国連のジェンダー平等のための新機関「UN Women｣採択へ

国連のジェンダー平等のための新機関「UN Women」が７月２日に正式に採択されることになりました。まずはお知らせいたします。
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PRESS RELEASE

1 July 2010

Contact: Charlotte Bunch, 732-642-5271 or cbunch@igc.org, Bani Dugal,
646-404-4210 or bdugal@bic.org, Rachel Harris, 301-535-9702 or
rachel@wedo.org

UN Women Born:
Civil Society Celebrates Creation of Gender Equality Entity After Four Years
of Advocacy

The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign celebrates the
United Nations General Assembly resolution, agreed to on 30 June and to be
formally adopted by the General Assembly on Friday, 2 July, to establish
“UN Women”—the new gender equality entity at the UN. This move has been
sought by women’s organizations and other civil society organizations
around the world since the UN established a System-Wide Coherence Panel for
UN Reform in 2006.

Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at
Rutgers University, a founding member of the GEAR Campaign, stated, “We
have high expectations for this new agency to be a solid foundation for
advancing the human rights of women as central to global policy efforts to
reduce poverty and move toward greater realization of peace and democracy in
the world. The coalition of women’s groups and other social justice,
human rights and development organizations that played a pivotal role in
this effort will now turn its efforts toward ensuring that the new body has
the human and financial resources necessary to succeed.”

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.

The GEAR Campaign’s global, regional, and national networks will be
contacting UN representatives at all levels to work with the transition
process and the new Under Secretary-General, once appointed, to ensure they
are connected with organizations on the ground ready to provide their
expertise and support.

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

“We know that this is only the beginning,” stated Rachel Harris of the
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO). “We must
continue to ensure that we are building a United Nations that really works
for all women!”

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.

The new Gender Equality Entity to be headed by an Under-Secretary General,
will consolidate the four existing UN bodies on women, increase operational
capacity at the country level and have gain increased funding for work on
women’s empowerment and advancement. The UN currently has four separate
entities dedicated to women’s issues which will be combined in the new
entity: the UN 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). 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.

For more information please go to the GEAR Campaign website -
www.gearcampaign.org - or contact the GEAR Campaign at:
gearcampaign@gmail.com