UN Women Begins Its Work
By Info | January 4, 2011
The United Nations made history today as UN Women, the UN agency dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, has officially begun its work. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rape in the Congo: It must stop!
By Mark | December 2, 2010
By Victoria Dove Dimandja and Jose Musau Kalanda, It must stop campaign
The Congolese people have endured Africa’s longest and deadliest war. The scramble for Congo’s enormous mineral wealth has fuelled a conflict which has claimed the lives of more than 6 million people since 1996, and ongoing mass rapes. This is the worst humanitarian crisis and the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, yet the media has given it little attention, and much of the world remains uninformed. Read the rest of this entry »
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COSATU: Give Patriarchy a Red Card – No to Violence Against Women and Children
By Mark | November 29, 2010
Congress of South African Trade Unions, 26 November 2010
At the launch of yet another 16 Days of Action Campaign, it is worth asking ourselves if the campaign is having any impact, because just about everywhere you look there are indications that some things are getting worse. Read the rest of this entry »
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Update on UN women’s agency – UN Women established, director appointed, funding needed
By Campaigns | November 17, 2010
After five years of campaigning and eight months since the General Assembly resolved to create a new entity for gender equality, the United Nations established UN Women in July 2010. For decades the UN’s work on women has been fragmented between four small bodies, but with the creation of UN Women there is now an agency similar to UNICEF or UNDP to provide a unified voice on gender equality. Read the rest of this entry »
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Appointment of former Chilean President Dr. Michelle Bachelet as head of new UN Women’s Agency is welcome and encouraging says ACTSA
By admin | September 17, 2010
Press Release
ACTSA, London, UK
17 September 2010
For Immediate Release
Appointment of former Chilean President Dr. Michelle Bachelet as head of new UN Women’s Agency is welcome and encouraging says ACTSA
ACTSA welcomes the news that former Chilean President Dr. Michelle Bachelet has been appointed to head UN Women, the new agency which will begin its work in January 2011. Dr Bachelet has a strong record of campaigning for women’s rights and ACTSA recognises her appointment as one which should provide the Agency with strong and dynamic leadership.
ACTSA has actively campaigned for the Agency’s establishment, which has been in planning stages since September 2009. Women in southern Africa bear the major burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, family care and from poverty itself. Women suffer through discrimination and marginalisation and in a disturbing number of cases across the region from violence. ACTSA has supported the call for a UN women’s agency in the belief and hope it will make a real difference to the lives of women in southern Africa. Michelle Bachelet’s appointment gives encouragement that the agency will be well led and strong force for positive change.
A key challenge now is to ensure the Agency is well funded. We and others believe it needs a budget of at least $1billion. Some of this can be found from existing budgets but additional funding is needed. Another key challenge is to shake up the UN and the large multilateral agencies so there is real progress on overcoming the discrimination women in southern Africa and across the world continue to suffer. ACTSA calls on the international community and governments worldwide to recognise the importance of the new Agency and to fund it accordingly.
Tony Dykes, Director of ACTSA said:
“We welcome the announcement of Michelle Bachelet as the head of the UN’s women’s agency. The Agency has the potential to make a real difference to women’s lives in southern Africa by providing top level leadership to ensure there is real and sustained improvement in their quality of life.”
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Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to Head UN Women
By admin | September 16, 2010
Excellent Results Despite Flawed Process:
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Chosen to Head UN Women
Article from Aids Free World 14 September
AIDS-Free World welcomes the appointment of former Chilean President, Dr. Michelle Bachelet, to head the United Nations’ first full-fledged agency for women. We are enthusiastic and relieved following today’s announcement that the newly formed “UN Women” will open its doors in January 2011 with an eminently qualified, effective and respected leader at its helm. Read the rest of this entry »
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Why Argentina – and the rest of us – need a UN women’s agency
By Info | August 11, 2010
Guardian Online, 10 August 2010
Anybody wonder why we need a UN women’s agency? Maybe the latest report from Human Rights Watch – out today – will offer some clues. It’s about Argentina – not the poorest or the least sophisticated or illiberal country in the world. It voted to legalise gay marriage, after all. It has a woman president. Yet thousands of women and girls there, says the report, “suffer needlessly every year because of negligent or abusive reproductive health care”. Read the rest of this entry »
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Will the UN Squander opportunity in the fight against AIDS?
By Info | July 21, 2010
On July 2, the General Assembly created UN Women, a new agency that will take on women’s issues seriously for the first time in the UN’s 65-year history. With this magnificent, historic resolution, Member States recognized the colossal failure of the UN to fulfill its commitments to women’s rights and development and decided finally to change its ways. Read the rest of this entry »
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Zimbabwe’s Upcoming Elections Threaten Another Campaign of Rape
By Info | July 21, 2010
AIDS-Free World, Press release, 21 July 2010
AIDS-Free World calls urgently for international action to prevent the looming carnage in Zimbabwe. The United Nations Security Council must take the lead in confronting President Robert Mugabe. If it does not, the next presidential election period, quite likely in 2011, will condemn the women of Zimbabwe to a grisly repeat of the politically motivated rape campaign orchestrated by Mugabe during the 2008 elections. Read the rest of this entry »
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UN creates single entity to promote women’s empowerment
By Info | July 6, 2010
UN News Centre, 2 July 2010
In a bid to accelerate the empowerment of women, the General Assembly today voted unanimously to create a dynamic new entity merging four United Nations offices focusing on gender equality, a move hailed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other senior officials.
“The newest member of the UN family has been born today,” Mr. Ban told the Assembly after it passed the resolution setting up the new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women.
“This is truly a watershed day,” he declared. Read the rest of this entry »
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