Pamoya Beta

*New UN women's rights agency created *

- *Historic decision marks the dawn of a new era for women's rights*

*
The United Nations Secretary General Ban K-Moon announced the creation of a
new more powerful UN organization for gender equality and empowerment of
women in a special ceremony organized at the UN Headquarters in New York
yesterday. The Secretary General's pleasure at delivering this long
anticipated reform was evident.
The new agency consolidates the existing four UN organizations (UNAIDS,
UNIFEM, DAW and INSTRAW) working on women's rights into a single more
powerful entity that will be headed by an Under Secretary �" General. *
The agency will work in all UN Member states to improve the situation of
women on the ground, and will have a strong mandate to influence the UN's
gender equality policies. It will have an initial annual budget of 1 billion
USD with increases over time.

The agency will lead and coordinate the work undertaken by other UN agencies
in relation to gender equality and play leading role in supporting and
evaluating the work of the whole UN system in implementing gender
mainstreaming.
The creation of the new gender entity was welcomed by other UN agencies with
a pledge to cooperate closely in making it a strong and well resourced UN
partner.
The creation of the new women's rights entity coincides with the 15th
anniversary of the adoption of the groundbreaking Beijing Platform for
Action defining the necessary actions to achieve equality between men and
women and an assessment of national progress towards its implementation.
In many aspects progress has been insufficient. Women in all parts of the
world suffer violence and discrimination. Some 500.000 women still die in
pregnancy and childbirth every year, and women occupy less than one fifth of
the seats in national parliaments. According to some estimates, women
represent more than 70% of the world's poor.
The four existing UN women's rights organizations have been too fragmented
and under-resourced to successfully address these problems and to deliver
for women all around the world.

Mr. Ban's announcement follows the United Nations General Assembly's
agreement on the creation of the new UN rights entity reached after a month
of intense intergovernmental negotiations and several years of preparing
discussions.
Significantly, the UN member states decided to go beyond UN Secretary
General's original proposal for the new entity, requiring that it needs to
be made stronger than planned.
The Member States decided that the initial annual budget should be doubled
to 1 billion USD and emphasized that the key function of the entity should
be to lead ambitious programming activities at country level. They also
underlined to fully involve civil society, in particular women's
organizations in the work of the new agency at global, regional and national
levels.

“Member States and regional groups wanted to create an entity that would
really improve the lives of women and girls on the ground,” a diplomat who
participated in the negotiations explained.

Ban Ki-Moon welcomed the member states decision to strengthen the entity.
“Member States' unanimous approval and strengthening of the original
proposal shows that women's rights are a high priority and not something for
compromise. I will personally ensure that the concerns raised in the
resolution will be addressed and that this happens immediately.”

Women's rights and other non governmental organizations around the world
have welcomed the resolution.
Charlotte Bunch, speaking for the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR)
campaign, a global network of civil society organizations that has been
advocating for a strengthened UN gender equality architecture for years,
said that they were “ecstatic that governments around the world recognize
that such an entity is a top priority and that women's rights are central to
ending poverty, achieving the MDGs and to bringing an end to violent
conflict in the world.”

By Esther Nasikye
Additional reporting from the New Times for Women

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Esther Nasikye
Communication and Advocacy Officer
Icon Women & Young People's Leadership Academy
Town House No 2, Rohi Courts, Kansanga - Gaba Road
P O Box 5388, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-3120261190/414348780 (Office)
Mobile: +256-772 351885
www.iconwypla.org