested in gender equality and the empowerment of women.

As Patricia Licuanan of the Philippines, GEAR focal point in Asia and previous Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women at the time of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing says: “The new gender equality entity will assist countries in their efforts to carry out commitments made in Beijing. Working through the One UN system, we hope to see UN Women taking the lead in engendering the programs of the UN at the country level.”  

As the new entity is developed, GEAR supporters will continue to advocate for four major elements critical to its implementation:

•              Meaningful, systematic and diverse civil society participation at all levels

•              Strong, country-level operational capacity and universal coverage

•              Ambitious funding with stable and predictable resources aimed at reaching $1 billion within a few years

•              Strong leadership at the top with an Under Secretary-General who combines a global vision with gender equality expertise on the ground.

Background

The GEAR Campaign is a network of over 300 women’s, human rights and social justice groups around the world that have been working for four years to gain UN Member State and UN Secretariat approval for creation of a larger more coherent coordinated UN agency that can advance further the UN’s mandate of working for gender equality as a crucial component of development, human rights, humanitarian concerns, peace and security.

WWAFE rejoices at this huge potential advance in women's human rights worldwide. Hopefully, UN signitory states will speed up implementation of their commitment to CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action and the rights of us all.

To come: Who will lead it?

AND: What will its budget be?