Violence against Women
This fundamental violation of women’s rights remains widespread. Women need strong laws, backed by implementation and services for protection and prevention.
Peace & Security
Women bear the brunt of modern conflicts. Specific threats to them must be stopped, and women must be at the centre of peace talks and post-conflict reconstruction.
Leadership & Participation
The percentage of women in political and other leadership roles is too small. Quotas and new skills can expand space for women to realize their leadership potential.
National Planning & Budgeting
Gender equality should be a stated objective of plans to provide public services, backed by specific implementation actions and sufficient funding.
Economic Empowerment
Women lag far behind men in access to land, credit and decent jobs. The multiple barriers that prevent women from seizing economic opportunities must be abolished.
Millennium Development Goals
The MDGs provide a basic roadmap for development. Gender equality is the third goal, but it is also integral to achieving all eight MDGs.
Focus Areas
UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
What's new
To discuss how to bring gender equality and women’s empowerment to the centre of the post-2015 development framework, UN Women is holding a Twitter chat on Thursday, 20 June 2013, 10:30 a.m. EDT.
As the International Labour Organization Convention 189 on domestic work turns two, a look at how Governments, unions and the private sector supported by UN Women are working towards ensuring that this female-dominated profession is regulated and worker’s rights are protected.
Speaking in Oslo, Norway, Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director John Hendra called for a new transformative development agenda to bring social justice and an end to violence and discrimination in every sphere of life. Listen to an interview with him on the post-2015 High-level report.
As part of a new series highlighting UN Women partnerships with other UN entities, a look into our work with UN-Habitat to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in urban planning and sustainable development.
During a lecture series on Women, Peace and Security, Acting Head of UN Women Lakshmi Puri highlighted our work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in conflict and post-conflict settings and stressed that women’s empowerment is a prerequisite for preventing violations of women’s rights.
As pledged under the COMMIT initiative, the European Union has adopted an EU-wide protection order, to recognize protection and restraining orders issued against perpetrators of violence across all EU Member States.
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