WUNRN
PRESS RELEASE
President of UN General Assembly Receives Global Petition for Urgent Action on New UN Women's Agency
17 June 2010
The Gender
Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign today presented the President of
the UN General Assembly, Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki with its global petition and
pressed for the UN to establish a strong new agency for women by July
2010.
The petition,
signed by 34,555 women and men from 165 countries and territories and bound
with the Campaign’s slogan “GEAR UP!” was handed over to Dr. Treki, whilst all
192 UN member states of the General Assembly were meeting to negotiate a draft
resolution that would establish the agency.
“The supporters
of the new gender entity are not only from women’s organizations but also are
from social justice, human rights and development organizations,” said
Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, “all demand a UN
that works for women.”
Seydi Gassama
of Amnesty International Senegal added: “It was important to me to meet the
General Assembly President today to prove that this is a concern not only for
women, but for all human rights defenders.”
Bani Dugal of
the Bahá’í International Community concluded: “Now is the time to adopt a
resolution that will launch the new women’s entity with increased operational
capacity, civil society participation, ambitious funding and a strong
leader”.
Responding to
the petition, Dr. Treki stressed that the situation
for women continued to require urgent action, including changes to
discriminatory laws and practices that held back advancements in gender
equality and women's empowerment. He expected outstanding
differences among member states soon to be resolved and hoped the new entity
would be established by the end of the month.
Background:
The GEAR Campaign,
a global network of 314 women’s, human rights and social justice groups, was
represented at the meeting with the President of the General Assembly by
Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rachel Harris of
the Women's Environment and Development Organization, Bani Dugal of the Bahá’í
International Community, Antonia Kirkland of Equality Now, Seydi Gassama of
Amnesty International, and Jan Peterson of the Huairou Commission.
The
UN currently has four small entities dedicated to women’s issues: the
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women
(DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of
Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General
on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI). The work of all four
entities is fragmented within the UN system. All lack the necessary
status, funding and country presence to enable the wider UN system and national
authorities to better deliver on their numerous obligations and commitments to
advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights. These
include the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Security Council Resolutions on
Women, Peace and Security, and the Millennium Development Goals.
In September
2009, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/63/311) supporting
the consolidation of the UN’s four gender equality entities into a composite
women’s entity, to be headed by an Under Secretary-General.
The GEAR
Campaign and petitioners have stressed that the new entity must have:
·
World
coverage and the necessary country presence and strong policy and programmatic
mandate to effectively improve the lives of women worldwide;
·
Accountability
mechanisms in place at both national and international levels, including
through meaningful involvement of civil society, particularly women’s groups;
·
Substantial
and predictable resources to ensure the capacity to meet expectations and
deliver results at all levels; and
·
An
Under-Secretary-General, appointed in 2010, in order to lead the agency.
Public Document
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For more information please go to the GEAR Campaign website - www.gearcampaign.org - or contact the
GEAR Campaign at: gearcampaign@gmail.com
or Jihye Kim of Amnesty International at +1 212 878 8878 x 1
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