WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire/programs/action-blogging-campaign-un-women

Information Contact - Jade Frank - jade@worldpulse.com

WORLD PULSE CALL TO GLOBAL WOMEN TO SEND YOUR VISIONS

& RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NEW UN WOMEN GENDER AGENCY

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

1. Join PulseWire

If you're not already a member, join PulseWire, World Pulse's online community of grassroots women leaders and supporters of women's initiatives from 180 countries.

2. Write a Letter

Use your PulseWire journal to write a letter, sharing your personal and observed experiences in gender inequality, and outline your recommendation on ways the UN Women agency can truly affect change on the ground to uphold the rights and needs of women.

Address your letter to UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet and sign your letter stating your name, city and country.

3. Tag your Journal

In the tag field of your journal, type UN Women to be sure your letter is included in the campaign and reaches UN Women offices.

4. Be Heard!

At the end of January, World Pulse will be printing all the journals tagged UN Women and mail them to Michelle Bachelet and members of the UN Women Executive Board.

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UN WOMEN Website Link - http://www.unwomen.org/

As the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women officially begins its work this month, World Pulse is asking women worldwide:

What is YOUR vision and recommendation for UN Women?

As PulseWire members, you make up a global community of grassroots women leaders and supporters of women's initiatives whose voices are powerful. Your thoughts and opinions are a valuable resource for this agency on the needs of women in your households, local communities, and nations.

We invite you to raise your voice by writing a letter to UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet outlining your recommendation for how this new UN agency can truly affect change on the ground to promote gender equality and uphold the rights and needs of women both on a local and global scale. What should their priorities be? What are the real issues you and women in your community face on the ground? What is your hope for what UN Women can accomplish in the coming years?

Share your own story of gender inequality and your vision for the future. Be a spokesperson for the women in your community and join global sisters in calling upon the leaders of UN Women to listen to our needs and our voices.

“This is a time of great promise. We have a historic opportunity to accelerate the achievement of what champions of gender equality have worked towards for years.”— Michelle Bachelet

What is UN Women?

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. By creating a new agency solely focused on women's rights, the United Nations is making an effort to mend its historical short comings to invest in women's equality. UN Women will overhaul its current women's rights infrastructure, combining four under-funded existing programs (DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM) into one office with a substantially increased capacity to promote gender quality.

The primary roles of UN Women are:

• To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.
• To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
• To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

On September 14, 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. The former President of Chile, Bachelet is a physician as well as a military specialist, having served as the country's health minister and defense minister before her election to the presidency in 2006. Bachelet is also a survivor of imprisonment, torture and exile under General Pinochet's regime, under which her father was killed.

The First Regular Session of the UN Women Executive Board will be held in New York on January 24–26, 2011.

Resource Center

The Global Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign is a network of over 300 women’s, human rights, and social justice groups around the world that have been working for over four years to gain UN Member States 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.

In an effort to mobilize and organize GEAR supporters more holistically, the GEAR Campaign Working Group has developed a toolkit to help guide a civil society process for engagement with UN Women.

The GEAR Campaign Transitional Toolkit for Civil Society Organizations
Available in: Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.